Coffee Talk Redux is a reflection on things God is teaching me. In some cases the ideas for these topics come from the Coffee Talk group that I meet with weekly at the Vintage Coffee Bistro located in Lambertville, Michigan. At other times the Redux topic may arise from some conversation I may have had with someone, or a thought that crossed my mind, or perhaps something I read somewhere, or maybe a combination of all of these. In any case think of this as a discussion on what God is teaching us to help us grow in our understanding of His will.
Today’s Redux is about our modern day need to have it our own way, be our own god. 2 Kings 17 summarizes the plight of Judah and Israel as a result of their rejection of God and we see many similarities in the present day. For ” They rejected His statutes, the covenant which He made with their fathers, and the warnings which He had given them. The vanity they pursued, they themselves became … They disregarded all the commandments of the Lord, their God, and made for themselves two molten calves; they also made a sacred pole and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.” (2 Kings 17:15-16) There are many popular books about having god your way and several of these that have received considerable attention are those written by Rhonda Byrne and Eckhart Tolle. Here I will focus a bit on Byrne’s book The Secret as representative of this genre.
The Secret is a concept developed, written, and produced by Rhonda Byrne that has lead to a movie and a book published in 2006. The movie and the book have been quite the rage for those inclined to New Age and New Thought movements. The Secret is a modern day example of secular humanism basically denying God’s creation and replacing that with a special revelation that is known only to a select few, sort of a modern day version of gnosticism.
The Secret and other books like it, for example those of Eckhart Tolle, attract a lot of attention and they are aggressively marketed demonstrating once again that a simple message when packaged attractively can make a lot of money for those involved. Somehow the fact that some folks are making a tremendous amount of money rarely gets mentioned when these fads make their run. The Secret and Tolle’s books as well have also been promoted and discussed on many radio and television talk shows notably Oprah Winfrey who considers Tolle’s The Power of Now to be one of her favorite books.
Getting back to The Secret as an example of this genre the title is seductive and suggests to the viewer or reader that they are going to be given some inside information on a carefully guarded secret or special revelation that has been known over the centuries by only a few. Rhonda Byrne leads one to believe that she has tapped into this secret wisdom that has “been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions, and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces … come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.” Byrne in a clever ploy gains authority and credibility for her revelation by claiming that prominent people throughout history like “Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie, Einstein – along with other inventors, theologians, scientists, and great thinkers”, have known about The Secret and now she will reveal it to everyone else. Byrne then assembles a cast of modern-day pop culture icons, new age thinkers, life coaches, moneymaking experts, psychologists, and motivational speakers to give their testimony and support for The Secret. She claims that by applying this simple principle, these modern-day teachers “have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible.”
After all this hype concerning The Secret, we find out early in the book that the essence of the secret is simply the “law of attraction. Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind.” You can become or have whatever you think about, an idea that has actually been bantered around since ancient times.
Genesis 1:1 (RSV) says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But now, The Secret cleverly replaces God as our creator and the First Cause claiming that “the law began at the beginning of time. It has always been and will always be. It is the law that determines the complete order in the Universe, every moment of your life, and every single thing you experience in your life.” God has been replaced by the law of attraction, and The Secret is claiming that we are all in some ways now an all powerful god since we have the control over the law, “You are the one who calls the law of attraction into action, and you do it through your thoughts.” You can have whatever you want if you just tap into this universal wisdom of the law of attraction.
Although secular humanistic beliefs such as those espoused by The Secret as well as in Tolle’s books may provide the hope of a kingdom of the world that serves man’s greed and selfishness, it offers nothing in terms of salvation or eternal life. The creation story of man where God said in Genesis 1:26 (RSV), “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, reflects right from the start of Sacred Scripture God’s promise that man will have a share of His eternal glory in the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This teaching is supported by St. Gregory of Nyssa who is also credited with saying, “Since the creation came into being at the beginning through God’s power, the end of everything that exists is inseparably linked to the beginning.”
The real secret is the mystery of the Trinity that also reflects how man is to live while on earth, that is as a community bound by faith, hope, and love, which is the same force that binds God’s divine community. The Secret offers man more of the emptiness and despair that comes from pursuing false gods while failing to recognize the peace that comes from God as exclaimed by David in Psalm 62:1-2, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.”
© Ronald L. Fournier – 2008
