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Marianne Williamson




is a spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance , a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department Of Peace . She is also the founder of Project Angel Food , a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area.http://marianne.iamplify.com/about.jsp She has published nine books, including four New York Times #1 bestsellers. Her latest professional venture is a weekly radio show on "Oprah and Friends", which airs on XM radio. http://marianne.iamplify.com/about.jsp


BIOGRAPHY

Marianne hails from Houston, Texas , and was raised in a Jewish household.
As a rebellious child of the '60s, she has openly admitted to have delved in drugs and alcohol, as well as having a string of broken relationships.http://amapedia.amazon.com/view/Marianne+Williamson:+A+Course+in+Miracles+-+or+a+Course+in+Double+Speak%3F/id=182176 She sought spiritual awakening and discovered "A Course in Miracles," a self-study system written by a Columbia University professor who believed Jesus had dictated the words to her. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week113/profile.html Though initially turned off by the heavy emphasis on Christianity, she was able to reconcile it with her Jewish faith and popularized the course in her 1992 best-seller, A Return To Love http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1997/11/gorov.html

Williamson served as head pastor of Renaissance Unity Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship before she resigned as a result of a controversial attempt to dissolve the church's formal ties to the Association Of Unity Churches .

Williamson describes herself as "a mix" who does not fit a particular mold:

"I'm a provocateur. I come into a situation where I don't particularly relate to any of the institutionalized boxes. I'm not a minister, I'm not a rabbi, but I'm totally excited by God and Jesus. So you get this Jewish girl talking about Jesus -- it's going to get attention. It's a juxtaposition that is perhaps interesting. It's similar to what I say about politics in The Healing of America. It's the same with religion. One group says it's this way, another group says it's that way, and a lot of people are feeling that, you know, 'deep in my heart I don't feel it's either way.' Well, neither do I."http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1997/11/gorov.html


She is a former jazz nightclub singer and is a single mother of a daughter.http://amapedia.amazon.com/view/Marianne+Williamson:+A+Course+in+Miracles+-+or+a+Course+in+Double+Speak%3F/id=182176


PHILOSOPHY


The driving force behind Williamson's philosophy is to offer a New Age approach to spirituality, rather than the ones dictated by Organized Religion s.

Williamson's monthly lectures are not strictly Christian, and that has been the central core of her appeal. She addresses both established Christianity and Judaism in statements such as "You've committed no sins, just mistakes." She teaches love and common sense, but she does so in the irreverent language of the Seventies. Her earliest renown was for her talks on A Course In Miracles , a step-by-step method for choosing love over fear.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

(To be continued...)


TRIVIA


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- Her poem, "Our Deepest Fear," was referred to in Coach Carter , when a wayward youth finds the courage to live his life straight. It was also used in the movie Akeelah And The Bee (2006) to motivate a young African American girl to be her best.


MARIANNE WILLIAMSON'S BOOKS



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