The 2020 election features a ragtag group of non-politicians who have expressed an interest in running for president, from fugitive/disgraced cybersecurity entrepreneur John McAfee to former Starbucks CEO to smug billionaire Howard. Schultz. However, perhaps none of the potential candidates was more of a headache than author and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson.
At an event broadcast live from a Beverly Hills theater in January, Williamson took the stage in front of a giant American flag and was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd. He announced that he wanted to run for president to "bring voters into a more meaningful conversation about America, about our history, about how we all fit in, and how we can create a sustainable future."
If you listened to Williamson's speech knowing nothing about her or her work, you'd be forgiven for assuming she sounded less like a presidential candidate and more like some kind of New Age-style spiritual leader, because she is exactly what she is. A world-renowned spiritual leader and author of New Age books such as A Woman's Worth and A Return to Love (the latter was eclipsed by none other than gender high priestess Oprah Winfrey), the brash and outspoken charismatic Williamson has fans who date from around the world, including celebrities like Katy Perry, kim kardashian, Nicole Richie, and Laura Dern. It's something like a Goop prequel to some degree, but without the jade egg studs and with more sensible pants and casual Jesus references.
But who exactly is Marianne Williamson and why is she running for office? Here is an introduction to the career of the self-proclaimed "God Bitch". She may have almost no chance of taking the White House, but with spiritual gurus increasingly influencing American life, she deserves to be understood.
Who is Marianne Williamson?
Williamson was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of an immigration attorney and a homemaker. She was raised Jewish, although as a child she did not attend synagogue regularly. (Although her books and lectures cite a variety of spiritual leaders from Jesus to the Buddha, Williamson still identifies as an observant Jew and sees no conflict between her faith and much of the Christian language she uses in her work. .)
Like many self-help gurus, Williamson often spoke of being aimless and aimless before his spiritual awakening. He spent two years at Pomona College, a liberal arts college in California, before dropping out to move to New Mexico, where he briefly lived in a geodesic dome on a common. She then shuttled between the east and west coasts, spending her 20s as a temp and working occasionally as a cabaret singer. "I sank deeper and deeper into my neurotic patterns and sought relief in food, drugs, people, or any other distraction I could find," she later wrote in Un. back to love.
It was during this time that Williamson discovered the book that would shape the path of his career: A Course in Miracles. Also known as The Course, A Course in Miracles is a massive three-volume religious work that teaches that the only real thing in the world is the love of God and that devotion to God's plan can lead to inner peace. and the wonders of real life.
Although often marketed as a secular self-help text, A Course in Miracles is heavily based on the language of Christianity; When it was published in 1976, the author, medical psychologist Helen Schucman, claimed that Jesus dictated it to her. Nonetheless, the book's teachings resonated with Williamson. "I never realized that you can't find peace in your life without forgiving others," he told the LA Times in 1992. "I never knew how many of my problems stemmed from my fear of others."
In 1983 Williamson moved to Los Angeles and began teaching the book at the Society for Philosophical Research, a center for metaphysical studies. Over the next decade, he built a strong reputation, particularly among LGBTQ men amid the HIV/AIDS crisis, for which he hosted weekly support groups at the Center for Living, an organization that counseled HIV-positive patients early in the crisis, when few other organizations would. (He also started a charity, Project Angel Food, to deliver meals directly to the homes of HIV/AIDS patients.)
Williamson went from West Coast shaman to world-renowned spiritual guru with the publication of A Return to Love, her first book, in 1992: the book became a self-help classic and topped the New York Times. during weeks. - List of suppliers. A snap of Oprah claiming she experienced '157 miracles' after reading the book led to sales of another million copies; Over the next few decades, Williamson became a regular on The Oprah Show and was often promoted to spiritual advisor to Oprah.
The book is the source of Williamson's most famous quote, often seen on inspirational Instagram pages, falsely attributed to Nelson Mandela: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. It is our light, not our darkness, that scares us the most."
Since then, Williamson has written 12 books, ranging from the professional guide The Law of Compensation to the spiritual weight loss manual A Course in Weight Loss: Spiritual Lessons for Losing Your Weight. His rise to fame was not without controversy: he was the target of allegations of being a peddler, not to mention bullying. Former employees said he alienated even his most ardent supporters with his self-centered behavior and bullying tactics, with a source telling Entertainment Weekly in 1992 that Williamson had "a tyrannical, despotic streak and an inability to even to approach dissenting opinions". and that her charities are a front to "sell her book and increase her own fame." (Williamson laughed off such criticism, calling herself "a bitch for god's sake.")
But even Williamson's critics can't argue with his bare charisma and incredible rhetorical skills. "She uses the language and allure of sensuality to hold an audience," a Psychology Today reporter wrote in a 1992 profile of Williamson. Venus than to kneel with the saints."
What are Marianne Williamson’s policies?
Throughout his career, Williamson has been outspoken in his political views, from his stance on offering reparations to black Americans (which he compares to the German government offering billions in compensation to Jewish Holocaust victims) to his proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. conflict. "I don't think the final answer is about settlements or checkpoints," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last fall in what might be the most Marianne Williamsonian answer ever. "The work of true peacebuilders must be at the level of the heart." His foreign policy agenda in general is expressed in what he calls “peacebuilding”.
In a foreign policy speech to the New Hampshire Global Affairs Council, Williamson said, “The same holistic paradigm that changed how we view physical health can be applied to our social health. Active peacebuilding supports the social health of our planet, just as good nutrition and exercise support the physical health of our bodies.
He summed up his approach by saying, "Love for our fellow human beings, not fear or domination, should guide American foreign policy."
Williamson is perhaps best known on the home front for being the first candidate to tackle reparations and the only one to call for direct payments to dependent slaves: She wants to set aside $200 billion to $500 billion for a repairs.
On other issues, however, he is more in tune with his fellow candidates. She supports the Green New Deal, universal preschool, free college, deferred action protections for beneficiaries of childbirth, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, gun reform, increased access to abortion and equality change. She also wants a version of Medicare for All that doesn't eliminate private insurance plans.
Why is Marianne Williamson running for president?
This is not Williamson's first foray into politics. In 2014, he ran as an independent in Los Angeles' 34th congressional district against Democrat Henry Waxman. Although he raised $2 million for his campaign and attracted high-profile supporters such as Nicole Richie (who appeared in his campaign video), Katy Perry and Alanis Morissette (who wrote the song theme of his campaign), Williamson remained only in fourth place, peaking at Williamson 13.2%. of the votes, Ted Lieu eventually won the seat.
But Williamson's experience running for Congress doesn't seem to have quenched her thirst for politics in general. Before announcing his candidacy for president (he is now running as a Democrat), he publicly supported Bernie Sanders and spoke out at length against the Trump administration. In his announcement speech, he made it clear that his bid for president was a direct response to what he saw as "spiritual and moral rot" in Washington.
It is also clear that he is positioning his presidential bid as a moral imperative, using the language of spirituality that pervades his work. "It will be a co-creative effort, an effort of love, a gift of love to our country and hopefully our world," he said in the video for his exploratory committee.
But while Williamson's campaign for Congress in 2014 was widely rejected — "she's not a credible candidate," sniffed Los Angeles County Democratic Party leader Eric Bauman in the LA Weekly article. — the political landscape has changed irrevocably since then, and it's clear that her and her supporters are taking their presidential bid seriously, even if many other Democrats aren't.
"It's time for us to rise up like other generations have done," Williamson said in his announcement speech in January, as a crowd of his bandmates roared.
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The 2020 election features a ragtag group of non-politicians who have expressed an interest in running for president, from fugitive/disgraced cybersecurity entrepreneur John McAfee to former Starbucks CEO to smug billionaire Howard. Schultz. However, perhaps none of the potential candidates was more of a headache than author and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson.
At an event broadcast live from a Beverly Hills theater in January, Williamson took the stage in front of a giant American flag and was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd. He announced that he wanted to run for president to "bring voters into a more meaningful conversation about America, about our history, about how we all fit in, and how we can create a sustainable future."
If you listened to Williamson's speech knowing nothing about her or her work, you'd be forgiven for assuming she sounded less like a presidential candidate and more like some kind of New Age-style spiritual leader, because she is exactly what she is. A world-renowned spiritual leader and author of New Age books such as A Woman's Worth and A Return to Love (the latter was eclipsed by none other than gender high priestess Oprah Winfrey), the brash and outspoken charismatic Williamson has fans who date from around the world, including celebrities like Katy Perry, kim kardashian, Nicole Richie, and Laura Dern. It's something like a Goop prequel to some degree, but without the jade egg studs and with more sensible pants and casual Jesus references.
But who exactly is Marianne Williamson and why is she running for office? Here is an introduction to the career of the self-proclaimed "God Bitch". She may have almost no chance of taking the White House, but with spiritual gurus increasingly influencing American life, she deserves to be understood.
Who is Marianne Williamson?
Williamson was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of an immigration attorney and a homemaker. She was raised Jewish, although as a child she did not attend synagogue regularly. (Although her books and lectures cite a variety of spiritual leaders from Jesus to the Buddha, Williamson still identifies as an observant Jew and sees no conflict between her faith and much of the Christian language she uses in her work. .)
Like many self-help gurus, Williamson often spoke of being aimless and aimless before his spiritual awakening. He spent two years at Pomona College, a liberal arts college in California, before dropping out to move to New Mexico, where he briefly lived in a geodesic dome on a common. She then shuttled between the east and west coasts, spending her 20s as a temp and working occasionally as a cabaret singer. "I sank deeper and deeper into my neurotic patterns and sought relief in food, drugs, people, or any other distraction I could find," she later wrote in Un. back to love.
It was during this time that Williamson discovered the book that would shape the path of his career: A Course in Miracles. Also known as The Course, A Course in Miracles is a massive three-volume religious work that teaches that the only real thing in the world is the love of God and that devotion to God's plan can lead to inner peace. and the wonders of real life.
Although often marketed as a secular self-help text, A Course in Miracles is heavily based on the language of Christianity; When it was published in 1976, the author, medical psychologist Helen Schucman, claimed that Jesus dictated it to her. Nonetheless, the book's teachings resonated with Williamson. "I never realized that you can't find peace in your life without forgiving others," he told the LA Times in 1992. "I never knew how many of my problems stemmed from my fear of others."
In 1983 Williamson moved to Los Angeles and began teaching the book at the Society for Philosophical Research, a center for metaphysical studies. Over the next decade, he built a strong reputation, particularly among LGBTQ men amid the HIV/AIDS crisis, for which he hosted weekly support groups at the Center for Living, an organization that counseled HIV-positive patients early in the crisis, when few other organizations would. (He also started a charity, Project Angel Food, to deliver meals directly to the homes of HIV/AIDS patients.)
Williamson went from West Coast shaman to world-renowned spiritual guru with the publication of A Return to Love, her first book, in 1992: the book became a self-help classic and topped the New York Times. during weeks. - List of suppliers. A snap of Oprah claiming she experienced '157 miracles' after reading the book led to sales of another million copies; Over the next few decades, Williamson became a regular on The Oprah Show and was often promoted to spiritual advisor to Oprah.
The book is the source of Williamson's most famous quote, often seen on inspirational Instagram pages, falsely attributed to Nelson Mandela: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. It is our light, not our darkness, that scares us the most."
Since then, Williamson has written 12 books, ranging from the professional guide The Law of Compensation to the spiritual weight loss manual A Course in Weight Loss: Spiritual Lessons for Losing Your Weight. His rise to fame was not without controversy: he was the target of allegations of being a peddler, not to mention bullying. Former employees said he alienated even his most ardent supporters with his self-centered behavior and bullying tactics, with a source telling Entertainment Weekly in 1992 that Williamson had "a tyrannical, despotic streak and an inability to even to approach dissenting opinions". and that her charities are a front to "sell her book and increase her own fame." (Williamson laughed off such criticism, calling herself "a bitch for god's sake.")
But even Williamson's critics can't argue with his bare charisma and incredible rhetorical skills. "She uses the language and allure of sensuality to hold an audience," a Psychology Today reporter wrote in a 1992 profile of Williamson. Venus than to kneel with the saints."
What are Marianne Williamson’s policies?
Throughout his career, Williamson has been outspoken in his political views, from his stance on offering reparations to black Americans (which he compares to the German government offering billions in compensation to Jewish Holocaust victims) to his proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. conflict. "I don't think the final answer is about settlements or checkpoints," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last fall in what might be the most Marianne Williamsonian answer ever. "The work of true peacebuilders must be at the level of the heart." His foreign policy agenda in general is expressed in what he calls “peacebuilding”.
In a foreign policy speech to the New Hampshire Global Affairs Council, Williamson said, “The same holistic paradigm that changed how we view physical health can be applied to our social health. Active peacebuilding supports the social health of our planet, just as good nutrition and exercise support the physical health of our bodies.
He summed up his approach by saying, "Love for our fellow human beings, not fear or domination, should guide American foreign policy."
Williamson is perhaps best known on the home front for being the first candidate to tackle reparations and the only one to call for direct payments to dependent slaves: She wants to set aside $200 billion to $500 billion for a repairs.
On other issues, however, he is more in tune with his fellow candidates. She supports the Green New Deal, universal preschool, free college, deferred action protections for beneficiaries of childbirth, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, gun reform, increased access to abortion and equality change. She also wants a version of Medicare for All that doesn't eliminate private insurance plans.
Why is Marianne Williamson running for president?
This is not Williamson's first foray into politics. In 2014, he ran as an independent in Los Angeles' 34th congressional district against Democrat Henry Waxman. Although he raised $2 million for his campaign and attracted high-profile supporters such as Nicole Richie (who appeared in his campaign video), Katy Perry and Alanis Morissette (who wrote the song theme of his campaign), Williamson remained only in fourth place, peaking at Williamson 13.2%. of the votes, Ted Lieu eventually won the seat.
But Williamson's experience running for Congress doesn't seem to have quenched her thirst for politics in general. Before announcing his candidacy for president (he is now running as a Democrat), he publicly supported Bernie Sanders and spoke out at length against the Trump administration. In his announcement speech, he made it clear that his bid for president was a direct response to what he saw as "spiritual and moral rot" in Washington.
It is also clear that he is positioning his presidential bid as a moral imperative, using the language of spirituality that pervades his work. "It will be a co-creative effort, an effort of love, a gift of love to our country and hopefully our world," he said in the video for his exploratory committee.
But while Williamson's campaign for Congress in 2014 was widely rejected — "she's not a credible candidate," sniffed Los Angeles County Democratic Party leader Eric Bauman in the LA Weekly article. — the political landscape has changed irrevocably since then, and it's clear that her and her supporters are taking their presidential bid seriously, even if many other Democrats aren't.
"It's time for us to rise up like other generations have done," Williamson said in his announcement speech in January, as a crowd of his bandmates roared.