A Counterfeit Strength
By Beverly LaHaye and Janice Shaw Crouse
September/October 2001 Family Voice

The cover story of the first Newsweek magazine of 2001 was “The Age of Oprah.” The headline proclaimed, “She’s changing more lives than ever.” Oprah Winfrey, of course, is the television talk show host and founder of the most successful start-up publication in history, O, the Oprah magazine.

Oprah centers her career on finding meaning for life’s journey, and today through her varied forums she offers up her make-it-happen-for-yourself philosophy to a culture searching for meaning and direction. According to Newsweek, the purpose of O is to “encourage readers to revamp their souls the way Martha Stewart helps them revamp their kitchens.”

Oprah’s back-and-forth kind of conversation with celebrities and women across America and her transparent attitude toward her personal struggles with issues like childhood abuse and weight control have established an unprecedented intimacy with her predominantly female audience of 14 million viewers and 2 million readers.

In contrast to other talk shows and women’s magazines that seek out the lowest common denominator in personal behavior, Oprah has targeted women who want to take charge of their lives, who want to have successful relationships, who long for a sense of self-esteem, and who desire meaning outside of themselves. In her quest to reach others where they are, Oprah offers a brand of spirituality that sets feeling as its center. She once said that she was “guided by a higher calling.” Oprah, however, defines the calling as a feeling, not a voice. “If it doesn’t feel right to me, I don’t do it.”

Oprah’s philosophically bland, motivationally hyped spirituality focuses on her audience feeling good and teaches them to believe they can do better without placing any limits or demands on themselves. It also appeals to the human desire to be in control of your own destiny. Acknowledgement of the “goodness of life” by writing entries in a “Gratitude Journal” is an indicator of the fact that even if they haven’t yet arrived, at least they are headed in the right direction.

Oprah has certainly hit her target audience! Not since 1963 and the release of Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique has anyone so captured the heart and soul of America’s women. But what becomes increasingly clear with a look back over the decades is that no matter who brings the message, women are still searching for the same things: meaning, purpose, strength for life’s challenges, encouragement of their dreams, and power to become all they can be.

Friedan obviously struck a responsive nerve more than 40 years ago. Thousands of women of the ’60s sought to fill their spiritual emptiness with feminist manna. In contrast to Oprah, who teaches women to seek power from within, Friedan sought to find power in the external marketplace. Strong women pursued power, she proclaimed—power provided the path toward selfactualization and happiness.

Far too many women, including Betty Friedan herself, crashed their lives on the shoals of faulty reasoning about the path to power. Their grasping attempts to seize power led to disillusionment and cynicism. In the wake of this frustration, a bright and beautiful woman appeared in the ’70s to refine the message, cloak it in sophistication, and propel it forward on the wings of celebrity.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Gloria published best-selling books and launched Ms., a magazine described in Contemporary Heroes and Heroines as the “journalistic linchpin of the American feminist movement.” Her ability to fascinate the public assured the success of her work and took her ideology into the mainstream. Unmarried, childless and wealthy, she had almost nothing in common with the majority of women whose cause she advanced, yet one fan said of Gloria, “She’s like the president of all women.”

Ironically, after 30 years of marriage-bashing, Gloria married in the summer of 2000. Early in her career, she had said, “You become a semi-nonperson when you get married.” She also talked about married women being “part-time prostitutes” and called marital bedrooms “settings for nightly rape.”

Steinem’s own divergence from the values she lauded for over 30 years should be a red flag to any person who looks for life’s meaning in the principles she so adamantly and forcefully paraded before women.

According to conventional wisdom, women have been oppressed throughout much of history. There is no denying the truth in this characterization. But then how do we explain the sayings: “Never underestimate the power of a woman,” and “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”?

History is full of examples of women who have had a powerful impact on their world. And amazingly few of these powerful women have held positions of status and worldly power.

Motherhood is often disdained. Mothers report feeling disrespected or patronized. But witness the books that have been written and the monuments erected in homage to the influence of mothers whose children grew up to change the world.

Radical feminists have argued that a woman’s search for power and her struggle for equality can only be satisfied externally—in the marketplace, in relationships, in monetary terms. Phrases like “my goals,” “my body,” and “my fulfillment” run through most radical feminist writings.

In our culture, many women consider self-fulfillment an entitlement. The concept of “doing your own thing” has been lifted to the level of a constitutional right or a theological truth. As a result, many are engaged in a relentless pursuit of pleasure and self-fulfillment, or domination and oppression, or of simply trying to live life on their own terms regardless of the consequences or personal costs. It’s a seductive, fruitless philosophy that confounds and often ensnares women—sometimes even the most ardent women of faith.

In the Gospels, Jesus demonstrated that all “power and authority” belong to Him. Therefore, nothing could be clearer: Any philosophy or deceptive thinking that places self at the center instead of adopting the servant’s posture modeled by Christ—the One who humbled Himself and washed the feet of His disciples—is diametrically opposed to the wisdom of God and doomed to fail.

In Betty Friedan: Her Life, biographer Judith Hennessee asserts that prior to Friedan and the women’s movement, “women celebrated in American history books were footnotes.” While there is again some truth in that, the problem, of course, is in the writing of history books, not in the accomplishments of women.

As surprising as it may seem to some, radical feminists did not invent the idea of the powerful woman. God did. Long before Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey, and others, God raised up women who exemplified His definition of a woman’s true strength and power. And long before there was any kind of feminism, Jesus established real women’s liberation. Paul wrote to the Galatians emphasizing that through faith for those who believe: “There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

How You Can Help

Pray that Oprah Winfrey, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem will receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, if they haven’t already done so.  Praise God because His design for women is best.  Act Encourage your church library or women’s fellowship to purchase A Different Kind of Strength so that its message may reach more women.

For we are all called to strength … but a strength that has as its source the empowering of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of our lives.

We are all called to greatness … but a greatness that is defined as faithful obedience, walking humbly in the paths God opens up before us.

We are all called to success … but a success that is measured by an enduring faith in God. As Scripture says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV). But with faith, it is possible for our lives to be pleasing to the infinite Creator of the universe. That is true success! That is life’s highest goal.

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