Click below for the various parts of this series on New Ager Roma Downey (and husband Mark Burnett):
Roma Downey’s comments about her theology show she is not a Christian as she claims, but a New Ager
Note – all above blogs © 2012-2014 Dave Mosher, all rights reserved. Excerpts may be quoted up to 300 words, as long as credit is given to my original blogs and links provided to my original blogs. Thank you.
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Now on to the current blog:
(revised 03/07/13)
Roma Downey’s comments about “Touched by an Angel” show she is not a Christian as she claims, but a New Ager
I have always felt very uncomfortable with the TV series “Touched by an Angel.” Why? Because I never, ever heard the characters mention the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The closest they came (in the episodes I saw): I heard the tune (not the words) of the Christmas carol “Silent Night.”
Also, I couldn’t help but notice that “Touched by an Angel” Roma Downey’s co-star, Della Reese, is a New Age-ish woman “preacher” in real life. (Click here for Della Reese’ Wikipedia bio. She teaches New Thought heresies.)
Christian discernment ministries have been writing exposés of “Touched by an Angel” for years. With so much having been written already, there’s probably not much new info I can add here. I will, however, attempt to locate and repost Downey’s New Age comments regarding “Touched by an Angel” – comments which show she is not a Christian as she claims, but a New Ager.
For example, in this quote (found here) Downey describes what attracted her to try out for the part of Monica:
Chet Cooper: You are most recognized for playing Monica on Touched By An Angel. How did you come across the role and what did you first think of the character?
Roma Downey: It was pilot season of ‘94, and I was reading through endless junk scripts that were being sent my way. Typically the roles were to play his wife or his girlfriend—leading roles for women were few and far between. Suddenly a very unusual script turned up. “Now this is curious,” I remember thinking. Because I’m a person of faith [in other Internet articles, she uses phrases such as “on a spiritual journey” – a New Age phrase], the spiritual aspects got my attention. Also, the actress in me was delighted to read a show that had not one but two strong female roles—female angels. I was to audition for Monica, and I very much liked Della Reese, who of course ended up playing Tess. [Just a couple clues that Downey was New Age prior to “Touched by an Angel”. See also my “trivia” blog mentioning biographical info prior to “Touched by an Angel”. I’m not sure when Della Reese first got interested in New Age teachings.]
[Note – I’ve repeated much of the following info in this blog about Downey’s theology.]
Closely study reruns of “Touched by an Angel” and I’m sure you’ll find many heretical New Age views held by both Roma Downey and New Thought/New Age co-star Della Reese.
Check out the following quotes from Downey, found here. I have emphasized certain points by bolding, and inserted comments in [brackets].
“It’s fantastic that [the Touched by an Angel reruns are] on GMC,” says Downey. “It’s reaching a whole new generation of people with its beautiful message of faith. I loved being on that show. I loved it. I loved playing Monica. I loved being the messenger, the believer. I loved being part of a message that went out weekly reminding people there is a God and this is God’s purpose for you and God will be part of your life and most importantly that God loves you.
“I got to deliver that message every week for almost 10 years to millions of people a week.”
“Still to this day, wherever I am in airports or shopping malls people tell me, ‘Oh, that show has changed my life.’ or ‘That show helped my family heal’ or ‘You’ll never know what that show did for us’ and so I’m thrilled that it’s back at a regular spot in the television and has a chance to heal and touch people’s lives all over again. [I don’t see any wording here about bringing people to salvation through the Father’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ, do you? I guess that would be rather difficult for “Touched by an Angel” to do, considering the 212-episode series has never – that I know of – mentioned the name of Jesus Christ.]
“I’ve been there, too, needing an angel — I can tell you. Over the years I’ve found myself wishing sometimes my angel would show up. [So Downey would want to communicate with angels? I’m not surprised. By the way, the Bible forbids communication with angels – this insightful pdf article mentions this.] I could use a little uplift, a little reminder.
“And then you know, and it’s available to everybody at all times. You’ve just got to turn your attention into your own loving heart where God exists inside of all of us.” [This reminds me of the heretical Inner Light teaching of George Fox and the Quakers, “that of Christ in all men” – supposedly.]
“There’s a timeless quality to the story,” she says. “It was always stories of people at certain crossroads in their lives when a decision was to be made. The spirit [notice Downey doesn’t say “the Holy Spirit” but rather uses the liberal/New Age term “the spirit”] would show up and help you make that good decision. You know, there’s no magic wand. Somebody didn’t come down and fix it for you. All we did as the angels was to come down and to remind you that you were a child of God [only a born again Christian is a child of God – nonchristians are offspring of Adam and “children of the devil” – see John 8:44 and I John 3:10] and God loves you and God wants the best for you, that God has a purpose for you and that you have to reach into your own heart to see it and believe it and then out of that place, make a good choice for yourself. [Again, “reach into your own heart” and “out of that place” are heretical New Age phrases.]
“It was very empowering in that way. It wasn’t some easy fix, because life isn’t filled with easy fixes. But when you pray and really trust and hand yourself over to God [notice she doesn’t mention repenting of your sins and accepting Christ as your Saviour], you know that God has you and holds you in his heart and in his hands.
“You know there’s no better feeling.
“If I were to look back at my career, I think my greatest achievement is very simple.
“I’ve been able to make choices where I could glorify God.”
So there we have it – a bit of Downey’s theology in her own words. As we will see in my various blogs about Downey, she is extremely New Age. Several questions: would she say in the previous paragraph her New Age beliefs “glorify God”? And how does she define “God”? For that matter, how does she define the label “Christian” which she applies to herself? Like I said, she is not a Christian like she claims, but a New Ager.
By the way, I perused this devotional book about “The Bible” as it was premiering. It is supposedly written by Downey and hubby Mark Burkett. But don’t be deceived by the biblically sound lingo found throughout the book. It sounds very different from Downey’s New Age statements in her quotes above. I’m going to take a wild guess here and speculate that portions of the book were written by ghost writers (perhaps some of the heretical “Christians” on “The Bible” Board of Advisors who have a better grasp on Christian lingo.)
FOR FURTHER READING
Discernment articles by Christians
Don Closson, Is Being Touched by an Angel Enough?
Berit Kjos, Touched By An Angel – But Which Kind?
Let Us Reason Ministries, Touched by an Angel or…
Program Reviews: Touched by an Angel – includes some viewer comments favoring TBAA, but also some excellent Christian critiques
Warning – a number of the following links are nonchristian; I can recommend them for research only.
Click here for CBN’s article about “Touched by an Angel” executive producer Martha Williamson and her Interfaith Movement connections. CBN, which has become heretical – actually recommends Martha Williamson and “Touched by an Angel.”
Click here for the official “Touched by an Angel” episode guide, including detailed plots of each episode.
And check out the Wikipedia articles on Roma Downey and on her husband Mark Burnett.
Searching Amazon.com re: “Roma Downey” brings up a number of angel-oriented publications by Roma Downey. Also, click here for books, videos, etc. related to the “Touched by an Angel” TV series.
I am currently in the process of adding more info to this blog – keep checking back. And thank you for your patience. New info on Roma Downey and hubby Mark Burnett is coming out almost daily – it’s hard to keep up with!
© 2012-2014 Dave Mosher, all rights reserved. Excerpts may be quoted up to 300 words, as long as credit is given to my original blogs and links provided to my original blogs. Thank you.
I am a born-again Christian and have worked in Hollywood on movies and television programs. For the most part, I hate what Hollywood produces. That said, I believe your efforts are misguided at best.
If you expect Hollywood to produce TV shows that give glory to Jesus Christ, and say that it is only through Christ that salvation is acquired, you are sadly mistaken. And yet so few Christians of “means” are willing to put there money where there mouth is and to develop alternatives. So you take one of the few programs, that at least has a basis of being a quality program, that at a minimum shows some values and tear it up. Is it 100% theologically sound? No. Does it profess to be? No. Does is put itself out as a Christian show? No.
There is so much garbage produced in Hollywood, that any actor of conscience would have a hard time finding anything with even a smidgen of light. This show did. Is it 100%? No. Is it responsible for sending people to hell with misguided theology? In my estimation, no.
Can God used a theologically flawed TV show to lead people to him? Yes.
Next time the producers of shows like this will just avoid the Christian agitators, stop trying to make anything of value and instead make a “Two & A Half Men” spin-off. Would that make you happier?
Further, it feels to me that you are taking delight in this exposé, you say: “New info on Roma Downey and hubby Mark Burnett is coming out almost daily – it’s hard to keep up with!”
Note your excitement as illustrated with the exclamation point. I do not believe such fervor follows any Biblical principal.
Thanks for the comments, David. You did make a number of great points – for example, “There is so much garbage produced in Hollywood”.
I do want to respond to several of your points. For one, you wrote: “Is [“Touched by an Angel”] 100% theologically sound? No. Does it profess to be? No. Does is put itself out as a Christian show? No.” Welll, yes and no. The show may not claim it is Christian, but a huge number of Christians have considered it as such. This, in spite of the fact that the show never mentioned Christ by name.
In your closing comment, you wrote: “Note your excitement as illustrated with the exclamation point. I do not believe such fervor follows any Biblical principal.” It may seem I was in a fervor, in attack mode, writing so many blogs against Downey and Burnett. But that’s how strongly I feel New Agers posing as “Christians” should be exposed. I would not say I was taking delight or being excited about exposing Downey and Burnett. Rather, I would say I was angry. Frankly, I would think all born again Christians should be fuming with anger that New Agers are deceiving so many Christians.
Well that’s it for now. God bless you, and thanks again for your comments – Dave
Interesting article. While I don’t deny that Roma is a follower of New Age philosophy (she certainly seems to be), I do take issue with a few of your comments.
1. I am a person of faith, who is on a spiritual journey. And I assure you, sir, that I am no New Ager. I am a Christian. I choose to refer to myself as a person (or woman) of faith because I believe that there is a difference between being a religious person (one who follows a set of rules) and a person of faith (one who has placed his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who has a relationship with Him). Just because a person says, “I’m a person of faith,” or says that they are, “on a spiritual journey,” that doesn’t make him or her a person who follows New Age theology. I fear that if you encounter someone who is a genuine Christian, who uses these phrases, you’ll leap to the wrong conclusion: that they’re into New Age theology. I certainly hope that you don’t do that.
2. The fact that she said that she, “very much liked Della Reese,” cannot be used as proof of the fact that Roma is into New Age theology. All this says to me is: She very much liked Della Reese.
I see what you’re saying, Linda. I would agree with both of your points, if – key word if – Roma Downey had not shown elsewhere that her worldview is New Age. For example, her ties with psychic medium John Edward, and her New Age “Spiritual Psychology” degree. Throw New Age leanings such as these into the mix, and the scales tilt toward Downey’s use of the term “on a spiritual journey” – as well as her contacts with Della Reese – as showing she is New Age.
I do find it interesting that Downey – to this day – refers often to “Touched by an Angel” as well as Della Reese. But to my knowledge, in Christian venues, Downey has not addressed the issue of her New Age practices and beliefs. If she had truly became a born again Christian, she would incorporate all this openly into a testimony, eagerly stating something like “I was in bondage to the occult practices of John Edward, etc. etc., and God freed me from all these New Age things when I repented of my sins and accepted Christ as my Saviour. Instead, she seems to have adopted a potpourri of beliefs, a mishmash of Christianese vocabulary, Catholic teachings and New Age practices.
It puzzles me why so many evangelicals endorsing Downey and Burnett’s productions are failing to address the elephant in the room (Downey’s New Age track record). Some evangelicals may currently be able to plead ignorance, but a simple Internet search will easily reveal “the dark side” of Downey. That is, unless evangelicals refuse to believe the “accusations” against her…
Linda, if you disagree with any of the above, feel free to tell me where I’m wrong 🙂 Thanks for your thoughts, and God bless you – Dave