Just for fun, I read an interview in the July 2011 Prevention Magazine with Marie Osmond (who is 51). They asked her mainly questions about health and weight loss.
But get this one:
Q: How do you feel about cosmetic surgery?
Marie: “We cherish youth more than we do wisdom. Will I do it? I’m sure. Nobody wants to have a saggy jowl. Is it bad to do? I don’t think anything is bad if it makes you feel better.”
What kind of moral philosophy is that!? “I don’t think anything is bad if it makes you feel better.” She sounds more like an epicurean or hedonist than a Christian or Mormon.
Then, talking about dealing with the suicide of her son . . .
Q: So many people struggle with grief. Do you have advice for them?
Marie: “It comes and goes and comes and goes. It’s not a fun sorority to belong to. I have great faith in God. Without faith, I don’t know how I would have been able to get through what I’ve been through.”
What does she think would have happened if she had not had faith? Would she have exploded into a billion pieces of jello? What about all the millions of people who get through tough times without faith?
Q: What else helps you combat difficult times and come out the other end?
Marie: “Serve other people. Find a little lady in the neighborhood who’s getting old and tell your son to go mow her lawn. Take cookies to somebody, ring the bell, and run. Just find fun little things you can do. Yes, it’s work, but it makes you feel good.”
There’s that “feel good” again. If some stranger left cookies on MY porch, I would NEVER eat them! And if she wants to lose weight, why send her son to mow the lawn? (Or bake cookies?)
Q: What else does your faith give you?
Marie: “Women’s intuition is the most powerful gift–God sent women down with it. If women would listen to their gut–don’t listen to that gut or you’ll want pizza [laughs], but listen to your intuition. The big mistakes I’ve made in my life were when I didn’t follow my gut.”
I thought Mormons were supposed to listen to the words of the bible and the Book of Mormon and their President who speaks directly to God. This sounds like Marie is embracing the modern evolutionary idea that our subconscious instincts were naturally selected for survivability. (Albeit, for women only.) What about all the times your “gut feeling” is wrong?
Q: And what was the best thing that happened when you did follow your gut?
Marie: “Moving to Vegas. On every level, it was the craziest decision . . . but I felt like it was the right thing to do for my children and myself.”
And maybe the money had something to do with it.
I know it is not fair to judge a person by one short (probably edited) interview, but considering the things that a true believer could have said, or should have said, Marie’s answers come across more like pop-star psychology than a reasoned moral or religious philosophy. The bible says “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” It also says “Lean not on your own understanding” and “Bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ.” But Marie Osmond ignores her entire religious heritage and advises: “Do what makes you feel good.” “Trust your gut feeling.” “Do fun little things.”
Maybe she knows that she, like everyone else, is simply a natural woman in a natural environment doing what comes naturally.
