EUR: What did you learn from this season of “Iyanla: Fix My Life?”
Iyanla Vanzant: This season I learned, the truth is stranger than fiction…it really, really is.
EUR: The opening episode focuses on the coming out stories of two gay pastors. Is season 3 controversial?
Iyanla Vanzant: Yes. Being gay and black is taboo, being gay and a Christian pastor is taboo, being a gay Christian pastor, who is married and has children is all taboo, and is going on every day. We know it’s going on and we act like it’s not and in the interim were dying.
EUR: Why is it important to openly talk about issues we only whisper about?
Iyanla Vanzant: This issue and any other issue for me is important we talked about because the lives of young people are at stake. If we continue to have these things going on, we are teaching young people that it is okay to lie, trick and fool people, instead of the truth of who you are. These are the same young people that are going out creating acts of violence against each other, or say I don’t need God, or I don’t believe in God, there is nothing Jesus can do for me because what we are showing them is inappropriate and out of order.
EUR: You stated, “I can’t fix your life.” Talk about peoples idea of showing up, meeting you and abracadabra you’re fixed…
Iyanla Vanzant: Oh, no. “Fix My Life” is not about fixing people’s lives, it’s about repairing, restoring, and recreating life for its original purpose. It’s not for me to restore, I don’t know the purpose. It’s not for me to recreate, I don’t know what that is. It’s for the people to do it. What I do – and I said this from the very beginning – I give people the information and support them.
“Iyanla: Fix My Life” kicks off September 19 on OWN at 9/8c.
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