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Wikipedia

Marianne Williamson

January 20, 2023

Marianne Deborah Williamson (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, spiritual leader, and political activist. She has written 14 books, including four New York Times number one bestsellers in the "Advice, How To, and Miscellaneous" category.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The founder of Project Angel Food, a volunteer food delivery program that serves home-bound people with HIV/AIDS and life-threatening illnesses.[7] She is also the co-founder of the Peace Alliance, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization supporting peacebuilding projects.[8] She has frequently appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[9]

Marianne Williamson
Williamson in August 2019
Born
Marianne Deborah Williamson

(1952-07-08) July 8, 1952 (age 70)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
EducationPomona College
(no degree)
Occupations
  • Author
  • pastor
  • spiritual leader
  • teacher
  • politician
  • activist
Political partyDemocratic
(2019-present)
Other political
affiliations		Independent (2014)
SpouseUnnamed (div. 1979)
Children1
Signature

In 2014, Williamson unsuccessfully ran as an independent representing California's 33rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

On January 9, 2019, she announced her campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election[10] and suspended her campaign on January 10, 2020.[11] She later endorsed Bernie Sanders at a rally in Austin, Texas, on February 23, 2020.[12] She was hired as a columnist for Newsweek shortly after the conclusion of the campaign.

She has formed an exploratory campaign for running in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries.[13]

Early life and education

Williamson was born in Houston, Texas, in 1952. She was the youngest of three children of Samuel "Sam" Williamson, a World War II veteran and immigration lawyer, and Sophie Ann Kaplan, a homemaker and community volunteer.[14][15]

Williamson was raised upper-middle-class in conservative Judaism.[14][16] Her family attended Congregation Beth Yeshurun.[17] She learned about world religions and social justice at home, but first became interested in speaking from the pulpit on social matters when she saw her rabbi speak against the Vietnam War.[17] Her family also traveled internationally during the summers when she was a child.[18] She has said that it was through travel that she "had an experience, at a young age, that people are the same everywhere."[19]

Williamson attended Houston ISD's Bellaire High School.[20] After graduating, she spent two years studying theater and philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she was a roommate of eventual film producer Lynda Obst.[15] In 1973, Williamson – an active antiwar protester – dropped out of college and lived "a nomadic existence" during what she calls "her wasted decade."[15][17][21] She moved to New Mexico, where she took classes at the University of New Mexico and lived in a geodesic dome with her boyfriend.[21][19] The couple broke up a year later. Marianne then moved to Austin, Texas, where she took classes at the University of Texas.[19] After leaving Texas, she went to New York City, intending to pursue a career as a cabaret singer, but got distracted by "bad boys and good dope."[15][22] Vanity Fair wrote that Williamson "spent her twenties in a growing state of existential despair".[23] In New York, Williamson suffered from deep depression following the end of a relationship.[14] She has said that this experience gave rise to a desire to spend the rest of her life helping people.[23]

A Course in Miracles

 
A Course in Miracles

In 1976, Williamson (who was experiencing confusion about God and wondering why He allows so much pain in the world) was at a party in New York and picked up a copy of Helen Schucman's book A Course in Miracles from a coffee table.[24][25] She dismissed the book because, being Jewish, she was put off by its Christian terminology.[17] Williamson then moved to San Francisco. While there, she developed an interest in spirituality, metaphysics, and meditation. She began reading the Course "passionately" and doing its 365 daily exercises.[22] She also reconciled it with her Jewishness; in her view, "A conversion to Christ is not a conversion to Christianity. It is a conversion to a conviction of the heart. The Messiah is not a person but a point of view".[23]

Williamson said that the book was her "path out of hell," as she had been "mired in a series of unhappy love affairs, alcohol and drug abuse, a nervous breakdown, and endless sessions with therapists."[26][27][28][24] She was captivated by the book's message on forgiveness, specifically the notion that one cannot find peace in life without forgiving others. Williamson said that made her realize "how many of my problems stemmed from my fear of other people."[14]

The Course has often been described as a religion or pseudoreligion.[29][30] Williamson disagrees:

A Course in Miracles [is] a self-study program in spiritual psychotherapy. It is a book that is based on universal spiritual themes. It is not a religion. It does not claim any kind of monopoly on truth. It has no dogma. It has no doctrine. It talks about love and forgiveness and I think that many of the people who are students of A Course in Miracles come from all religions and even no religion. The book says nothing about [Jesus]. The book does not get us to try to believe in God. [...] The book tries to get us to believe in each other.[31]

Teaching

 
Williamson, 2019

In 1979, Williamson returned to Houston, where she ran a metaphysical bookstore coffeeshop, sang Gershwin standards in a nightclub, got married and divorced "almost immediately," and underwent a "spiritual surrender".[15][22][32][21]

In 1983, Williamson had what she has called a "flash" to close the coffeeshop and move to Los Angeles.[22] She said she felt the city would be welcoming to her because of its willingness to "start new conversations."[22] She made the move with $1,000 in her pocket.[23] She got an apartment in Hollywood. Her roommate was 17-year-old Laura Dern, who noted that Williamson "held prayer groups in our living room."[25] Williamson got a job at the Philosophical Research Society. As part of their lecture series, she started speaking about A Course in Miracles as "a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy."[17] Her lectures were grounded in her belief that by consulting the Course, every problem can be solved, and that miracles are possible through a change in perspective.[14] According to Williamson, "All that a miracle is is a shift in perception from fear to love. It’s simply the notion that when your world view changes, your behavior changes".[32]

Williamson's teachings stemmed from an inspirational message: "Divine love is the core and essence of every human mind."[33] She saw this message as a remedy to misinterpretations of the Bible that, through an emphasis on sin and guilt, could lead to harm (e.g. slavery, depression, self-loathing).[33][23] Initially, only a few people attended her lectures. But as word spread about "the young woman talking about a God who loves you, no matter what", she had to rent church space to accommodate the demand to see her.[23][22] Four years later, she began lecturing monthly in New York. Eventually she was invited to speak throughout the U.S. and Europe. Williamson did not charge for her lectures, but had a "suggested donation" of $7 ($15 as of 2014) and a policy of not turning people away for lack of money.[22]

Williamson's style was called a "trendy amalgam of Christianity, Buddhism, pop psychology and 12-step recovery wisdom".[15][22] The attraction of her teaching was said to have been "its focus on the power of the individual to conquer all without the help of stodgy institutions that are out of touch with modern generations."[34] People were said to have been drawn to her relatability (given her struggles in her own life) and to her oratory.[34] Williamson "filled a void left by the isolationism of established Christianity and Judaism, maintained an open-door policy with her teaching, but did not engage in actively evangelizing the Course, saying that she believed doing so would devalue the spirit of the teaching".[15]

Pastor

At the height of her popularity, in 1998, Williamson sold her $2.7 million home. She decided to stop teaching and join the ministry. She said, "I had a lot going on in my life. I just felt I had to leave. I had a baby."[22][failed verification] Williamson said that becoming a pastor was a way "to get dirt in her fingers again" – "to experience the day-to-day lives of hundreds of people" – and would be helpful in her work as a spiritual guide.[35]

Williamson became the "spiritual leader" for the Church of Today, a Unity Church in Warren, Michigan, where she had 2,300 congregants and 50,000 television viewers.[24] She booked high-profile musical guests such as Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, expanded the bookstore, more than tripled declining church membership, increased the congregation's racial and sexual orientation diversity, brought the church out of mounting debt, and grew the church into one of the country's biggest Unity churches.[33][22][36][37][38]

She resigned from the Church Renaissance Unity Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship in 2003.

Author

Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations Podcast: Marianne Williamson – "A Return to Love"

Williamson has written 13 books. Seven have been on the New York Times bestseller list, with four reaching number one.[39][3][4][5][6] More than three million copies have been sold.[40]

  • A Politics of Love: A Handbook for a New American Revolution (2019)
  • Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment (2016)
  • The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money and Miracles (2012)
  • A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections (2011)
  • A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever (2010)
  • The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife (2007)
On USA Today's best-seller list for four weeks, it is about how to approach midlife by not dwelling on lost youth but starting new opportunities.[41]
  • The Gift of Change: Further Reflections on a Course in Miracles (2004)
  • Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness and Making Miracles (2002)
  • Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships (1999)
About building a spiritual relationship between partners, the book advocates "a new model of romance with love, righteousness, compassion."
  • Healing the Soul of America: Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens (1997)
The book was originally titled The Healing of America. It is about developing more robust political engagement by laying out plans to "transform the American political consciousness and encourage powerful citizen involvement to heal our society" by turning spiritual activism into sociopolitical activism.[41][42]
  • A Woman's Worth (1993)
A New York Times bestseller that according to Publishers Weekly gave "sound, empowering advice on relationships, work, love, sex and childrearing."[43][44] The Vancouver Sun used a passage from the book in summarizing it:

The world, as it is, has very little use for womanhood. You are considered a weaker sex and considered a sex object. You are thoroughly dispensable except for bearing children. Your youth is the measure of your worth and your age is the measure of your worthlessness. Do not look to the world for your sustenance or for your identity as a woman because you will not find them there. The world despises you. God adores you.[45]

  • Illuminata (1993)
On USA Today's best-seller list for 20 weeks,[41] the book is about how prayer is practical in everyday life by looking to God to transcend life's pains.
On The New York Times bestseller list for 39 weeks in the "Advice, How To and Miscellaneous" category,[46] the book teaches that practicing love every day will bring more peace and fulfillment to one's life. Williamson wrote her most famous quote in this book, which is often misattributed to Nelson Mandela:[47][48]

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Oprah Winfrey said of the book, "I have never been more moved by a book than I am by this one."[41] Winfrey bought 1,000 copies and encouraged her audience to purchase it, telling them that after reading it, she experienced 157 miracles.[49] Williamson was a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show as well, and became known as Oprah's "spiritual advisor."[50]

Social justice

 
Williamson, 2014

Williamson has said that she often wonders why "so many people in the richest country in the world have to constantly transcend material conditions that are so unnecessary."[51]

In the 1980s Williamson began founding charities based on the principles in the Course.[25]

Centers for Living

In 1987, during lunch with a close friend struggling with breast cancer, Williamson's friend expressed a need for help: "She said that for years she had been looking for someone to help her heal and now she needed someone to help her die."[23] This request inspired Williamson to create the Center for Living.

After David Geffen contributed $50,000, Williamson co-founded the organization with Louise Hay – a minister of the New Thought Church of Religious Science who claimed to have healed herself of cancer – as a refuge from, and to offer non-medical support for, people with "life-challenging illnesses."[15][23] Williamson took no salary from the organization.

The Center for Living began helping many patients afflicted with HIV/AIDS, particularly gay men, whom it welcomed and accepted when other places shunned them.[22] The Center provided services such as house-cleaning, meditation, massage and community/psychological/emotional support throughout Los Angeles.[15]

In 1989, with another $50,000 from Geffen, Williamson opened another Center for Living in New York,[23] but it was hampered by conflict between staff and the board over Williamson's management style, which an unnamed former associate described as "very controlling."[14] There was also a rift because, while the Los Angeles Center welcomed Williamson's use of prayer in her teachings and the use of the word "God", the more secular New York Center rebuked it.[23]

Someone said you would hear checkbooks slamming shut all over Sotheby’s (site of a fund-raising auction) if Marianne got up and led everyone in prayer.[14]

— Jean Halberstam, Journalist

Williamson grew frustrated with being asked to not pray:[52]

God is definitely out of the closet. I refuse to pretend we don't pray here. One of the reasons the political right-wing in this country has had such an upsurge in popularity is because they have at least acknowledged the idea of God, and the so-called liberals have lost by default. The left-wing is too cool to even mention God, so – Middle America thinks, 'Well, I guess God's in the Republican Party.'[23]

A few months later, after two of her board members told Vanity Fair that she wanted "to be famous", Williamson deemed that she was being treated as "expendable" and purged the board of several members, including film director Mike Nichols, and the head of the New York Center.[14] Some people believed Williamson was losing trust in several board members and preemptively fired them before they fired her. She disputed that, claiming that she intended to step down as president and wanted to give her successor a clean slate.[14]

The two coastal Centers ended up parting ways, with Nichols going on to create a rival AIDS support organization.

Williamson's defenders said that, as the founder and president of the board, she was within her rights to want a staff aligned with her vision, and that it was "unfair to charge her with a mania for control simply because she didn't want her creation usurped by hostile rivals":[23]

Marianne is not a god. She’s a human being. She has, you know, insecurities and fears, and she gets angry when things aren’t done right.[22]

— Howard Rosenman, Board Member of Project Angel Food, 1992

Williamson stepped down from the Center in the summer of 1992. The New York Center was able to remain open following a donation from Cher.[52] Williamson gave the organization a $50,000 check and "graciously walked away."[22] She remained an advisor to the organization.

Project Angel Food

In 1989, Williamson launched Project Angel Food to support HIV/AIDS patients. The program was operated by The Centers for Living, but became so successful that its name recognition outgrew its parent company.[53] By 1992 it had raised over $1.5 million and was delivering nearly 400 hot meals a day to home-bound AIDS patients in Los Angeles.[15] Williamson deemed the demand for the organization's services to be a positive sign about HIV/AIDS:

It means that more and more people are living with AIDS, not dying of AIDS. It means we're getting closer and closer to making AIDS a chronic, manageable disease.[54]

Williamson resigned from Project Angel Food in March 1992 amid infighting, two months after the board fired executive director and gay activist Steve Schulte, with some speculating that Williamson – who had been open about her wanting him gone – was responsible for the firing.[14][53] Schulte, who had been the Center's third executive director in five years, was well-liked among the employees because he lobbied for salary increases, but clashed with Williamson over the operational approach to running the organization. His firing led a majority of the remaining employees to call for Williamson's resignation, his reinstatement, the replacement of the entire board, and unionization if Williamson remained.[53] Stephen Bennett, a consultant hired to assess the situation, determined that there were more paid staff on hand than needed, but with a union vote pending, Bennett refused to lay employees off. It was determined that the best option was for Williamson to resign.[53]

Williamson was torn about stepping down and "very opposed to the unionization of volunteer organizations."[53]

The organization made no announcement about Williamson's departure, and following her resignation, the employees decided not to unionize.[53] The organization initially struggled in her absence, as she had been its most effective fundraiser.[53] Within six months of her departure, the organization was restructured. Over 35 percent of the staff was laid off and counseling services were ceased to over 200 clients, which staff who had been loyal to her called "karmic payback for pushing Marianne out of the picture."[53][55]

Project Angel Food was able to remain operational after Williamson's departure. By 1998 it had over 1,500 volunteers and nearly 1,000 clients.[56] As of 2018, with expanded food, nutrition and counseling services, it delivered 12,000 meals weekly throughout Los Angeles and had 55 employees, over 3,000 volunteers, nearly 1,500 clients, and revenue of nearly $4 million.[57] In 30 years Project Angel Food has provided and delivered 12 million meals.[58][59] Williamson remains a trustee of the organization.[60]

AIDS work

Williamson has helped thousands of gay men who "were told that they weren't loved by their family and friends, employers, politicians, hospitals. [...] It was more about that feeling of hope that she gave to all these people, and they all died."[61] Calling herself a "midwife to the dying", she officiated at funerals, drove men to their doctors, and paid for patients' AIDS medication.[46][62] Some who worked with her said that Williamson was "at the center" of the tragedy, assisting patients without regard.[61]

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Williamson was accused of telling gay men not to take medication for AIDS, of implying that they were "not positive enough" to counter the disease, of telling them that they "deserved" the disease, and of telling them to "pray the AIDS away".[62] She has repeatedly denied these accusations.[62][63] Most of the accusations stem from excerpts or paraphrases of her 1992 book A Return to Love.[64][65]

Detractors accuse Williamson of being a grifter who "deluded dying men to concentrate on their spiritual well-being rather than on activism."[62] Supporters say she is being maligned for a book written nearly 30 years ago, when the understanding of HIV/AIDS was in its infancy, which provided "solace to gay men when they were afflicted with paranoia, loneliness, and grief." She is said to have emphasized the healing power of prayer, believing that God can respond to prayers through medicine and science, and would lead prayers for a medical solution to AIDS.[62]

Williamson has said that at that time, when the medical industry had no cure or treatment for the disease – contracting it "was a death sentence" – and there was a "weird silence" from organized religion, gay men came to her because she was "talking about a God who loves you no matter what and miracles."[19] She credits gay men in Los Angeles for her career,[19] saying that they were living through a traumatic experience, dealing with the stress of guilt, shame, dying, and, in many cases, telling unsupportive family, and that they began coming to her lectures because, "I was talking every week about how love worked miracles and how, as long as we loved each other, everything was going to be ok."[19]

Her view of healing – of prayer and medicine – has been called unscientific, but also regarded as no different than the viewpoint of other religions.[66]

The Peace Alliance

 

In 1998 Williamson co-founded the non-profit Global Renaissance Alliance (GSA) with Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch.[33] The organization established a network of "citizen salons" to pray for national growth, peace and liberal causes.

According to Williamson, the GSA sat in small groups, "Peace Circles", of fewer than 12 people every other week and prayed together to articulate a vision for what they want, rather than what others don't want.[67]

In 2004 the GSA's name was changed to The Peace Alliance and given a new mandate focused on grassroots education and advocacy organization with the intent of increasing U.S. government support for peace-building approaches to domestic and international conflicts. The Peace Alliance taught peace activists how to lobby their congressional representatives.[68] Williamson said of the need for this work:

You don't just wait until there is a violent eruption and then just try to throw people in jail or just wait until there is a violent eruption and then try to bomb an entire country, there's just a limit past which this is not workable. Rather, you proactively seek to cultivate the conditions of peace. [...] [S]o we can have a much more sophisticated analysis of what it will take to create a more peaceful world."[69]

The Peace Alliance seeks the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace. In 2005 Williamson traveled to Washington to help Congressman Dennis Kucinich's effort to establish the department.

The Alliance has raised over $100 million in funding for international peace-building. It has also helped get provisions of the Youth PROMISE Act, embedded in the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed into law.[70] The California Democratic Party adopted key Peace Alliance priorities into its platform.

"Sister Giant" conferences

In 2010 Williamson launched "Sister Giant", a series of conferences to "start a new conversation about transformational politics" and encourage more women to run for office:[25][71] Williamson saw herself as a "cheerleader," supporting women who had never been politically involved, on the campaign level, but who might be considering, 'Why not me?'"[72][73]

In 2012, Yale University's Women’s Campaign School – an independent, nonpartisan, issue-neutral political campaign training and leadership program hosted at Yale Law School – partnered with the series, which focused on how to better address many social issues, including child poverty, campaign finance reform, and high incarceration rates.[74]

No matter who wins the election in November, something even more fundamental needs to be addressed in this country than simply the differences between the two parties. We don't just need new political policies; we need a new politics. We need a new worldview. We need to become more sober stewards of the extraordinary narrative of American history. The most conscious minds are turned off to politics for a reason: it's mean, toxic, corrupt and so forth. But there's a conundrum there, if we're not careful; we can't just not engage. But we need to engage it in a new way, and Sister Giant is simply part of the emerging conversation.[71]

RESULTS

For several years until 2017, Williamson was a board member of Results Educational Fund (RESULTS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity dedicated to finding long-term solutions to poverty by focusing on its root causes, and its sister organization, Results Inc., a 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organization that encourages "grassroots advocates to lobby their elected officials" and works "directly with Congress and other U.S. policymakers to shape and advance" anti-poverty policies. The organization has 100 U.S. local chapters and works in six other countries.[75][76][72]

Williamson continues to serve on a Council of Advisors, providing informal advice to the organizations.[60]

Love America Tour

In the winter of 2018, Williamson began touring the United States as part of her Love America Tour, two-hour sessions discussing her belief that "a revolution in consciousness paves the way to both personal and national renewal." She used the slogan "Ignite the Change" to propel the tour along with the message:

Our own disconnection from the political process, lack of knowledge of how our system operates, lack of understanding of our history, and confusion about many of the issues that confront us now, have led in too many cases to a dangerous emotional disconnection between our country and ourselves.[77]

Williamson likened her message to that of Martin Luther King Jr. when he said, "Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives."[24]

Political career

2014 U.S. House of Representatives campaign

 
Williamson's 2014 congressional campaign logo
 
Williamson campaigning alongside Alanis Morissette

In 2014 Williamson ran as an Independent for California's 33rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was praised as a "tireless" campaigner but criticized for not articulating specifics in her plans. Her supporters deemed her lack of plans a strength and said she was not a "made-to-order candidate" who gave "lip service."[22]

Prominent elected and public officials endorsed her campaign, including Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream); former governors Jennifer Granholm and Jesse Ventura; former representatives Dennis Kucinich and Alan Grayson; and Van Jones.[60][78] Alanis Morissette wrote and performed Williamson's campaign song, "Today".[79]

Williamson campaigned on progressive issues such as campaign finance reform, women's reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality.[80][81][82] She raised $2.4 million, of which she personally contributed 25 percent.[60][83]

Williamson finished fourth out of 18 candidates, with 14,335 votes or 13.2 percent of the vote (Republican Elan Carr finished first in the primary with 21.6 percent of the vote, but then lost the general election to the top vote-getting Democrat from the primary, Ted Lieu).[84] Williamson said of the process and its outcome:

This conversation of a politics of conscience, a politics of the heart, is much bigger than any one woman winning a congressional seat. And if that woman loses, the conversation goes on. My losing the congressional seat is small; what's big is the larger conversation. [...] [Y]ou impact the ethers, and that energy goes somewhere.[85]

2020 presidential campaign

Further information: Marianne Williamson 2020 presidential campaign
 
Marianne 2020

On November 15, 2018, Williamson announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee in a video in which she said that there was a "miracle in this country in 1776 and we need another one [that would require] a co-creative effort, an effort of love and a gift of love, to our country and hopefully to our world."[86]

On January 19, 2019, while visiting New Hampshire, Williamson said that she had "received enough positive energy to make me feel I should take the next step," and subsequently hired Brent Roske to lead her operation in Iowa.[87][88]

Williamson, who has stated her disbelief in "traditional politics" and thinks that "they must be overridden," expressed her view that inspiration is underrepresented in political conversation and her thought that the foundations of American democracy were under threat, necessitating a "whole-person politics that speaks to emotions and psychology."[17]

On January 28, 2019, Williamson officially launched her presidential campaign, in front of 2,000 people in Los Angeles, and appointed Maurice Daniel – who served alongside Donna Brazile in Dick Gephardt's campaign for the Democratic nomination in 1988 – as her national campaign manager, with her campaign committee, "Marianne Williamson for President", officially filed on February 4.[89][90]

On February 16, Williamson's campaign announced the appointment of former Congressman Paul Hodes, who represented New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2011, as New Hampshire state director and senior campaign advisor.[91]

As of May 1, Williamson had a campaign staff of 20 and, a week later, announced that she had received enough contributions from unique donors to enter the official primary debates. Her campaign had raised $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2019, during which it received donations from 46,663 unique individuals.[83][92][93] Williamson subsequently met the polling criteria, with three unique polls at 1% from qualifying pollsters, on May 23.[94]

In June, Williamson confirmed that she moved to Des Moines, Iowa in advance of the 2020 caucuses.[95] And in response to the Iowa Democratic Party's proposed creation of "virtual caucuses" in the 2020 race, Williamson's campaign announced that it would appoint 99 "Virtual Iowa Caucus Captains" (each assigned to a single county) to turn out supporters in both the virtual and in-person caucuses.[96]

Later that month, Williamson participated in the first primary debate. She spoke for four minutes and 58 seconds, placing her 17th in speaking time of the 20 candidates.[97] The LA Times wrote that Democratic voters were "confused" and "transfixed" by Williamson, who declared that her first act as president would be to call New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and say, "Girlfriend, you are so on", a reference to Ardern's emphasis on building a country that treats its children well.[98][99][100]

On July 30, Williamson participated in the second primary debate. She spoke for eight minutes and 52 seconds. Despite placing 19th in speaking time,[101] she was the most Googled candidate in 49 of 50 states and received the fourth-most attention on Twitter.[102] The spike in searches was prompted by her reference to the Flint water crisis (which she described as a "part of the dark underbelly of American society") and her assertion that President Trump was harnessing a "dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred" which she later described as racism, bigotry, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia propelled by social media.[103]

Her campaign complained that her name was often excluded from surveys.[104] She also expressed frustration with the media establishment for not granting her the same level of respect Ben Carson or Herman Cain was afforded in previous elections, and for mocking and dismissing her candidacy:[105]

On the day of the third DNC debate, for which she did not qualify, Williamson did an interview with Eric Bolling and expressed further frustration with the media when she thought she was not being recorded. Among her unscripted comments was "what does it say that Fox News is nicer to me than the lefties are?"[106]

On October 18, 2019, Hillary Clinton suggested Russians were "grooming" Tulsi Gabbard to be a third-party candidate who would help Trump win reelection through the spoiler effect[107] (though Clinton claimed she was referring to Republicans, not Russians, she called Gabbard "the favorite of the Russians").[108] Williamson defended Gabbard, saying, "The Democratic establishment has got to stop smearing women it finds inconvenient! The character assassination of women who don’t toe the party line will backfire."[109]

On January 2, 2020, after missing several fundraising targets, Williamson announced that she would have to continue her run without campaign staff.[110] On January 10, Williamson announced the end of her campaign and pledged to support the Democratic nominee.[111]

Many pundits treated Williamson's brief campaign as comic relief, such as Peter Wehner of The New York Times calling her "an amusing presence,"[112] or Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post writing, "We are all dreams in the mind of Marianne Williamson. If she stops believing in us even for a second, we will all vanish."[113] However, some came to acknowledge that her message was ultimately persuasive and influential. After the July 30, 2019 Democratic debate, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote, "It feels insane to say this, but Williamson out-debated virtually everyone else on the stage. She gave a compelling answer on reparations and returned again and again to the most important issue for Democratic voters, beating Trump."[114] The following year, after Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination, Tom Scocca wrote an essay in Slate titled, "Marianne Williamson Won the Democratic Primary." Scocca compared Williamson's challenge to Trump ("I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field, and sir, love will win.") with Biden's acceptance speech ("For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark."), and concluded that "Marianne Williamson’s message is what the Democrats are carrying into November."[115]

Political positions

 
Williamson supporters, 2019

Williamson said she developed her liberal views from her father, Sam, whom she called "an armchair revolutionary" and a cross between "William Kunstler and Zorba the Greek."[16] When she was 13, she told her father that a teacher told her that the U.S. had to fight the Vietnam War in Vietnam to prevent it from coming to the U.S. In response, her father took her entire family to Vietnam "to make sure the military-industrial complex didn't eat her brain and convince her that war was O.K."[23] Williamson said she was also affected by a trip she took with her family to Soviet-controlled Hungary as a child, and witnessing her father surreptitiously slip their tour guide his business card and tell him: "You get out of here. I'll take care of you the rest of the way."[19][16]

Williamson said she was inspired by her father to "grow up and change the world...be the strong one and hold other people who are burdened with serious problems."[21]

She describes herself as a "pretty straight-line progressive Democrat" who has "social revolution" at the center of her being, and describes her policies as a "renovation" of a "sociopathic economic system" focused on "short-term profit maximization". She says her interest lies in the creation of an "enlightened society".[23]

Williamson is one of 12 Democratic presidential candidates who have submitted answers to the Council on Foreign Relations's "Election 2020 Questions."[116]

Domestic issues

Criminal justice

Williamson supports intervening early with at-risk youth through resources, education, and counseling. She also supports expanding restorative justice programs, introducing trauma education in the juvenile justice system, expanding life-skills programs in prisons, and advancing hunger prevention, which she says is the "root cause of violence."[117]

Disabled community

She supports the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act along with initiatives to guarantee voting rights and accessible polling to those with disabilities.[118] She pledged to appoint disabled citizens to her cabinet.[118] She also supported the Disability Integration Act requiring healthcare insurers to cover home healthcare. She pledged to try to get the Act passed in her first 100 days in office.[118]

Williamson supports transition programs that move institutionalized people with disabilities to supported independent living. She also supports reforming Social Security Insurance to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from entitlement programs if they earn more than $1,220 a month.[118] In addition, she supports including disability policy, including disabled human rights, in U.S. trade deals.

Williamson supports sex education in the disabled community, including sexual abuse reporting initiatives, and sensitivity training for police in regard to interacting with those with disabilities and mental illnesses.[118]

Education

Williamson supports free tuition at public colleges, community colleges and trade schools. She also supports a "radical" reduction in college loan debt and total forgiveness of college loan debt "in some cases."[119] She has expressed her support for treating student loans "like other debt", such that debtors could refinance at lower interest rates and those who declare bankruptcy could have their debt forgiven.[119]

Families

Williamson supports paid leave (family, medical, pregnancy, and vacation), pay equity, government support for childcare services, union rights, and a universal basic income.[119]

Williamson supports portable retirement plans, the development of initiatives to protect homeowners from predatory lending, an increase in access to home loan modifications, SNAP coverage for low-income families, and initiatives to understand and decrease homelessness among veterans.[119][120]

Williamson also supports the creation of a Department of Children and Youth – a new cabinet-level agency to create programs to reduce infant mortality, illness, food insecurity, homelessness, and undereducation.[121]

Finance

Williamson supports corporations having a responsibility to stakeholders, not just to stockholders.[122]

Williamson supports making middle-class tax cuts permanent and repealing the corporate tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Bill.[119] She also supports the restoration and "modernization" of the Glass-Steagall Act, with the intent of separating commercial banks from investment banks in order to prevent banks from making risky investments.[119] Williamson supports preventing corporations from engaging in tax avoidance, including tax avoidance for carried interest and ETF income. She also supports enforcement of antitrust laws and the implementation of a federal fee for financial transactions such as buying stocks or exchanging currency.[119] Williamson also supports independent regulation of the pharmaceutical industry to prevent what she has called "predatory practices":[123]

Guns

Williamson supports gun control, and has described the issue as one personal to her. On November 4, 2018, she gave a passionate keynote address to several hundred Muslim and Jewish women at the Sisterhood of Salaam-Shalom conference in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, eight days after 11 Jews were murdered at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue:

I am speaking to you as a Jewish woman. Where fear has been turned into a political force in America, we must turn love into a political force. With the history of Muslims and the history of Jews and of blacks and of immigrants it is time, it is time for something fierce to rise up out of us. To say, 'You did it to my grandparents and you are not going to do it to my kids!'[17]

Williamson supports eliminating the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons, banning bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating the current limits on the Centers for Disease Control's ability to track and record gun ownership numbers.[124] She also supports mandatory universal background checks and waiting periods for all gun dealers – including at gun shows and sporting retailers – child safety locks on all guns, and restrictions on the ability of the mentally ill to buy guns.[124]

Williamson also supports Red Flag Laws and making the process of obtaining gun licenses similar to that of obtaining driver's licenses.[124]

Health care

Williamson supports universal health care under a "Medicare for All type of plan."[50] She has also stated that she supports extending health coverage – including coverage for home care – to currently uninsured Americans.[125]

Williamson has expressed that she would like to develop a "health care" system opposed to what she says is a "disease management" system that the U.S. currently has. Inclusive of that, Williamson has expressed support for reimbursement of medical professionals for wellness and preventive care, longer doctor visits, nutrition and lifestyle education and limiting the marketing of hyper-processed and sugary foods.[125] She has also expressed support for ending subsidies to the agricultural production of "unhealthy" food in favor of "healthy" food production.

Williamson supports expanding the role of the EPA and FDA to regulate toxin inclusion in the environment and food supplies, to make recommendations of how to lower societal stress, and to help develop healthy habits in local communities.[125] She also supports limiting the profit motive in medicine as much as possible, being inclusive of seeking non-pharmacological ways to treat mental-health issues (where possible), and treating mental-health as important as physical health in order to normalize treatment.

Williamson expressed that she also supports treating drug addiction as a mental-health issue and de-criminalizing drugs.[125]

Immigration

Williamson supports a full path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with no "serious" criminal background. She also supports reducing the cost of naturalization and increasing resources to help immigrants navigate the process with more ease.[126]

Whereas Williamson does not support open borders, she supports a more humane approach to border policy.[127] In June 2019, Williamson ripped then-President Donald Trump on his immigration policies after reports of children being separated from their families and being put in a detainment center, calling them "state-sponsored crimes".[128] After Trump's announcement that ICE would begin mass-deportations, she said it is "no different" than what Jewish people faced in Nazi Germany.[129]

Williamson supports investing in "smart" border security, which she states, calls for better monitoring of airplanes, ships, trucks crossing the border, and submarines. She also supports overturning the three-year and ten-year re-entry bars.[126]

Williamson also supports Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and expanding protections and naturalization to undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children, regardless of their current age.[130]

LGBTQ community

Williamson supports The Equality Act. She also supports equality in health care, housing, employment, and services. She has also expressed support in protecting the LGBTQ community from marginalization due to Census questionnaire.[131]

Minimum wage

Williamson supports an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.[132] She also supports increasing the minimum wage for localities based on an amount determined to be a living wage for a given geographical area, and then adjusting that wage for inflation as needed.[119]

National security

Williamson supports "redesigning" the partnership between the Defense Department and the State Department that would elevate the need for peace, putting it on equal footing with the need for military preparedness.[133] Williamson supports the creation of a United States Department of Peace to aid in her proposed redesign, which also includes a plan to establish a Peace Academy modeled after military academies.[134]

In her 2014 Congressional campaign, Williamson supported dismantling the National Security Agency (NSA).[135]

Williamson supports decreasing the military budget and redirecting those funds toward peacebuilding and peace maintenance efforts e.g. mediation, diplomacy, humanitarian aid, post-conflict transitional justice, and "on-the-ground programs."[133] She also supports maintaining a budget that would not impede military preparedness, while investing in a "sustainable society" inclusive of the development of clean energy and green manufacturing, retrofitting buildings and bridges, economically empowering women, and educating children.[133]

Williamson supports military engagement when a NATO ally is threatened, when the United States is under threat of attack, or "when the humanitarian order of the world is at risk."[103]

National service

Williamson supports the creation of a program through which every citizen, between 18 and 26, can perform one year of voluntary national service – helping schools, hospitals, infrastructure, sustainability, regenerative agricultural projects, the military, the Peace Corps – that can be remunerated for housing, "basic costs", or financial support for higher education.[136]

Native American reconciliation

Williamson supports returning dominant control of the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation, halting construction of the Keystone Pipeline, recognizing tribal sovereignty over their territory. She also supports increasing funding to Native lands’ justice systems, protecting tribal sovereignty and governance, and protecting Native religious freedom.[137]

Williamson has expressed support for "rethinking treaties" and continuing annual tribal nations' summits in Washington D.C.[137]

Black American reparations

Williamson supports the distribution of $200-$500 billion in reparations for slavery, spread across 20 years for "economic and education projects," to be disbursed based on the recommendation of a selected group of black leaders.[138][139][140] In taking this position, Williamson became the only candidate to ever submit a detailed plan for reparations for black Americans.[141][142][143]

Williamson, who first expressed her support of reparations in her 1993 book, Illuminata – advocating that the U.S. will not reconcile its racial and economic divide without them has said of the policy proposal – states that her policy on reparations is not part of "a black agenda,"[144]

Abortion rights

Williamson supports abortion access, services and choice.[145] She has spoken out against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.[146]

International and foreign issues

Climate change

Williamson deems climate change to be "the greatest moral challenge of our generation." She claimed support for the Green New Deal, immediate re-entry into the Paris Climate Accords, and has stated that she would be willing to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership if it included greater protections for workers and the environment.[116][147][148]

Williamson also support the U.S. directing subsidies from fossil fuels, including coal, and re-investing them in the development of renewable energy, both in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in developing countries.[116]

Diplomacy

Williamson has called for the establishment of a Department of Peace to expand global diplomacy, mediation, and educational and economic development.[149] She supported the creation of such a department in 2005, backing efforts by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, to try to establish it.[116]

Afghanistan

Williamson supported safe withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible and would consider the use of a peace-keeping force, such as the United Nations, to assist with the transition.[116]

Africa

Williamson, recognizing Africa as the continent with the fastest-growing population, supports engagement with the continent in order to thwart the growth of terrorist groups and health epidemics, which she believes threaten U.S. security, while capitalizing on opportunities in areas where corruption is being reversed, free elections are being held, and economies are growing.[116]

China

Williamson has said she supports the U.S. vigorously using its position, i.e., through CFIUS, to prevent China from buying strategically important companies, which she believes will help defend U.S. economic interests and human rights, as in the cases of the Uighurs and residents of Hong Kong.[116]

Iran

Williamson supports rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). She said that "US propaganda ... falsely claims the deal lets Iran get nuclear weapons within 10 years." Williamson also backs increased diplomacy, a change of relations to address human rights in Iran, sanctions relief and the purchasing of Air Bus airplanes to support travel, entrepreneurship and normalization. According to Williamson, "Iran is a potential ally against Sunni extremism with many common interests to build upon".[116] Williamson criticized the Trump administration for elevating tensions with Iran.[150]

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Williamson supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict which secures both the legitimate security of Israel and the human rights, dignity and economic opportunities of the Palestinian people.[116][50] She expressed support for using the power of the Presidency to exert pressure on Israel to restart talks on this solution.

I don't think the ultimate answer will be about settlements or checkpoints. The work of the genuine peace-builders must be on the level of the heart. Until the U.S. returns to where it can be considered an honest broker by the Palestinians, as well as Israelis, it won't be able to play a constructive role.[17]

Williamson supports rescinding President Trump's recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel.[116] She has also stated her belief that settlements on the West Bank are illegal and does not support the Blockade of the Gaza Strip. However, Williamson does support the occupation of the Golan Heights "only until there is a stable government in Syria with whom one can negotiate".[116]

Venezuela

Williamson supports creating conditions for effective dialogue between factions representing both Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó that seek a peaceful transition.[116] She has also expressed support for existing efforts to promote dialogue, in particular those being led by the Norwegian government. Williamson said she believes the best policy in Venezuela is to support efforts that allow its citizens to decide their political future, even if the U.S. does not agree with the outcome.

Religion

 
New Hampshire, 2019

Williamson is indifferent about religion, having called it a map in which "the route isn't important. It's the destination that matters."[34]

Williamson has expressed a deep belief in forgiveness based on the notion that nothing is real, or exists, but love: "If a person behaves unlovingly, then that means that, regardless if their negativity – anger or whatever – their behavior was derived from fear and doesn’t actually exist. They’re hallucinating. You forgive them, then, because there’s nothing to forgive."[151]

Williamson believes a peaceful life is attainable by thinking with God, while thinking without God creates pain. She has said, "Asking God for help doesn’t seem very comforting if we think of Him as something outside of ourselves, or capricious, or judgmental. But God is love and He dwells within us. We were created in His image, or mind, which means that we are extensions of His love, or Sons of God."[151]

Williamson's beliefs on forgiveness and God influence her belief that sin is impossible: "A sin would mean we did something so bad that God is angry with us. But since we cannot do anything that changes our essential nature, God has nothing to be angry at. Only love is real. Nothing else exists. The Son of God cannot sin."[151]

Health and vaccinations

A "both-and" approach (both prayer and medicine) to physical and mental health has been attributed to Williamson.[62][152][153][154][155] This approach – the efficacy of prayer – accepts medical science as part of God's power to heal. For example, surgery may be seen as God answering prayers to heal. This logic invokes what Johns Hopkins Medicine has called the "strong link between 'positivity' and health", in which "positive attitude improves outcomes and life satisfaction across a spectrum of conditions."[156][157][158][159][160]

Williamson, who believes that "the spirit is impervious to illness," confirmed this belief when she said that "people who are prayed for get out of the emergency room faster" and "people who have been diagnosed with a life-challenging illness, who attend spiritual support groups, live, on average, twice as long after diagnosis."[14][161][162] She maintains that prayer is complementary to medicine, not a substitute for it.[163]

Williamson has stated her support for the necessity and value of vaccinations and antidepressants,[164][63] but has been criticized for her skepticism about the pharmaceutical industry's influence in setting guidelines for how they are administered, citing her belief that their profit motive could result in harm to patients.[165][166][167] She has also been scrutinized for criticizing overprescription of antidepressants,[123][168] questioning whether antidepressants play a role in suicide, saying that the prescriptive definition between sadness and clinical depression is "artificial," and having called the process by which clinical depression is diagnosed "a scam."[169][63]

During Williamson's presidential campaign, several excerpts of her past comments have conflated her skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry's trustworthiness with an embrace of anti-vaccination dogma. As a result, she has been accused of being "anti-medicine" and "anti-science." She denies such accusations, saying they "could not be further from the truth."[170] But critics point to Williamson's January 2012 interview on her radio show, "Living Miraculously," with Gwen Olsen, a 15-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry who implied that she personally believed antidepressants could be dangerous and linked to autism.[171] Critics also cite a podcast interview with Russell Brand in which Williamson, while speaking about vaccine exemptions, "glibly" described the process by which vaccines are mandated as "Orwellian" and likened the debate about vaccination mandates to the abortion debate. She later apologized, saying she "misspoke," and that the comments erroneously made her "sound as though I question the validity of life-saving vaccines."[172][173][174]

Williamson has expressed frustration that her skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry has been equated with skepticism of the science of vaccines.[123][62][103][164][63][175] She has said, "Skeptical about vaccinations I have not expressed. Skeptical about Big Pharma in general I have expressed. And there is a big difference."[103] She has also expressed frustration that this distinction is lost in public discourse:=

Public image

 
Williamson in February 2019

In October 1991, Williamson officiated at the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky. She said that derisive publicity of the wedding harmed her credibility, as she was labeled "Guru to the Glitterati."[34][45]

Williamson is often called terms like "New Age guru."[176] The label has been associated with her for years, but she has long rejected such terms, calling them "outrageous".[32][82][16] Religious organizations have also said that she is not "New Age" but teaches an "evolved Christianity – blending elements of Eastern mysticism into Christian language – using terms 'tied to old New Age'".[177] She has said she finds it "creepy" to be called a "spiritual leader", believes it insults her audience's intelligence, and prefers to be called an author.[82][176][178]

Williamson has often commented on how she is portrayed in the media, and believes that her image as a "seeker" has brought ridicule in the press.[22] During her 2014 Congressional run, Williamson said, "I’m sure they’re going to say I’m a New Age nutcase, dragon lady, lightweight thinker."[176] She has said of her image, "There has been a tendency to create a caricature, and it’s very difficult to battle a caricature."[22] According to The New York Times Magazine, the depiction of her by "many in the press" has been "snide".[176]

During her presidential campaign, press outlets have called her "wacko," a "quack," "scary," "a joke," "kooky," "hokey," "dangerous," "bananas," "bonkers," "Secretary of Crystals," and "wackadoodle."[179][180][181][182][183] She made headlines when she criticized Vogue Magazine for its "insidious influence" when it did not include her in an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot of the 2020 female presidential candidates.[184][185] The magazine responded that it only wanted "to highlight the five female lawmakers who bring a collective 40 years of political experience to this race."[186] Williamson subsequently posted a fan-made picture of the Vogue photo with herself edited in.[187][188][186][189][190] "I am a serious woman, and I have had a serious career. Why won't people take me seriously?," she has said.[177]

Personal life and family

Williamson's older brother, Peter, became an immigration lawyer, the same profession as the siblings’ father. Her late sister, Elizabeth "Jane", was a teacher.[15][191] Her father, and maternal grandparents, were Russian Jewish immigrants.[19] Her grandfather changed his surname from Vishnevetsky to Williamson after seeing "Alan Williamson Ltd" on a train.[23]

Williamson described herself as a "Jewish woman" in a 2022 interview.[16]

She was briefly married in 1979 to a Houston businessman. She said the marriage lasted "for a minute and a half."[14]

She took in, and cared for, a friend who had terminal cancer.[14]

In 1990, she gave birth to a daughter, India Emmaline.[15][192] India pursued a doctorate in history at Goldsmiths College in London.[17][25]

In 2006, a Newsweek poll named her one of the 50 most influential baby boomers.[193]

Two years later, during the financial crisis, Williamson lost two of her homes in the Detroit metro area, valued at nearly $3 million, to foreclosure.[22]

In 2013, Williamson reported having assets estimated to be valued between $1 million and $5 million (not including personal residences).[60]

Works

  • A Return to Love, First Edition 1992 (ISBN 978-0060927486)
  • Imagine What America Could Be in the 21st Century: Visions of a Better Future from Leading American Thinkers (ISBN 0451204697)
  • Emma & Mommy Talk to God (ISBN 978-0060799267)
  • Healing the Soul of America: Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens (ISBN 978-0684846224)
  • A Woman's Worth (ISBN 978-0345386571)
  • Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships (ISBN 978-0684870250)
  • Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, And Making Miracles (ISBN 978-1573223515)
  • Illuminata: A Return to Prayer (ISBN 978-1573225205)
  • The Gift of Change (ISBN 0060816112)
  • The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money and Miracles (ISBN 0062205412)
  • A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever (ISBN 1401921531)
  • Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment (ISBN 978-0062205445)
  • A Politics of Love: A Handbook for a New American Revolution (ISBN 0062873938)

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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marianne Williamson.
 
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  • Official website  
  • Marianne Williamson for President website
  • at Oprah.com
  • Marianne Williamson on Politicking with Larry King
  • The Peace Alliance
  • Project Angel Food
  • Appearances on C-SPAN

January 20, 2023
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message Learn how and when to remove this template message Marianne Deborah Williamson born July 8 1952 is an American author spiritual leader and political activist She has written 14 books including four New York Times number one bestsellers in the Advice How To and Miscellaneous category 1 2 3 4 5 6 The founder of Project Angel Food a volunteer food delivery program that serves home bound people with HIV AIDS and life threatening illnesses 7 She is also the co founder of the Peace Alliance a nonprofit education and advocacy organization supporting peacebuilding projects 8 She has frequently appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show 9 Marianne WilliamsonWilliamson in August 2019BornMarianne Deborah Williamson 1952 07 08 July 8 1952 age 70 Houston Texas U S EducationPomona College no degree OccupationsAuthor pastor spiritual leader teacher politician activistPolitical partyDemocratic 2019 present Other politicalaffiliationsIndependent 2014 SpouseUnnamed div 1979 Children1SignatureIn 2014 Williamson unsuccessfully ran as an independent representing California s 33rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives On January 9 2019 she announced her campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election 10 and suspended her campaign on January 10 2020 11 She later endorsed Bernie Sanders at a rally in Austin Texas on February 23 2020 12 She was hired as a columnist for Newsweek shortly after the conclusion of the campaign She has formed an exploratory campaign for running in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries 13 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 A Course in Miracles 3 Teaching 4 Pastor 5 Author 6 Social justice 6 1 Centers for Living 6 2 Project Angel Food 6 2 1 AIDS work 6 3 The Peace Alliance 6 4 Sister Giant conferences 6 5 RESULTS 6 6 Love America Tour 7 Political career 7 1 2014 U S House of Representatives campaign 7 2 2020 presidential campaign 7 3 Domestic issues 7 3 1 Criminal justice 7 3 2 Disabled community 7 3 3 Education 7 3 4 Families 7 3 5 Finance 7 3 6 Guns 7 3 7 Health care 7 3 8 Immigration 7 3 9 LGBTQ community 7 3 10 Minimum wage 7 3 11 National security 7 3 12 National service 7 3 13 Native American reconciliation 7 3 14 Black American reparations 7 3 15 Abortion rights 7 4 International and foreign issues 7 4 1 Climate change 7 4 2 Diplomacy 7 4 3 Afghanistan 7 4 4 Africa 7 4 5 China 7 4 6 Iran 7 4 7 Israeli Palestinian conflict 7 4 8 Venezuela 7 5 Religion 7 6 Health and vaccinations 8 Public image 9 Personal life and family 10 Works 11 References 12 External linksEarly life and education EditWilliamson was born in Houston Texas in 1952 She was the youngest of three children of Samuel Sam Williamson a World War II veteran and immigration lawyer and Sophie Ann Kaplan a homemaker and community volunteer 14 15 Williamson was raised upper middle class in conservative Judaism 14 16 Her family attended Congregation Beth Yeshurun 17 She learned about world religions and social justice at home but first became interested in speaking from the pulpit on social matters when she saw her rabbi speak against the Vietnam War 17 Her family also traveled internationally during the summers when she was a child 18 She has said that it was through travel that she had an experience at a young age that people are the same everywhere 19 Williamson attended Houston ISD s Bellaire High School 20 After graduating she spent two years studying theater and philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont California where she was a roommate of eventual film producer Lynda Obst 15 In 1973 Williamson an active antiwar protester dropped out of college and lived a nomadic existence during what she calls her wasted decade 15 17 21 She moved to New Mexico where she took classes at the University of New Mexico and lived in a geodesic dome with her boyfriend 21 19 The couple broke up a year later Marianne then moved to Austin Texas where she took classes at the University of Texas 19 After leaving Texas she went to New York City intending to pursue a career as a cabaret singer but got distracted by bad boys and good dope 15 22 Vanity Fair wrote that Williamson spent her twenties in a growing state of existential despair 23 In New York Williamson suffered from deep depression following the end of a relationship 14 She has said that this experience gave rise to a desire to spend the rest of her life helping people 23 A Course in Miracles Edit A Course in Miracles In 1976 Williamson who was experiencing confusion about God and wondering why He allows so much pain in the world was at a party in New York and picked up a copy of Helen Schucman s book A Course in Miracles from a coffee table 24 25 She dismissed the book because being Jewish she was put off by its Christian terminology 17 Williamson then moved to San Francisco While there she developed an interest in spirituality metaphysics and meditation She began reading the Course passionately and doing its 365 daily exercises 22 She also reconciled it with her Jewishness in her view A conversion to Christ is not a conversion to Christianity It is a conversion to a conviction of the heart The Messiah is not a person but a point of view 23 Williamson said that the book was her path out of hell as she had been mired in a series of unhappy love affairs alcohol and drug abuse a nervous breakdown and endless sessions with therapists 26 27 28 24 She was captivated by the book s message on forgiveness specifically the notion that one cannot find peace in life without forgiving others Williamson said that made her realize how many of my problems stemmed from my fear of other people 14 The Course has often been described as a religion or pseudoreligion 29 30 Williamson disagrees A Course in Miracles is a self study program in spiritual psychotherapy It is a book that is based on universal spiritual themes It is not a religion It does not claim any kind of monopoly on truth It has no dogma It has no doctrine It talks about love and forgiveness and I think that many of the people who are students of A Course in Miracles come from all religions and even no religion The book says nothing about Jesus The book does not get us to try to believe in God The book tries to get us to believe in each other 31 Teaching Edit Williamson 2019 In 1979 Williamson returned to Houston where she ran a metaphysical bookstore coffeeshop sang Gershwin standards in a nightclub got married and divorced almost immediately and underwent a spiritual surrender 15 22 32 21 In 1983 Williamson had what she has called a flash to close the coffeeshop and move to Los Angeles 22 She said she felt the city would be welcoming to her because of its willingness to start new conversations 22 She made the move with 1 000 in her pocket 23 She got an apartment in Hollywood Her roommate was 17 year old Laura Dern who noted that Williamson held prayer groups in our living room 25 Williamson got a job at the Philosophical Research Society As part of their lecture series she started speaking about A Course in Miracles as a self study program of spiritual psychotherapy 17 Her lectures were grounded in her belief that by consulting the Course every problem can be solved and that miracles are possible through a change in perspective 14 According to Williamson All that a miracle is is a shift in perception from fear to love It s simply the notion that when your world view changes your behavior changes 32 Williamson s teachings stemmed from an inspirational message Divine love is the core and essence of every human mind 33 She saw this message as a remedy to misinterpretations of the Bible that through an emphasis on sin and guilt could lead to harm e g slavery depression self loathing 33 23 Initially only a few people attended her lectures But as word spread about the young woman talking about a God who loves you no matter what she had to rent church space to accommodate the demand to see her 23 22 Four years later she began lecturing monthly in New York Eventually she was invited to speak throughout the U S and Europe Williamson did not charge for her lectures but had a suggested donation of 7 15 as of 2014 and a policy of not turning people away for lack of money 22 Williamson s style was called a trendy amalgam of Christianity Buddhism pop psychology and 12 step recovery wisdom 15 22 The attraction of her teaching was said to have been its focus on the power of the individual to conquer all without the help of stodgy institutions that are out of touch with modern generations 34 People were said to have been drawn to her relatability given her struggles in her own life and to her oratory 34 Williamson filled a void left by the isolationism of established Christianity and Judaism maintained an open door policy with her teaching but did not engage in actively evangelizing the Course saying that she believed doing so would devalue the spirit of the teaching 15 Pastor EditAt the height of her popularity in 1998 Williamson sold her 2 7 million home She decided to stop teaching and join the ministry She said I had a lot going on in my life I just felt I had to leave I had a baby 22 failed verification Williamson said that becoming a pastor was a way to get dirt in her fingers again to experience the day to day lives of hundreds of people and would be helpful in her work as a spiritual guide 35 Williamson became the spiritual leader for the Church of Today a Unity Church in Warren Michigan where she had 2 300 congregants and 50 000 television viewers 24 She booked high profile musical guests such as Aerosmith s Steven Tyler expanded the bookstore more than tripled declining church membership increased the congregation s racial and sexual orientation diversity brought the church out of mounting debt and grew the church into one of the country s biggest Unity churches 33 22 36 37 38 She resigned from the Church Renaissance Unity Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship in 2003 Author Edit source source Oprah s SuperSoul Conversations Podcast Marianne Williamson A Return to Love Williamson has written 13 books Seven have been on the New York Times bestseller list with four reaching number one 39 3 4 5 6 More than three million copies have been sold 40 A Politics of Love A Handbook for a New American Revolution 2019 Tears to Triumph The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment 2016 The Law of Divine Compensation On Work Money and Miracles 2012 A Year of Miracles Daily Devotions and Reflections 2011 A Course in Weight Loss 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever 2010 The Age of Miracles Embracing the New Midlife 2007 On USA Today s best seller list for four weeks it is about how to approach midlife by not dwelling on lost youth but starting new opportunities 41 The Gift of Change Further Reflections on a Course in Miracles 2004 Everyday Grace Having Hope Finding Forgiveness and Making Miracles 2002 Enchanted Love The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships 1999 About building a spiritual relationship between partners the book advocates a new model of romance with love righteousness compassion Healing the Soul of America Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens 1997 The book was originally titled The Healing of America It is about developing more robust political engagement by laying out plans to transform the American political consciousness and encourage powerful citizen involvement to heal our society by turning spiritual activism into sociopolitical activism 41 42 A Woman s Worth 1993 A New York Times bestseller that according to Publishers Weekly gave sound empowering advice on relationships work love sex and childrearing 43 44 The Vancouver Sun used a passage from the book in summarizing it The world as it is has very little use for womanhood You are considered a weaker sex and considered a sex object You are thoroughly dispensable except for bearing children Your youth is the measure of your worth and your age is the measure of your worthlessness Do not look to the world for your sustenance or for your identity as a woman because you will not find them there The world despises you God adores you 45 Illuminata 1993 On USA Today s best seller list for 20 weeks 41 the book is about how prayer is practical in everyday life by looking to God to transcend life s pains A Return to Love Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles 1992 On The New York Times bestseller list for 39 weeks in the Advice How To and Miscellaneous category 46 the book teaches that practicing love every day will bring more peace and fulfillment to one s life Williamson wrote her most famous quote in this book which is often misattributed to Nelson Mandela 47 48 Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant gorgeous talented fabulous Actually who are you not to be You are a child of God Your playing small doesn t serve the world There s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won t feel insecure around you We are all meant to shine as children do We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us It s not just in some of us it s in everyone And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same As we re liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others Oprah Winfrey said of the book I have never been more moved by a book than I am by this one 41 Winfrey bought 1 000 copies and encouraged her audience to purchase it telling them that after reading it she experienced 157 miracles 49 Williamson was a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show as well and became known as Oprah s spiritual advisor 50 Social justice Edit Williamson 2014 Williamson has said that she often wonders why so many people in the richest country in the world have to constantly transcend material conditions that are so unnecessary 51 In the 1980s Williamson began founding charities based on the principles in the Course 25 Centers for Living Edit In 1987 during lunch with a close friend struggling with breast cancer Williamson s friend expressed a need for help She said that for years she had been looking for someone to help her heal and now she needed someone to help her die 23 This request inspired Williamson to create the Center for Living After David Geffen contributed 50 000 Williamson co founded the organization with Louise Hay a minister of the New Thought Church of Religious Science who claimed to have healed herself of cancer as a refuge from and to offer non medical support for people with life challenging illnesses 15 23 Williamson took no salary from the organization The Center for Living began helping many patients afflicted with HIV AIDS particularly gay men whom it welcomed and accepted when other places shunned them 22 The Center provided services such as house cleaning meditation massage and community psychological emotional support throughout Los Angeles 15 In 1989 with another 50 000 from Geffen Williamson opened another Center for Living in New York 23 but it was hampered by conflict between staff and the board over Williamson s management style which an unnamed former associate described as very controlling 14 There was also a rift because while the Los Angeles Center welcomed Williamson s use of prayer in her teachings and the use of the word God the more secular New York Center rebuked it 23 Someone said you would hear checkbooks slamming shut all over Sotheby s site of a fund raising auction if Marianne got up and led everyone in prayer 14 Jean Halberstam Journalist Williamson grew frustrated with being asked to not pray 52 God is definitely out of the closet I refuse to pretend we don t pray here One of the reasons the political right wing in this country has had such an upsurge in popularity is because they have at least acknowledged the idea of God and the so called liberals have lost by default The left wing is too cool to even mention God so Middle America thinks Well I guess God s in the Republican Party 23 A few months later after two of her board members told Vanity Fair that she wanted to be famous Williamson deemed that she was being treated as expendable and purged the board of several members including film director Mike Nichols and the head of the New York Center 14 Some people believed Williamson was losing trust in several board members and preemptively fired them before they fired her She disputed that claiming that she intended to step down as president and wanted to give her successor a clean slate 14 The two coastal Centers ended up parting ways with Nichols going on to create a rival AIDS support organization Williamson s defenders said that as the founder and president of the board she was within her rights to want a staff aligned with her vision and that it was unfair to charge her with a mania for control simply because she didn t want her creation usurped by hostile rivals 23 Marianne is not a god She s a human being She has you know insecurities and fears and she gets angry when things aren t done right 22 Howard Rosenman Board Member of Project Angel Food 1992 Williamson stepped down from the Center in the summer of 1992 The New York Center was able to remain open following a donation from Cher 52 Williamson gave the organization a 50 000 check and graciously walked away 22 She remained an advisor to the organization Project Angel Food Edit In 1989 Williamson launched Project Angel Food to support HIV AIDS patients The program was operated by The Centers for Living but became so successful that its name recognition outgrew its parent company 53 By 1992 it had raised over 1 5 million and was delivering nearly 400 hot meals a day to home bound AIDS patients in Los Angeles 15 Williamson deemed the demand for the organization s services to be a positive sign about HIV AIDS It means that more and more people are living with AIDS not dying of AIDS It means we re getting closer and closer to making AIDS a chronic manageable disease 54 Williamson resigned from Project Angel Food in March 1992 amid infighting two months after the board fired executive director and gay activist Steve Schulte with some speculating that Williamson who had been open about her wanting him gone was responsible for the firing 14 53 Schulte who had been the Center s third executive director in five years was well liked among the employees because he lobbied for salary increases but clashed with Williamson over the operational approach to running the organization His firing led a majority of the remaining employees to call for Williamson s resignation his reinstatement the replacement of the entire board and unionization if Williamson remained 53 Stephen Bennett a consultant hired to assess the situation determined that there were more paid staff on hand than needed but with a union vote pending Bennett refused to lay employees off It was determined that the best option was for Williamson to resign 53 Williamson was torn about stepping down and very opposed to the unionization of volunteer organizations 53 The organization made no announcement about Williamson s departure and following her resignation the employees decided not to unionize 53 The organization initially struggled in her absence as she had been its most effective fundraiser 53 Within six months of her departure the organization was restructured Over 35 percent of the staff was laid off and counseling services were ceased to over 200 clients which staff who had been loyal to her called karmic payback for pushing Marianne out of the picture 53 55 Project Angel Food was able to remain operational after Williamson s departure By 1998 it had over 1 500 volunteers and nearly 1 000 clients 56 As of 2018 with expanded food nutrition and counseling services it delivered 12 000 meals weekly throughout Los Angeles and had 55 employees over 3 000 volunteers nearly 1 500 clients and revenue of nearly 4 million 57 In 30 years Project Angel Food has provided and delivered 12 million meals 58 59 Williamson remains a trustee of the organization 60 AIDS work Edit Williamson has helped thousands of gay men who were told that they weren t loved by their family and friends employers politicians hospitals It was more about that feeling of hope that she gave to all these people and they all died 61 Calling herself a midwife to the dying she officiated at funerals drove men to their doctors and paid for patients AIDS medication 46 62 Some who worked with her said that Williamson was at the center of the tragedy assisting patients without regard 61 During her 2020 presidential campaign Williamson was accused of telling gay men not to take medication for AIDS of implying that they were not positive enough to counter the disease of telling them that they deserved the disease and of telling them to pray the AIDS away 62 She has repeatedly denied these accusations 62 63 Most of the accusations stem from excerpts or paraphrases of her 1992 book A Return to Love 64 65 Detractors accuse Williamson of being a grifter who deluded dying men to concentrate on their spiritual well being rather than on activism 62 Supporters say she is being maligned for a book written nearly 30 years ago when the understanding of HIV AIDS was in its infancy which provided solace to gay men when they were afflicted with paranoia loneliness and grief She is said to have emphasized the healing power of prayer believing that God can respond to prayers through medicine and science and would lead prayers for a medical solution to AIDS 62 Williamson has said that at that time when the medical industry had no cure or treatment for the disease contracting it was a death sentence and there was a weird silence from organized religion gay men came to her because she was talking about a God who loves you no matter what and miracles 19 She credits gay men in Los Angeles for her career 19 saying that they were living through a traumatic experience dealing with the stress of guilt shame dying and in many cases telling unsupportive family and that they began coming to her lectures because I was talking every week about how love worked miracles and how as long as we loved each other everything was going to be ok 19 Her view of healing of prayer and medicine has been called unscientific but also regarded as no different than the viewpoint of other religions 66 The Peace Alliance Edit In 1998 Williamson co founded the non profit Global Renaissance Alliance GSA with Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch 33 The organization established a network of citizen salons to pray for national growth peace and liberal causes According to Williamson the GSA sat in small groups Peace Circles of fewer than 12 people every other week and prayed together to articulate a vision for what they want rather than what others don t want 67 In 2004 the GSA s name was changed to The Peace Alliance and given a new mandate focused on grassroots education and advocacy organization with the intent of increasing U S government support for peace building approaches to domestic and international conflicts The Peace Alliance taught peace activists how to lobby their congressional representatives 68 Williamson said of the need for this work You don t just wait until there is a violent eruption and then just try to throw people in jail or just wait until there is a violent eruption and then try to bomb an entire country there s just a limit past which this is not workable Rather you proactively seek to cultivate the conditions of peace S o we can have a much more sophisticated analysis of what it will take to create a more peaceful world 69 The Peace Alliance seeks the establishment of a U S Department of Peace In 2005 Williamson traveled to Washington to help Congressman Dennis Kucinich s effort to establish the department The Alliance has raised over 100 million in funding for international peace building It has also helped get provisions of the Youth PROMISE Act embedded in the Every Student Succeeds Act passed into law 70 The California Democratic Party adopted key Peace Alliance priorities into its platform Sister Giant conferences Edit In 2010 Williamson launched Sister Giant a series of conferences to start a new conversation about transformational politics and encourage more women to run for office 25 71 Williamson saw herself as a cheerleader supporting women who had never been politically involved on the campaign level but who might be considering Why not me 72 73 In 2012 Yale University s Women s Campaign School an independent nonpartisan issue neutral political campaign training and leadership program hosted at Yale Law School partnered with the series which focused on how to better address many social issues including child poverty campaign finance reform and high incarceration rates 74 No matter who wins the election in November something even more fundamental needs to be addressed in this country than simply the differences between the two parties We don t just need new political policies we need a new politics We need a new worldview We need to become more sober stewards of the extraordinary narrative of American history The most conscious minds are turned off to politics for a reason it s mean toxic corrupt and so forth But there s a conundrum there if we re not careful we can t just not engage But we need to engage it in a new way and Sister Giant is simply part of the emerging conversation 71 RESULTS Edit For several years until 2017 Williamson was a board member of Results Educational Fund RESULTS a 501 c 3 nonprofit charity dedicated to finding long term solutions to poverty by focusing on its root causes and its sister organization Results Inc a 501 c 4 social welfare organization that encourages grassroots advocates to lobby their elected officials and works directly with Congress and other U S policymakers to shape and advance anti poverty policies The organization has 100 U S local chapters and works in six other countries 75 76 72 Williamson continues to serve on a Council of Advisors providing informal advice to the organizations 60 Love America Tour Edit In the winter of 2018 Williamson began touring the United States as part of her Love America Tour two hour sessions discussing her belief that a revolution in consciousness paves the way to both personal and national renewal She used the slogan Ignite the Change to propel the tour along with the message Our own disconnection from the political process lack of knowledge of how our system operates lack of understanding of our history and confusion about many of the issues that confront us now have led in too many cases to a dangerous emotional disconnection between our country and ourselves 77 Williamson likened her message to that of Martin Luther King Jr when he said Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives 24 Political career Edit2014 U S House of Representatives campaign Edit Williamson s 2014 congressional campaign logo Williamson campaigning alongside Alanis Morissette In 2014 Williamson ran as an Independent for California s 33rd congressional district in the U S House of Representatives She was praised as a tireless campaigner but criticized for not articulating specifics in her plans Her supporters deemed her lack of plans a strength and said she was not a made to order candidate who gave lip service 22 Prominent elected and public officials endorsed her campaign including Ben Cohen of Ben amp Jerry s Ice Cream former governors Jennifer Granholm and Jesse Ventura former representatives Dennis Kucinich and Alan Grayson and Van Jones 60 78 Alanis Morissette wrote and performed Williamson s campaign song Today 79 Williamson campaigned on progressive issues such as campaign finance reform women s reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality 80 81 82 She raised 2 4 million of which she personally contributed 25 percent 60 83 Williamson finished fourth out of 18 candidates with 14 335 votes or 13 2 percent of the vote Republican Elan Carr finished first in the primary with 21 6 percent of the vote but then lost the general election to the top vote getting Democrat from the primary Ted Lieu 84 Williamson said of the process and its outcome This conversation of a politics of conscience a politics of the heart is much bigger than any one woman winning a congressional seat And if that woman loses the conversation goes on My losing the congressional seat is small what s big is the larger conversation Y ou impact the ethers and that energy goes somewhere 85 2020 presidential campaign Edit Further information Marianne Williamson 2020 presidential campaign Marianne 2020 On November 15 2018 Williamson announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee in a video in which she said that there was a miracle in this country in 1776 and we need another one that would require a co creative effort an effort of love and a gift of love to our country and hopefully to our world 86 On January 19 2019 while visiting New Hampshire Williamson said that she had received enough positive energy to make me feel I should take the next step and subsequently hired Brent Roske to lead her operation in Iowa 87 88 Williamson who has stated her disbelief in traditional politics and thinks that they must be overridden expressed her view that inspiration is underrepresented in political conversation and her thought that the foundations of American democracy were under threat necessitating a whole person politics that speaks to emotions and psychology 17 On January 28 2019 Williamson officially launched her presidential campaign in front of 2 000 people in Los Angeles and appointed Maurice Daniel who served alongside Donna Brazile in Dick Gephardt s campaign for the Democratic nomination in 1988 as her national campaign manager with her campaign committee Marianne Williamson for President officially filed on February 4 89 90 On February 16 Williamson s campaign announced the appointment of former Congressman Paul Hodes who represented New Hampshire s 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2011 as New Hampshire state director and senior campaign advisor 91 As of May 1 Williamson had a campaign staff of 20 and a week later announced that she had received enough contributions from unique donors to enter the official primary debates Her campaign had raised 1 5 million in the first quarter of 2019 during which it received donations from 46 663 unique individuals 83 92 93 Williamson subsequently met the polling criteria with three unique polls at 1 from qualifying pollsters on May 23 94 In June Williamson confirmed that she moved to Des Moines Iowa in advance of the 2020 caucuses 95 And in response to the Iowa Democratic Party s proposed creation of virtual caucuses in the 2020 race Williamson s campaign announced that it would appoint 99 Virtual Iowa Caucus Captains each assigned to a single county to turn out supporters in both the virtual and in person caucuses 96 Later that month Williamson participated in the first primary debate She spoke for four minutes and 58 seconds placing her 17th in speaking time of the 20 candidates 97 The LA Times wrote that Democratic voters were confused and transfixed by Williamson who declared that her first act as president would be to call New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and say Girlfriend you are so on a reference to Ardern s emphasis on building a country that treats its children well 98 99 100 On July 30 Williamson participated in the second primary debate She spoke for eight minutes and 52 seconds Despite placing 19th in speaking time 101 she was the most Googled candidate in 49 of 50 states and received the fourth most attention on Twitter 102 The spike in searches was prompted by her reference to the Flint water crisis which she described as a part of the dark underbelly of American society and her assertion that President Trump was harnessing a dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred which she later described as racism bigotry antisemitism homophobia Islamophobia and xenophobia propelled by social media 103 Her campaign complained that her name was often excluded from surveys 104 She also expressed frustration with the media establishment for not granting her the same level of respect Ben Carson or Herman Cain was afforded in previous elections and for mocking and dismissing her candidacy 105 On the day of the third DNC debate for which she did not qualify Williamson did an interview with Eric Bolling and expressed further frustration with the media when she thought she was not being recorded Among her unscripted comments was what does it say that Fox News is nicer to me than the lefties are 106 On October 18 2019 Hillary Clinton suggested Russians were grooming Tulsi Gabbard to be a third party candidate who would help Trump win reelection through the spoiler effect 107 though Clinton claimed she was referring to Republicans not Russians she called Gabbard the favorite of the Russians 108 Williamson defended Gabbard saying The Democratic establishment has got to stop smearing women it finds inconvenient The character assassination of women who don t toe the party line will backfire 109 On January 2 2020 after missing several fundraising targets Williamson announced that she would have to continue her run without campaign staff 110 On January 10 Williamson announced the end of her campaign and pledged to support the Democratic nominee 111 Many pundits treated Williamson s brief campaign as comic relief such as Peter Wehner of The New York Times calling her an amusing presence 112 or Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post writing We are all dreams in the mind of Marianne Williamson If she stops believing in us even for a second we will all vanish 113 However some came to acknowledge that her message was ultimately persuasive and influential After the July 30 2019 Democratic debate New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote It feels insane to say this but Williamson out debated virtually everyone else on the stage She gave a compelling answer on reparations and returned again and again to the most important issue for Democratic voters beating Trump 114 The following year after Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination Tom Scocca wrote an essay in Slate titled Marianne Williamson Won the Democratic Primary Scocca compared Williamson s challenge to Trump I m going to harness love for political purposes I will meet you on that field and sir love will win with Biden s acceptance speech For love is more powerful than hate Hope is more powerful than fear Light is more powerful than dark and concluded that Marianne Williamson s message is what the Democrats are carrying into November 115 Political positions Williamson supporters 2019 Williamson said she developed her liberal views from her father Sam whom she called an armchair revolutionary and a cross between William Kunstler and Zorba the Greek 16 When she was 13 she told her father that a teacher told her that the U S had to fight the Vietnam War in Vietnam to prevent it from coming to the U S In response her father took her entire family to Vietnam to make sure the military industrial complex didn t eat her brain and convince her that war was O K 23 Williamson said she was also affected by a trip she took with her family to Soviet controlled Hungary as a child and witnessing her father surreptitiously slip their tour guide his business card and tell him You get out of here I ll take care of you the rest of the way 19 16 Williamson said she was inspired by her father to grow up and change the world be the strong one and hold other people who are burdened with serious problems 21 She describes herself as a pretty straight line progressive Democrat who has social revolution at the center of her being and describes her policies as a renovation of a sociopathic economic system focused on short term profit maximization She says her interest lies in the creation of an enlightened society 23 Williamson is one of 12 Democratic presidential candidates who have submitted answers to the Council on Foreign Relations s Election 2020 Questions 116 Domestic issues Edit Criminal justice Edit Williamson supports intervening early with at risk youth through resources education and counseling She also supports expanding restorative justice programs introducing trauma education in the juvenile justice system expanding life skills programs in prisons and advancing hunger prevention which she says is the root cause of violence 117 Disabled community Edit She supports the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act along with initiatives to guarantee voting rights and accessible polling to those with disabilities 118 She pledged to appoint disabled citizens to her cabinet 118 She also supported the Disability Integration Act requiring healthcare insurers to cover home healthcare She pledged to try to get the Act passed in her first 100 days in office 118 Williamson supports transition programs that move institutionalized people with disabilities to supported independent living She also supports reforming Social Security Insurance to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from entitlement programs if they earn more than 1 220 a month 118 In addition she supports including disability policy including disabled human rights in U S trade deals Williamson supports sex education in the disabled community including sexual abuse reporting initiatives and sensitivity training for police in regard to interacting with those with disabilities and mental illnesses 118 Education Edit Williamson supports free tuition at public colleges community colleges and trade schools She also supports a radical reduction in college loan debt and total forgiveness of college loan debt in some cases 119 She has expressed her support for treating student loans like other debt such that debtors could refinance at lower interest rates and those who declare bankruptcy could have their debt forgiven 119 Families Edit Williamson supports paid leave family medical pregnancy and vacation pay equity government support for childcare services union rights and a universal basic income 119 Williamson supports portable retirement plans the development of initiatives to protect homeowners from predatory lending an increase in access to home loan modifications SNAP coverage for low income families and initiatives to understand and decrease homelessness among veterans 119 120 Williamson also supports the creation of a Department of Children and Youth a new cabinet level agency to create programs to reduce infant mortality illness food insecurity homelessness and undereducation 121 Finance Edit Williamson supports corporations having a responsibility to stakeholders not just to stockholders 122 Williamson supports making middle class tax cuts permanent and repealing the corporate tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Bill 119 She also supports the restoration and modernization of the Glass Steagall Act with the intent of separating commercial banks from investment banks in order to prevent banks from making risky investments 119 Williamson supports preventing corporations from engaging in tax avoidance including tax avoidance for carried interest and ETF income She also supports enforcement of antitrust laws and the implementation of a federal fee for financial transactions such as buying stocks or exchanging currency 119 Williamson also supports independent regulation of the pharmaceutical industry to prevent what she has called predatory practices 123 Guns Edit Williamson supports gun control and has described the issue as one personal to her On November 4 2018 she gave a passionate keynote address to several hundred Muslim and Jewish women at the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom conference in Doylestown Pennsylvania eight days after 11 Jews were murdered at Pittsburgh s Tree of Life synagogue I am speaking to you as a Jewish woman Where fear has been turned into a political force in America we must turn love into a political force With the history of Muslims and the history of Jews and of blacks and of immigrants it is time it is time for something fierce to rise up out of us To say You did it to my grandparents and you are not going to do it to my kids 17 Williamson supports eliminating the sale of assault rifles and semi automatic weapons banning bump stocks and high capacity magazines and eliminating the current limits on the Centers for Disease Control s ability to track and record gun ownership numbers 124 She also supports mandatory universal background checks and waiting periods for all gun dealers including at gun shows and sporting retailers child safety locks on all guns and restrictions on the ability of the mentally ill to buy guns 124 Williamson also supports Red Flag Laws and making the process of obtaining gun licenses similar to that of obtaining driver s licenses 124 Health care Edit Williamson supports universal health care under a Medicare for All type of plan 50 She has also stated that she supports extending health coverage including coverage for home care to currently uninsured Americans 125 Williamson has expressed that she would like to develop a health care system opposed to what she says is a disease management system that the U S currently has Inclusive of that Williamson has expressed support for reimbursement of medical professionals for wellness and preventive care longer doctor visits nutrition and lifestyle education and limiting the marketing of hyper processed and sugary foods 125 She has also expressed support for ending subsidies to the agricultural production of unhealthy food in favor of healthy food production Williamson supports expanding the role of the EPA and FDA to regulate toxin inclusion in the environment and food supplies to make recommendations of how to lower societal stress and to help develop healthy habits in local communities 125 She also supports limiting the profit motive in medicine as much as possible being inclusive of seeking non pharmacological ways to treat mental health issues where possible and treating mental health as important as physical health in order to normalize treatment Williamson expressed that she also supports treating drug addiction as a mental health issue and de criminalizing drugs 125 Immigration Edit Williamson supports a full path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with no serious criminal background She also supports reducing the cost of naturalization and increasing resources to help immigrants navigate the process with more ease 126 Whereas Williamson does not support open borders she supports a more humane approach to border policy 127 In June 2019 Williamson ripped then President Donald Trump on his immigration policies after reports of children being separated from their families and being put in a detainment center calling them state sponsored crimes 128 After Trump s announcement that ICE would begin mass deportations she said it is no different than what Jewish people faced in Nazi Germany 129 Williamson supports investing in smart border security which she states calls for better monitoring of airplanes ships trucks crossing the border and submarines She also supports overturning the three year and ten year re entry bars 126 Williamson also supports Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DACA and expanding protections and naturalization to undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children regardless of their current age 130 LGBTQ community Edit Williamson supports The Equality Act She also supports equality in health care housing employment and services She has also expressed support in protecting the LGBTQ community from marginalization due to Census questionnaire 131 Minimum wage Edit Williamson supports an increase of the federal minimum wage to 15 per hour 132 She also supports increasing the minimum wage for localities based on an amount determined to be a living wage for a given geographical area and then adjusting that wage for inflation as needed 119 National security Edit Williamson supports redesigning the partnership between the Defense Department and the State Department that would elevate the need for peace putting it on equal footing with the need for military preparedness 133 Williamson supports the creation of a United States Department of Peace to aid in her proposed redesign which also includes a plan to establish a Peace Academy modeled after military academies 134 In her 2014 Congressional campaign Williamson supported dismantling the National Security Agency NSA 135 Williamson supports decreasing the military budget and redirecting those funds toward peacebuilding and peace maintenance efforts e g mediation diplomacy humanitarian aid post conflict transitional justice and on the ground programs 133 She also supports maintaining a budget that would not impede military preparedness while investing in a sustainable society inclusive of the development of clean energy and green manufacturing retrofitting buildings and bridges economically empowering women and educating children 133 Williamson supports military engagement when a NATO ally is threatened when the United States is under threat of attack or when the humanitarian order of the world is at risk 103 National service Edit Williamson supports the creation of a program through which every citizen between 18 and 26 can perform one year of voluntary national service helping schools hospitals infrastructure sustainability regenerative agricultural projects the military the Peace Corps that can be remunerated for housing basic costs or financial support for higher education 136 Native American reconciliation Edit Williamson supports returning dominant control of the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation halting construction of the Keystone Pipeline recognizing tribal sovereignty over their territory She also supports increasing funding to Native lands justice systems protecting tribal sovereignty and governance and protecting Native religious freedom 137 Williamson has expressed support for rethinking treaties and continuing annual tribal nations summits in Washington D C 137 Black American reparations Edit Williamson supports the distribution of 200 500 billion in reparations for slavery spread across 20 years for economic and education projects to be disbursed based on the recommendation of a selected group of black leaders 138 139 140 In taking this position Williamson became the only candidate to ever submit a detailed plan for reparations for black Americans 141 142 143 Williamson who first expressed her support of reparations in her 1993 book Illuminata advocating that the U S will not reconcile its racial and economic divide without them has said of the policy proposal states that her policy on reparations is not part of a black agenda 144 Abortion rights Edit Williamson supports abortion access services and choice 145 She has spoken out against the Supreme Court s decision to overturn Roe v Wade 146 International and foreign issues Edit Climate change Edit Williamson deems climate change to be the greatest moral challenge of our generation She claimed support for the Green New Deal immediate re entry into the Paris Climate Accords and has stated that she would be willing to support the Trans Pacific Partnership if it included greater protections for workers and the environment 116 147 148 Williamson also support the U S directing subsidies from fossil fuels including coal and re investing them in the development of renewable energy both in the U S and abroad particularly in developing countries 116 Diplomacy Edit Williamson has called for the establishment of a Department of Peace to expand global diplomacy mediation and educational and economic development 149 She supported the creation of such a department in 2005 backing efforts by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to try to establish it 116 Afghanistan Edit Williamson supported safe withdrawal of all U S troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible and would consider the use of a peace keeping force such as the United Nations to assist with the transition 116 Africa Edit Williamson recognizing Africa as the continent with the fastest growing population supports engagement with the continent in order to thwart the growth of terrorist groups and health epidemics which she believes threaten U S security while capitalizing on opportunities in areas where corruption is being reversed free elections are being held and economies are growing 116 China Edit Williamson has said she supports the U S vigorously using its position i e through CFIUS to prevent China from buying strategically important companies which she believes will help defend U S economic interests and human rights as in the cases of the Uighurs and residents of Hong Kong 116 Iran Edit Williamson supports rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action JCPOA She said that US propaganda falsely claims the deal lets Iran get nuclear weapons within 10 years Williamson also backs increased diplomacy a change of relations to address human rights in Iran sanctions relief and the purchasing of Air Bus airplanes to support travel entrepreneurship and normalization According to Williamson Iran is a potential ally against Sunni extremism with many common interests to build upon 116 Williamson criticized the Trump administration for elevating tensions with Iran 150 Israeli Palestinian conflict Edit Williamson supports a two state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict which secures both the legitimate security of Israel and the human rights dignity and economic opportunities of the Palestinian people 116 50 She expressed support for using the power of the Presidency to exert pressure on Israel to restart talks on this solution I don t think the ultimate answer will be about settlements or checkpoints The work of the genuine peace builders must be on the level of the heart Until the U S returns to where it can be considered an honest broker by the Palestinians as well as Israelis it won t be able to play a constructive role 17 Williamson supports rescinding President Trump s recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel 116 She has also stated her belief that settlements on the West Bank are illegal and does not support the Blockade of the Gaza Strip However Williamson does support the occupation of the Golan Heights only until there is a stable government in Syria with whom one can negotiate 116 Venezuela Edit Williamson supports creating conditions for effective dialogue between factions representing both Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido that seek a peaceful transition 116 She has also expressed support for existing efforts to promote dialogue in particular those being led by the Norwegian government Williamson said she believes the best policy in Venezuela is to support efforts that allow its citizens to decide their political future even if the U S does not agree with the outcome Religion Edit New Hampshire 2019 Williamson is indifferent about religion having called it a map in which the route isn t important It s the destination that matters 34 Williamson has expressed a deep belief in forgiveness based on the notion that nothing is real or exists but love If a person behaves unlovingly then that means that regardless if their negativity anger or whatever their behavior was derived from fear and doesn t actually exist They re hallucinating You forgive them then because there s nothing to forgive 151 Williamson believes a peaceful life is attainable by thinking with God while thinking without God creates pain She has said Asking God for help doesn t seem very comforting if we think of Him as something outside of ourselves or capricious or judgmental But God is love and He dwells within us We were created in His image or mind which means that we are extensions of His love or Sons of God 151 Williamson s beliefs on forgiveness and God influence her belief that sin is impossible A sin would mean we did something so bad that God is angry with us But since we cannot do anything that changes our essential nature God has nothing to be angry at Only love is real Nothing else exists The Son of God cannot sin 151 Health and vaccinations Edit A both and approach both prayer and medicine to physical and mental health has been attributed to Williamson 62 152 153 154 155 This approach the efficacy of prayer accepts medical science as part of God s power to heal For example surgery may be seen as God answering prayers to heal This logic invokes what Johns Hopkins Medicine has called the strong link between positivity and health in which positive attitude improves outcomes and life satisfaction across a spectrum of conditions 156 157 158 159 160 Williamson who believes that the spirit is impervious to illness confirmed this belief when she said that people who are prayed for get out of the emergency room faster and people who have been diagnosed with a life challenging illness who attend spiritual support groups live on average twice as long after diagnosis 14 161 162 She maintains that prayer is complementary to medicine not a substitute for it 163 Williamson has stated her support for the necessity and value of vaccinations and antidepressants 164 63 but has been criticized for her skepticism about the pharmaceutical industry s influence in setting guidelines for how they are administered citing her belief that their profit motive could result in harm to patients 165 166 167 She has also been scrutinized for criticizing overprescription of antidepressants 123 168 questioning whether antidepressants play a role in suicide saying that the prescriptive definition between sadness and clinical depression is artificial and having called the process by which clinical depression is diagnosed a scam 169 63 During Williamson s presidential campaign several excerpts of her past comments have conflated her skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry s trustworthiness with an embrace of anti vaccination dogma As a result she has been accused of being anti medicine and anti science She denies such accusations saying they could not be further from the truth 170 But critics point to Williamson s January 2012 interview on her radio show Living Miraculously with Gwen Olsen a 15 year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry who implied that she personally believed antidepressants could be dangerous and linked to autism 171 Critics also cite a podcast interview with Russell Brand in which Williamson while speaking about vaccine exemptions glibly described the process by which vaccines are mandated as Orwellian and likened the debate about vaccination mandates to the abortion debate She later apologized saying she misspoke and that the comments erroneously made her sound as though I question the validity of life saving vaccines 172 173 174 Williamson has expressed frustration that her skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry has been equated with skepticism of the science of vaccines 123 62 103 164 63 175 She has said Skeptical about vaccinations I have not expressed Skeptical about Big Pharma in general I have expressed And there is a big difference 103 She has also expressed frustration that this distinction is lost in public discourse Public image Edit Williamson in February 2019 In October 1991 Williamson officiated at the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky She said that derisive publicity of the wedding harmed her credibility as she was labeled Guru to the Glitterati 34 45 Williamson is often called terms like New Age guru 176 The label has been associated with her for years but she has long rejected such terms calling them outrageous 32 82 16 Religious organizations have also said that she is not New Age but teaches an evolved Christianity blending elements of Eastern mysticism into Christian language using terms tied to old New Age 177 She has said she finds it creepy to be called a spiritual leader believes it insults her audience s intelligence and prefers to be called an author 82 176 178 Williamson has often commented on how she is portrayed in the media and believes that her image as a seeker has brought ridicule in the press 22 During her 2014 Congressional run Williamson said I m sure they re going to say I m a New Age nutcase dragon lady lightweight thinker 176 She has said of her image There has been a tendency to create a caricature and it s very difficult to battle a caricature 22 According to The New York Times Magazine the depiction of her by many in the press has been snide 176 During her presidential campaign press outlets have called her wacko a quack scary a joke kooky hokey dangerous bananas bonkers Secretary of Crystals and wackadoodle 179 180 181 182 183 She made headlines when she criticized Vogue Magazine for its insidious influence when it did not include her in an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot of the 2020 female presidential candidates 184 185 The magazine responded that it only wanted to highlight the five female lawmakers who bring a collective 40 years of political experience to this race 186 Williamson subsequently posted a fan made picture of the Vogue photo with herself edited in 187 188 186 189 190 I am a serious woman and I have had a serious career Why won t people take me seriously she has said 177 Personal life and family EditWilliamson s older brother Peter became an immigration lawyer the same profession as the siblings father Her late sister Elizabeth Jane was a teacher 15 191 Her father and maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants 19 Her grandfather changed his surname from Vishnevetsky to Williamson after seeing Alan Williamson Ltd on a train 23 Williamson described herself as a Jewish woman in a 2022 interview 16 She was briefly married in 1979 to a Houston businessman She said the marriage lasted for a minute and a half 14 She took in and cared for a friend who had terminal cancer 14 In 1990 she gave birth to a daughter India Emmaline 15 192 India pursued a doctorate in history at Goldsmiths College in London 17 25 In 2006 a Newsweek poll named her one of the 50 most influential baby boomers 193 Two years later during the financial crisis Williamson lost two of her homes in the Detroit metro area valued at nearly 3 million to foreclosure 22 In 2013 Williamson reported having assets estimated to be valued between 1 million and 5 million not including personal residences 60 Works EditA Return to Love First Edition 1992 ISBN 978 0060927486 Imagine What America Could Be in the 21st Century Visions of a Better Future from Leading American Thinkers ISBN 0451204697 Emma amp Mommy Talk to God ISBN 978 0060799267 Healing the Soul of America Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens ISBN 978 0684846224 A Woman s Worth ISBN 978 0345386571 Enchanted Love The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships ISBN 978 0684870250 Everyday Grace Having Hope Finding Forgiveness And Making Miracles ISBN 978 1573223515 Illuminata A Return to Prayer ISBN 978 1573225205 The Gift of Change ISBN 0060816112 The Law of Divine Compensation On Work Money and Miracles ISBN 0062205412 A Course in Weight Loss 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever ISBN 1401921531 Tears to Triumph The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment ISBN 978 0062205445 A Politics of Love A Handbook for a New American Revolution ISBN 0062873938 References Edit Knapp Gwenn 2006 StarBios Report for Marianne Williamson MOTTASIA Inc Archived from the original on October 18 2006 Retrieved July 12 2006 Books by Marianne Williamson Good Reads Retrieved February 5 2018 a b Best Sellers New York Times September 6 1992 a b Best Sellers New York Times July 11 1993 a b Best Sellers New York Times January 1 1995 a b Best Sellers New York Times December 15 2002 Our History Project Angel Food Archived from the original on January 19 2018 Retrieved February 8 2018 History The Peace Alliance Retrieved February 8 2018 Yadidi Noa February 28 2019 Marianne Williamson Everything you need to know about the 2020 candidate Axios Retrieved January 10 2020 Bowden John January 9 2019 Author Marianne Williamson running for 2020 Dem nomination The Hill Retrieved February 13 2019 Astor Maggie January 10 2020 Marianne Williamson Drops Out Of 2020 Race The New York Times Retrieved January 10 2020 Grayer Annie February 23 2020 Marianne Williamson endorses Bernie Sanders for president CNN Retrieved February 23 2020 Palmeri Tara December 22 2022 Biden s Surprise Challenger amp Scalise s Speaker Weapon Puck Retrieved December 24 2022 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pristin Terry February 16 1992 The Power the Glory the Glitz Marianne Williamson an ex nightclub singer has attracted many in Hollywood with her blend of new time religion and self help and alienated more than a few Los Angeles Times a b c d e f g h i j k l Schindehette Susan March 9 1992 The Divine Miss W People a b c d e Interview with Marianne Williamson Interviews with Max Raskin Retrieved October 12 2022 a b c d e f g h i Debra Nussbaum Cohen November 28 2018 New Age guru Marianne Williamson talks about her Jewishness and 2020 presidential run Jewish Telegraphic Agency WHO WHAT WHY This is who I am this is where I ve been and this is why I m running Marianne2020 com a b c d e f g h Williamson Marianne August 15 2019 Marianne Williamson on Reparations Vaccinations and Spirituality in Politics National Public Radio Interview Guy Marzorati and Marisa Lagos San Francisco CA KQED Meet the Class of 2020 s Overachievers New York April 1 14 2019 p 13 a b c d Capuzzo Mike May 29 1993 The Prophet Marianne Hollywood s Answer to God Greensboro News amp Record a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Monica Corcoran Harel May 27 2014 The New Age of Marianne Williamson Los Angeles Magazine a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Bennetts Leslie June 1991 Marianne s Faithful Vanity Fair a b c d Lett Alexsandra January 19 2018 Marianne Williamson Spreads Message Of Unity The Daily Record a b c d e Fortini Amanda April 25 2014 Marianne Williamson is Campaigning for a Miracle Elle Weig Nick February 4 2009 Profile Marianne Williamson CBS Micucci Dana March 29 1992 Anytime you try to be a loving Chicago Tribune Tolson Mike April 18 2014 Houston raised Marianne Williamson eyes a California congressional seat Houston Chronicle James D Davis March 7 1993 Life is But a Dream There Is No Problem a Little Spiritual Awakening Can t Solve Say Proponents of a New Age Philosophy Called A Course in Miracles South Florida Sun Sentinel James D Davis August 1 2019 For Marianne Williamson and Donald Trump religion is all about themselves Washington Post Real Time with Bill Maher Marianne Williamson HBO August 2 2019 Event occurs at 1m00s a b c Leiby Richard May 11 2014 Marianne Williamson Hollywood self help guru wants to heal Washington Washington Post a b c d Remsen Jim April 2 2000 New Age Star Marianne Williamson Speaking at Keswick The Philadelphia Inquirer a b c d Simon Sebag Montefiore July 1 1992 Marianne Williamson Who Is She amp Why Do We Need Her Now Psychology Today Marianne Williamson Bows Out as Pastor Belief Net Capeloto Alex January 8 2003 Warren Church is restoring calm in the name of Unity Detroit Free Press Capeloto Alex November 1 2001 Upheaval of church surprises members Detroit Free Press Capeloto Alexa November 4 2002 Unrest lurks as Unity church faces changes Detroit Free Press Slater Georgia July 1 2019 Life lessons from Marianne Williamson s books Miracles healing the soul and spirituality USA Today Marianne Williamson Hollywood self help guru wants to heal Washington Washington Post March 11 2014 a b c d Slater Georgia July 1 2019 Life lessons from Marianne Williamson s books Miracles healing the soul and spirituality USA Today Healing the Soul of America 20th Anniversary ed Simon and Schuster 2018 ISBN 978 1982101565 Best Sellers July 11 1993 New York Times July 11 1993 A Woman s Worth Publishers Weekly a b Fayerman Pamela July 3 1993 Logical principles divinely deleivered The Vancouver Sun a b Faith Marianne Williamson is Full of It No November December 1997 Mother Jones Grady Constance July 30 2019 Why Marianne Williamson s most famous passage keeps getting cited as a Nelson Mandela quote Vox Media Hallemann Caroline June 28 2014 How Did a Quote by Marianne Williamson Get Misattributed to Nelson Mandela Yahoo Lifestyle Lavin Cheryl Writer is Sold on Miracles as New Age Book Turns Into Pot of Gold Chicago Tribune Retrieved August 1 2019 a b c Yadidi Noa February 28 2019 Marianne Williamson Everything you need to know about the 2020 candidate Axios Retrieved March 1 2019 Walker Jesse July 13 2019 Marianne Williamson Wants To Win the Presidency With the Power of Love and Miracles Reason Magazine a b Servin James February 19 1992 Prophet of Love Has the Timing Of a Comedian New York Times a b c d e f g h Harris Scott July 26 1992 Project Angel Food Rocked by Feuds LA Times Allman Kevin October 1 1991 Fantasy Auction Going Going Gone LA Times Los Angeles Agency Revamps it AIDS Services LA Times September 28 1998 John M Glionna September 8 1998 Angel Volunteers Deliver Food Solace LA Times Project Angel Food s Angel Awards benefit featuring Charo and Cheyenne Jackson raises 650 000 Los Angeles Times August 20 2018 Project Angel Food serves 11 millionth meal Los Angeles Blade November 28 2018 Project Angel Food About Us Project Angel Food Retrieved August 13 2019 a b c d e Levinthal Dave March 27 2019 9 Things to Know About Marianne Williamson The Center for Public Integrity a b Witt Emily August 7 2019 Marianne Williamson Wants Politics to Enter The New Age The New Yorker a b c d e f g Cauterucci Christina August 14 2019 The Gay Divide Over Marianne Williamson Slate Magazine a b c d Cooper presses Williamson on her mental health views CNN August 1 2019 Event occurs at 0m00s Archived from the original on December 22 2021 Abrams Abagail Experts Criticize Marianne Williamson s Views on Vaccines Depression and Illness Time Marianne Williamson s Spiritualism Has Deep Liberal Roots The New Republic August 7 2019 Retrieved August 8 2019 Flam Faye July 31 2019 Marianne Williamson Isn t Anti Science She s a Skeptic Bloomberg L P Williamson Marianne April 2 2002 A New Movement for Peace The Conversation Kucinich finds support in peace activists The Baltimore Sun Associated Press May 31 2003 Marianne Williamson Department of Peace Interview April 16 2007 Archived from the original on December 22 2021 via YouTube About Us The Peace Alliance a b Marcus Bonnie October 24 2012 Marianne Williamson Women and A Call For A New Kind of Politics Forbes Magazine a b Gabrielle Bernstein Interviews Marianne Williamson Sister Giant Huffington Post August 16 2012 Retrieved October 16 2012 The History of Sister Giant Ruffin Monique October 11 2012 Marianne Williamson s Sister Giant Huffington Post Hall Tony 2006 Changing The Face of Hunger Thomas Nelson p 194 ISBN 978 1418553661 Turning Compassion into a Political Force Results org Archived from the original on November 6 2018 Retrieved November 6 2018 Marianne Williamson bringing her Love America tour to Detroit Detroit Free Press May 15 2018 Endorsements Marianne Williamson for Congress Alanis Morissette cuts campaign song for Calif candidate The Hill May 6 2014 Marianne Williamson New Age Guru Seeks Congressional Seat New York Times November 13 2013 Issues Wayback Machine Archived from the original on February 26 2014 Retrieved April 10 2019 a b c Aron Hillel January 16 2014 Marianne Williamson Aims to Defeat Henry Waxman and Save Washington s Soul LA Weekly a b Raktich Nathaniel May 1 2019 How Marianne Williamson Could Win The 2020 Democratic Primary Five Thirty Eight Marianne Williamson Hollywood s Favorite New Age Guru Backs Bernie Sanders for President The Hollywood Reporter May 1 2015 Oprah to Marianne Williamson How Important Was the Win for You Oprah com Retrieved November 2 2014 Thompson Alex November 16 2018 Oprah pal and spirituality guru plans 2020 run Politico Retrieved March 1 2019 Steinhauser Paul January 8 2019 Oprah advisor to visit N H as she considers White House bid Concord Monitor Retrieved March 1 2019 Pfannenstiel Brianne brianneDMR January 21 2019 Inbox Marianne Williamson who formed a presidential exploratory committee is making a big announcement Jan 28 and then will be in Des Moines for a kickoff event Jan 31 She s hired brentroske as Iowa director for her exploratory committee iacaucus Tweet Retrieved March 1 2019 via Twitter Kaji Mina February 20 2019 Marianne Williamson Oprah confidant author spiritual teacher and presidential candidate ABC News Retrieved March 1 2019 FEC Form 2 Statement of Candidacy PDF Federal Election Commission February 4 2019 Retrieved March 2 2019 DiStaso John jdistaso February 16 2019 JUST IN to WMUR9 Democratic presidential candidate marwilliamson lands top NH campaign advisor Former US Rep PaulHodes signs on as Senior Campaign Advisor amp NH State Director They have a busy fitn schedule on tap nhpolitics WMUR Tweet Retrieved March 1 2019 via Twitter Stewart Briana May 9 2019 Marianne Williamson s campaign says she s qualified for the first 2020 Democratic debate ABC News Retrieved May 9 2019 Schouten Fredreka April 15 2019 Author Marianne Williamson raised 1 5 million in presidential bid CNN Retrieved April 15 2019 Shepard Steven Montellaro Zach May 23 2019 Spirituality guru Marianne Williamson locks in 2020 debate spot Politico Retrieved May 23 2019 Judd Donald June 6 2019 Marianne Williamson moves to Des Moines in bid for the Iowa caucuses CNN Retrieved June 7 2019 Rynard Pat February 28 2019 Marianne Williamson Recruits Virtual Captains For Virtual Caucus Iowa Starting Line Retrieved February 28 2019 Weiyi Cai Jason Kao Jasmine C Lee Alicia Parlapiano Jugal K Patel June 27 2019 Which Candidates and Topics Got the Most Time During the Second Democratic Debate New York Times a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Girlfriend you are so on US presidential candidate Marianne Williamson s bizarre challenge to New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern The New Zealand Herald June 28 2019 Retrieved August 16 2019 Greenspan Rachel E Marianne Williamson s Vibe at Thursday s Debate Was All Love People Couldn t Get Enough Time Retrieved August 16 2019 Bennett Matt De La Fuente David How the Dems Should Blow Up Their Debates Politico Magazine Retrieved August 16 2019 Weiyi Cai Jason Kao Jasmine C Lee Alicia Parlapiano July 30 2019 Which Candidates and Topics Got the Most Speaking Time During the Democratic Debate New York Times a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Marianne Williamson Tops Google Searches of Candidates After Second Democratic Debate The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved August 1 2019 a b c d Williamson Marianne August 15 2019 It s All Political Marianne Williamson Comes Down to Earth Interview Joe Garofoli San Francisco CA Megaphone Bailey Holly May 31 2019 Marianne Williamson gets adoring crowds and sells millions of books Can she make a mark on the presidential field Washington Post Belvedere Berny August 16 2019 Marianne Williamson gets adoring crowds and sells millions of books Can she make a mark on the presidential field The Independent Bowden John September 13 2019 Marianne Williamson clarifies hot mic moment The Hill Retrieved September 14 2019 Morgan Scott October 19 2019 Hillary Clinton suggests Russia is grooming Tulsi Gabbard for third party run NBC News Dareh Gregorian Monica Alba Maura Barrett October 24 2019 Hillary Clinton suggests Republicans are grooming Tulsi Gabbard for third party run NBC News Retrieved January 7 2020 Tulsi Gabbard calls Hillary Clinton the queen of warmongers in her latest clash with top Democrats Vox News October 19 2019 O Keefe Ed January 2 2020 Marianne Williamson lays off entire campaign staff CBS News Retrieved January 2 2020 Democrat Marianne Williamson suspends her presidential campaign Connecticut Post January 10 2019 Retrieved January 10 2019 Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate The New York Times July 31 2019 Retrieved October 30 2020 Petri Alexandra June 28 2019 Here are some true and maybe true statements about Marianne Williamson The Washington Post Retrieved October 30 2020 Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate The New York Times July 31 2019 Retrieved October 30 2020 Scocca Tom August 21 2020 Marianne Williamson Won the Democratic Primary Slate Retrieved October 30 2020 a b c d e f g h i j k l Candidates Answer CFR s Questions Marianne Williamson Council on Foreign Relations July 30 2019 The Issues Criminal Justice Marianne 2020 a b c d e The Issues Disability Justice Marianne 2020 a b c d e f g h The Issues Economy Marianne 2020 The Issues Veterans Marianne 2020 Stewart Emily July 29 2019 Marianne Williams proposes new government department focused on children Hot 97 Ebro in the Morning Author Marianne Wiliamson On Her 2020 Bid For President Reparations amp Colin Kaepernick WQHT February 15 2019 Event occurs at 9m00s a b c 2020 Dem Marianne Williamson Addresses Vaccination Controversy Ari Melber MSNBC June 20 2019 Event occurs at 3m55s Archived from the original on December 22 2021 a b c The Issues Gun Safety Marianne 2020 a b c d The Issues Health Care Marianne 2020 a b The Issues Immigration Marianne 2020 Extending border barrier Where 2020 Democrats stand Washington Post Retrieved February 11 2021 Marianne Williamson rips Trump for state sponsored crimes at the border theweek com June 27 2019 Retrieved February 11 2021 Gstalter Morgan June 20 2019 2020 Democrat Marianne Williamson Trump s ICE raids no different than what Jews faced in Nazi Germany TheHill Retrieved February 11 2021 A voter s guide to DACA Compare where all the 2020 candidates stand politico com Retrieved February 11 2021 The Issues LGBTQ Rights Marianne 2020 Rynard Pat February 3 2019 Love Reparations And Fighting Back A Marianne Williamson Iowa Tour Iowa Starting Line Retrieved March 1 2019 a b c The Issues National Security Marianne 2020 Miskimen Gage Marianne Williamson releases plan for a Department of Peace includes Peace Academy proposal Des Moines Register Retrieved February 11 2021 10 Reasons To Vote For Marianne Marianne For Congress July 9 2014 Archived from the original on July 9 2014 Retrieved February 11 2021 The Issues National Service Marianne 2020 a b The Issues Native American Justice Marianne 2020 The Issues Racial Reconciliation amp Healing Marianne 2020 Burns Alexander Flegenheimer Matt Lee Jasmine C Lerer Lisa Martin Jonathan January 21 2019 Who s Running for President in 2020 The New York Times Wang Esther March 29 2019 Marianne Williamson Wants Your Perception to Shift Jezebel Retrieved April 9 2019 Astead W Herndon February 21 2019 2020 Democrats Embrace Race Conscious Policies Including Reparations The New York Times Retrieved March 1 2019 Hot 97 Ebro in the Morning Author Marianne Wiliamson On Her 2020 Bid For President Reparations amp Colin Kaepernick WQHT February 15 2019 Event occurs at 16m38s Marianne Williamson on The Breakfast Club WWPR The Breakfast Club June 24 2019 Event occurs at 00m28s Archived from the original on December 22 2021 Bluestone Gabrielle June 28 2019 Marianne Williamson Marches On New York Times The Issues Reproductive Rights Marianne 2020 Abortion ruling is disturbing attack on women s agency Marianne Williamson retrieved August 15 2022 The Issues Climate Change Marianne 2020 Woodruff Judy June 6 2019 Why Marianne Williamson thinks she can defeat Trump PBS NewsHour Video Event occurs at 3 30 Archived from the original on December 22 2021 via YouTube Woodruff interview Event occurs at 6 15 Election 2020 The Democratic candidates on foreign policy Foreign Policy a b c Williamson Marianne February 1 1992 A Return to Love HarperCollins Herringshaw Mark September 17 2009 Both And Faith with Pharmacy Belief net Dr Robert Stackpole STD November 2 2014 Both And Faith with Pharmacy Divine Mercy Jeanie Lerche Davis November 6 2001 The Power of Prayer in Medicine Web MD Bruce G Epperly 2008 Prayer Process and the Future of Medicine Journal of Religion and Health Heidelberg Germany Springer 39 1 23 37 doi 10 1023 A 1004686624118 JSTOR 27501172 S2CID 19071091 The Power of Positive Thinking Johns Hopkins Medicine Jeanie Lerche Davis March 26 2004 Can Prayer Heal Web MD Chittaranjan Andrade and Rajiv Radhakrishnan 2009 Prayer and healing A medical and scientific perspective on randomized controlled trials Journal of Religion and Health Bangalore India National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences 51 4 247 253 doi 10 4103 0019 5545 58288 PMC 2802370 PMID 20048448 University Brandeis June 18 2009 The Healing Power Of Prayer Sciencedaily Science Daily Carey Benedict March 31 2006 Long Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer New York Times Real Time with Bill Maher Vaccination HBO February 6 2015 Event occurs at 6m34s Archived from the original on December 22 2021 Carter Darla May 7 2015 Does prayer have the power to heal USA Today Williamson Marianne July 7 2009 God is BIG swine flu SMALL See every cell of your body filled with divine light Pour God s love on our immune systems Truth protects Twitter a b Marianne Williamson Running for President on a Morality Driven Platform The Daily Show Comedy Central August 11 2019 Event occurs at 8m54s Archived from the original on December 22 2021 Hampton Rochelle August 2 2019 Four Marianne Williamson Supporters on Why They Think She d Be a Good President Slate Joseph Cameron July 1 2019 Marianne Williamson Knows You Think She s a Joke But Her Campaign Isn t Vice Ginsburg Merle June 21 2019 Marianne Williamson Doesn t Mistrust Vaccines Just Big Pharma Los Angeles Magazine Real Time with Bill Maher Marianne Williamson HBO August 2 2019 Event occurs at 6m34s Astor Maggie July 27 2019 I Should Be More Careful With Twitter Marianne Williamson on Those Mental Health Comments New York Times Saraiya Sonia July 30 2019 No One Decides to Run for President Impulsively Marianne Williamson Explains Her Magical Thinking Vanity Fair Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck August 15 2019 Marianne Williamson promoted anti vaxxer theories on her radio show in 2012 episode CNN Kaplan Anna June 20 2019 2020 Candidate Marianne Williamson Vaccine Mandates Are Orwellian The Daily Beast Retrieved June 21 2019 Pearce Matt June 20 2019 2020 candidate Marianne Williamson apologizes for calling vaccine mandates Orwellian Los Angeles Times Shen Berro Julian June 20 2019 Marianne Williamson Apologizes For Calling Vaccine Mandates Draconian HuffPost Williamson Marianne July 17 2019 Misrepresentations of my work are in high gear this morning Twitter a b c d Leibovich Mark April 24 2014 The Real House Candidates of Beverly Hills New York Times Magazine a b Leibovich Mark July 8 2019 Evil sin reality and life as a Son of God What Marianne Williamson is saying isn t new Get Religion Robinson John May 20 1993 Marianne Williamson A New Age Oracle Comes Down to Earth The Boston Globe Michaelson Jay June 23 2019 Marianne Williamson Longtime Wacko Is Now a Dangerous Wacko The Daily Beast Beauchamp Zack July 31 2019 Marianne Williamson isn t funny She s scary Vox Media Brett Mia August 1 2019 Marianne Williamson Isn t Kooky She s Dangerous Alma Ashlie D Stevens June 28 2019 Marianne Williamson for Secretary of Crystals The bonkers break out character of NBC s debates Alma Wright Jennifer August 17 2019 Marianne Williamson is a danger to feminism and her ideas could get Americans killed Alma Chozixk Amy July 1 2019 Madam President Five Candidates on What It Will Take to Shatter the Most Stubborn Glass Ceiling Vogue Russo Amy July 3 2019 Marianne Williamson Rips Vogue For Leaving Her Out Of 2020 Candidate Photo Shoot Huffington Post a b Kaur Harmeet July 5 2019 Marianne Williamson was left out of a photo shoot of the women running for president So she posted an edited version CNN Lampen Claire July 5 2019 Marianne Williamson Edited Herself Into That Vogue Photo The Cut Perticone Joe July 5 2019 Marianne Williamson photoshopped herself into a Vogue photoshoot of female presidential candidates that she was left out of Business Insider Morin Rebecca July 2 2019 Marianne Williamson Vogue magazine is not the gatekeeper of who gets to run for president USA Today R Eric Thomas July 2 2019 Girlfriend Marianne Williamson Would Like to Have a Word with Anna Wintour Elle Magazine Sophie Ann Kaplan Williamson Jewish Herald Voice February 28 2008 Gardner Martin October 1 1992 Marianne Williamson and A Course in Miracles Skeptical Inquirer Amherst New York Skeptical Inquirer 17 1 17 23 Marianne Williamson on What s Wrong and Right with the World Oprah July 29 2012 Retrieved February 8 2018 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marianne Williamson Wikiquote has quotations related to Marianne Williamson Official website Marianne Williamson for President website Marianne Williamson article and shows at Oprah com Marianne Williamson on Politicking with Larry King Sister Giant The Peace Alliance Project Angel Food Appearances on C SPAN Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Marianne Williamson amp oldid 1133956717, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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