Today’s Secular Priests From: http://sheridanvoysey.com/who-are-todays-secular-priests/ "... Whether on TV or radio, the talk show host has emerged as a modern-day priest. They are confessors to whom guests share their sins of adultery, drug abuse, compulsive eating and ‘mommy rage’. They are counsellors dolling out advice on phobias, depression, child-rearing and ‘love matches’. They are preachers delivering homilies on taxes, welfare cuts, injustice and ‘moral decline’. One sociologist has described such TV hosts as ‘revivalists’ who put sinners on stage, call them to repent, and offer conversion through the ‘religion’ of therapy. Christina’s father might well agree. Some hosts recognise and cultivate this semi-religious status. ‘I’m very clear about what my role and purpose is,’ says the Queen of talk show hosts, Oprah Winfrey. ‘I am the messenger to deliver the message of redemption, of hope, of forgiveness, of gratitude, of evolving people to the best of themsel