I would only appear on a TV talk show if I had veto rights over how they edited my comments. I do not trust these people.

Several years ago a priest I know was on a local show debating atheists. He was getting zinged right and left and looked pretty bad. Finally, during one of the long commercial breaks, one of the stage crew called him over. He told him the following, "I am a Jew and you are a Christian and we can debate the differences later on, but I have to tell you what they are doing to you. The others have been here before and know exactly when the show will cut to a commercial. They wait until a few seconds before that happens, zap you with a comment, and then you have no time to respond. The host will do NOTHING to prevent this as he is sympathetic to the atheists. When you see me touch the bill of my cap, you have about 20 seconds to a commercial. Use the time well."

Here's another example, a father and son I know do Civil War reenactments. They were interviewed by a national magazine. The reporter asked the boy if he considered himself an American or a Confederate first. The boy was playing the part of a young Confederate soldier and answered as that character. "I am a loyal Conferdate!" This answer was later used (out of context) to show that Southern dads are raising more red-neck, racist kids.

Just wanted to comment about Eckert Tolle's teachings. Any book that shows up on the best seller list gets my attention (that's an English teacher for you).

Tolle isn't deep-he just speaks in circles which makes him hard to follow. It also makes him sound like he knows what he's talking about. I've had some history teachers who did that.

He uses a bit of scripture, a bit of philosophy, some new age ideas and a bit of whatever for his teachings. He makes it sound like something new, but it isn't really. It's similar to what the B'hai and some offshoots of the new age movement also believe.

In a nutshell-what he says is all religions give us only glimpses of truth; that no religion has total truth and that all religions lead to the same place. (That doesn't make sense when some world religions believe in reincarnation-some in multiple gods-some in reaching nirvana through balance-and some in the forgiveness of sins through the work of God's son on the cross).

In Tolle's teachings all religions are "equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them." Okaaayyy...

Tolle also teaches that when a person holds to a specific "truth" (such as Jesus is the Son of God) that religion becomes an "ideology"-which Tolle says will keep us from finding the truth for ourselves. (So, if you believe in Jesus as your savior-then you can't find the "truth" because you are now believing an "ideology").

Therefore, you have to accept his teachings(which by his own definition would then be an "ideology") or you aren't free to find the truth. In other words, to find the truth, you can't accept any religious view of the truth-except for Tolle's.

Here comes the all important question:
How do you know if you have found the core truths within each religion and not an ideology?

Well, for Tolle, it's through a very subjective " “inner knowing.”

It would make sense that active waywards would love these teachings because the truth is based on how a person "feels".

The hardest part for me is where you have accept that his view is the right one if you want to find the truth which then cancels out his teaching because it has become an "ideology" since you accept it as the way to find truth.

Hope this makes sense...