The Secret and Christianity

By Melissa DeGroot

The Secret is really no secret at all. Oprah talks about it, millions of people have purchased the book, and even Newsweek devoted a few pages to explaining it. This newfound phenomenon is a philosophical teaching surrounding the law of attraction, the belief that you invite things into your life based on how you think. Apparently, this so-called secret has been around for centuries and was utilized by many famous historical figures like Plato, Galileo, Einstein, and Abraham Lincoln.

So, what does this secret provide? Abiding by this law, according to the Secret’s official Web site, promises folks “the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted.” Who doesn’t want health, wealth, and unlimited joy, Christians and non-Christians alike?

But it’s not that easy. How does one abide by this law? Visionaries of this philosophy inspire the buyers of their DVDs and books “to attract good feelings into their lives by controlling their thoughts, so they can focus on what it is that they desire.” For example, if you want to lose weight, be the star quarterback of the football team, or become a millionaire, you have to attract and invite good thoughts and feelings about these desires, and they will happen.

This begs the question: what are the similarities between this secret and the practical wisdom we understand as Lutheran Christians? First of all, we can read all of God’s Word and know that God is all for us experiencing joy in His creation, even now. Galatians 5:22 says, “Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Second, good common sense (and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) tells us how our attitude shapes the way we view the world and how the world views us. So, with these things on our side, are we on a parallel track with the Secret? Not at all!

Instead, there are actually a lot of differences between the two. First, understand that God does not promote personal wealth, health, and success as the primary focuses in our lives. Conversely, the law of attraction is based on the idea that a person ought to work in order to control their thoughts to manifest and invite their temporal desires. For instance, “You become what you think about most;” “Your feelings are where your power comes from;” and “Thoughts become things.” What is seemingly common sense starts to sound a lot like Luther’s Latin phrase, “En curvatus se” (i.e., a turning inward and relying on the self for all things).

Furthermore, the Secret offers the notion that the individual has supernatural power, brainwashing people into thinking, “If something bad happens to me, I was attracting that bad thing to myself.” If that is the case, then how much control do they think we really have? A tender example of this would be telling the victims’ families of the Minneapolis bridge collapse that they and their lost loved ones could have avoided this tragedy if they had some preconceived, positive thoughts. Thankfully, we know that this is absolutely false. We do not have ultimate control, and thanks be to God for that.

Finally, the Secret seeks to avoid all discussion of suffering because it does not attract good feelings. But as Christians, we have a unique ability to talk about that very thing. Suffering is unavoidable in this world, and that is why Christ, both God and man entered it, to suffer and die for our sins, rise and ascend with the Father. Our world became broken when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and because man is not God, and because man cannot positive think his way out of sin, man cannot do anything right to fix what is broken. In fact, we are the very thing that is broken! The Secret’s philosophy denies the ultimate desire at the core of every person: salvation, eternal life, and the forgiveness of all our sins.

But we have Good News: God’s promises and truth will never be a secret. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and enlightens us (attracts, if you will) with the knowledge and wisdom of our triune God. It is He who does all the work. Unlimited joy, health, wealth, and love is ours already! We do not have to attract anything. This, in turn, helps us recognize and experience this joy in service to God and our neighbor. We also know that true joy, love, and peace is ours because God has given it to us, since “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). And He continues to love us, beckoning and attracting us to Jesus through His Word and Sacraments.

Many of you going on to another year of high school, college, and the workplace will encounter dangerous things like the Secret, philosophies that test and detract us from our Lord’s truth. While some of it sounds like good, practical knowledge, time and energy are wasted in those falsehoods that say we are the sole attracters of all “positive and good things in our lives.” This takes away from time spent hearing what God promises in Scripture, namely that He alone gives us all good things.

While those who follow the Secret will charge you for their advice, be assured that God has done all that is necessary, the gift of eternal life in Christ is always free, and He makes Himself known from the beginning of time to the end of the age.That’s no secret!

Melissa DeGroot is serving as Assistant to the Deaconess Program in Admissions at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She can be contacted at degrootma@ctsfw.edu.