PAULA NEAL MOONEY

by Paula Neal Mooney Last week Oprah's show on The Secret DVD and book kept me up till midnight. Yesterday Oprah did a follow-up show to address the reaction to her wildly popular show about The Secret DVD and book. That "The Secret: The Reaction" show kept me up till 1:30 a.m. It was interesting. God bless the skeptical-looking Christian woman named Maureen who stood up and asked, "...is God anywhere in [The Secret]?" Great question , I thought, especially once I discovered that Neale Donald Walsch , author of the misleading Conversations with God trilogy was one of The Secret teachers. Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith -- the attractive and peaceful-looking black guy pictured above -- answered her question with a few Jesus quotes, but I noticed he was quick to call Christ a prophet. And Maureen said that on The Secret DVD , Neal Donald Walsch called Jesus only a "Teacher" and not Savior. I'm leery of people trying to subtly mislead folks by claim...

by Paula Neal Mooney Ask. Believe. Receive. Those are the three basic tenets of The Secret , a new DVD and hardcover book by Rhonda Byrne that's sweeping the world. I caught Rhonda Byrne and clips of The Secret movie on Oprah yesterday, and couldn't stop watching the panel of New Agey-sounding experts talk about The Secret using hokey terms like "universe" and "energy" and "presence" instead of what this Christian girl calls "Jehovah Jireh" and the "Holy Spirit" and "God Almighty." Only one of the panelists, Lisa Nichols (the black woman pictured here), broke down and said she got on her knees and cried out to God to help her change. But I believe some of the other panelists and The Secret teachers are Christians -- not sure about Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith and James Arthur Ray -- but Jack Canfield created those Chicken Soup books. However, the "universal truths" they discussed from The Secret movie ...