page_title: Marianne Williamson
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Marianne Williamson / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Marianne Williamson
context_page_description: Marianne Deborah Williamson is an American author, spiritual leader, politician, and activist. She has written 13 books, including four New York Times number one bestsellers in the "Advice, How To, and Miscellaneous" category. She is the founder of Project Angel Food, a volunteer food delivery program that serves home-bound people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. She is also the co-founder of the Peace Alliance, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization supporting peace-building projects. She has received national attention as a result of her frequent appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was known as Oprah's "spiritual adviser."
  In 2014, Williamson unsuccessfully ran as an independent to represent 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. She suspended her campaign on January 10, 2020, a few days after laying off her campaign staff. She later endorsed Bernie Sanders at a rally in Austin, Texas on February 23, 2020.
context_section_description: Williamson is indifferent about religion, having called it a map in which "the route isn't important. It's the destination that matters." She has said that "organized dogmatic religion" has been harmful, creating "absurd" divisions among people.
  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."
  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."
  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."
caption: New Hampshire, 2019
exif: {"Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "SLT-A65V", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 8.1 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:01:10 23:08:30", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "240", "Thumbnail YResolution": "240", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "892", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14646", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:01:10 20:33:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:01:10 20:33:48", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "4906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "251/640", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "White fluorescent (WW 3200 - 3700K)", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "83662979/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "83662979/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "150", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 250, 7/2, 63/10]", "EXIF LensModel": "DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3"}