Oprah Says Jesus Taught Her a Lesson After Twitter Backlash
After facing criticism from some fans and celebrities for posting a message on Twitter about the successful meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and President Obama, Oprah Winfrey says she believes Jesus was trying to teach her a lesson.
The 62-year-old media tycoon who helms the OWN network appeared on a Facebook live broadcast on Nov. 13 with film director Ava DuVernay for the latter's documentary called "13th." There, Winfrey addressed the fact that some fans were disgruntled by a positive tweet she sent out about Trump's meeting with Obama after the election.
Winfrey said the experience has taught her a lesson that she has faced in the past.
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"This is the second time I've had tweet troubles," she said during the Q&A in Los Angeles, Califonia, last Sunday, according to Entertainment Weekly. "And it's the same lesson. So Jesus, I hear you. You don't have to tell me again."
Winfrey's tweet centered around Trump's first meeting with Obama last week when she captioned an image insinuating that people could have hope after reports said both men were cordial with one another.
"Everybody take a deep breath!" Winfrey wrote in the photograph before adding, "#HopeLives."
She went on to explain her reason for writing the message along with a photograph of the two men in the Oval Office.
"I couldn't breathe after the election. I was expecting tension, awkwardness, and strain," she explained. "So when I saw them sitting together, I actually took a picture of the screen that said 'President-elect Trump honored to meet Obama.' And President Obama was being so gracious, and I heard Donald Trump say, 'He's a good man.'"
Despite her positive intentions for sharing the message, Winfrey said she understood why not everybody was supportive.
"My mistake, and this is what I know to be true: you can never talk about everybody. Even in your arguments with your husband and your children," she said. "Don't talk about what you should do, what you ought to do — you can only speak for yourself. So what I should have said was, 'I just took a breath.' What I said was, 'Everybody take a breath — #HopeLives.'"
Followers of Winfrey might not be surprised that she likened the lesson in social media etiquette as one coming from Jesus, since she has previously spoken about how much God has impacted her career.
"Church was our entertainment, church was our comfort, church was our sanctuary, and being with church people was how we served our community," Winfrey said in the video clip for her "Belief" series last year. "The hours and hours and hours and hours and hours that I spent in that little white church by the red dirt road in Kosciusko, Mississippi, formed the interior meaning for my life. Actually, as I've often said, it's how my broadcasting career began, speaking in front of the church."
