Ever since I was a little boy – my mother will tell you – I loved going to church. Although my family was not religious (certainly my late father with his excrutiating stories of being schooled by nuns was not), but there was something about church I loved.

I’ve come to realize, recently, that what I really have always enjoyed about church wasn’t singing hymns or gathering under one roof, it’s hearing a good sermon.

A good sermon throws you, to use Law of Attraction parlance, into alignment. A good sermon alters, to use Tony Robbins parlance, your state.

The more I deliberately apply Law of Attraction in my life, the more I’m able to see how many teachings – religious, spiritual, otherwise – all dovetail together at the end of the day.

Recently Oprah interviewed two of America’s biggest preachers, Pastor Joel Osteen and Bishop TD Jakes. Both interviews included footage of the two sermonizing, and in the watching I noticed myself sit up higher on the couch, my attention caught, as always.

So theatrical, such ways with words. These days, as I work to forgive someone in my life, Jakes’ teachings on forgiveness are sublime:

“Forgiveness is a big idea and works best when invested into people who have the courage to grasp the seven-foot idea of what’s best for their future rather than the four-foot-high idea of recompense for what has happened in the past. Offenses are a part of life, but conflicts can be resolved and relationships restored when we stop paying the past with the resources of our future.”

Isn’t that beautifully put? These are words I can act on, they resonate with me.

I love a good sermon.

Too bad Jakes and Osteen think being gay is a sin. In both her interviews with the two preachers, Oprah asked them the same question: Is being gay a sin? Continue Reading…