The Secret vs. Christianity Pt 6: Life is All About What You Want

If I had to "back up" the claim that "The Secret" is all about you getting what you want, I'd have to type the whole book in here. That theme must occur at least twice on every single page. To describe "The Secret" as narcissistic would be a vast understatement. Consider the following, from page 177:

“So your purpose is what you say it is. Your mission is the mission you give yourself.”

Or this, from page 92:

“Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you.”

Or how about this from page 119:

“Many of us were taught to put ourselves last…it is imperative that you tend to You first. Attend to your joy first. People are responsible for their own joy. When you tend to your joy and do what makes you feel good, you are a joy to be around…”

As we ask again whether "The Secret" is compatible with Christianity, consider 2 Timothy 3:1-9 where Paul writes (emphases mine):

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

Whoa. And do I really need to bring up the whole "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" kind of thing? Do I really need to explain how the Bible says we should live for others and not ourselves? I don't think I need to explain that even to Rhonda Byrne… this is like the ten commandments. You'd have to be living under a rock for 2000 years in order to have never heard that phrase and not realize they are taught by Jesus in the New Testament.

And what about the story Jesus told about the good Samaritan? Was the Samaritan tending to what he wanted? Was he tending to his joy? What about the other people who walked by the beaten man and ignored him? Who's joy were they tending to?

Rhonda Byrne knows full well what Christianity teaches about this, and yet she would have us reject that and embrace something completely different. I conclude from this, again, that this claim that Christianity and "The Secret" are somehow compatible is not merely a mistake made from ignorance. It is a lie. And again, that's okay for her to lie because, well, it's right for her.