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Confession:  I like Oprah.

No, I don’t love Oprah.  I’ve never picked up her magazine or bought any of her books.  But I like how she accentuates the positive, empowers women and minorities, made reading mainstream, values different cultures, stresses health and education, and her philanthropy goes beyond measure. Heck, maybe it has something to do about that time I brushed her hand outside of Radio City Music Hall back in 1998 before the start of the Daytime Emmy Awards show (seriously). Or maybe it’s because she decided to humble herself and become committed to a Hardin-Simmons man.

But when it comes to Oprah and the church, well, I haven’t heard one pastor say anything positive about her, and I think I understand why – they feel her teachings regarding faith in Jesus and maybe even her acceptance of the homosexual community and reluctance to marry doesn’t honor the teachings and values of their respective ministries and it’s something they feel they must defend – they must keep their flock from going astray. Hopefully people are smart enough to know that she isn’t a theologian or a person called to ministry, and when it comes to those areas of faith and spirituality, it’s best to seek the experts.

Many Christians will use this video as evidence in their spiritual court of law:

I guess it’s fair to use such a clip, it is her own words, but sometimes I think they miss the overall context of the conversation about that gray area of the Christian faith in which one questions if a child (or even an adult) born deep in the Amazon rain forest were to die but had never heard the name of Jesus, would that person go to Heaven?

But could it be possible she may have changed her point of view since that moment or that her faith has matured or even evolved? Man, I know if someone were to hold me to some of the things I’ve said and done in the past in which I’ve come to a more mature view as I’ve grown older, well, I’d be in some deep doo-doo.

As the world knows, yesterday was her final show, and she credits Jesus in a very eloquent way and describes the God she believes in.

I guess some folks will still have issue with how she credits Jesus and how it may not hold up to her previous endorsement of “The Secret” and other things she have said or done in the past. I guess some folks will say that even though she credits Jesus, well, she just didn’t say the exact right words that hold up to their standards so that means she’s still a heathen and worst, a false prophet. And maybe they will say that her very last words as she left the stage, “To God be the glory” was for show and not sincere representation of her relationship with the Almighty.

Who knows, and does it really matter?