Hooray for Hollywood

Earlier this week, Angus T. Jones, the “Half” of TV’s “Two and a Half Men”, released an online video testimony in which he blasted his own show and asked viewers to stop watching. First of all, how many of us would put our job at risk for the sake of our religious beliefs? Second, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Kirk Cameron had a conversion experience in the middle of “Growing Pains’” 7 season run. (My wife, who had a crush on him and prayed for him, likes to take credit.) Cameron went on to star in such Christian films as the Left Behind franchise and Fireproof. And there are many other professing Christians populating the t.m.z. both in-front of and behind the screen – see Eric Close (“Without a Trace”, “Nashville”), Zachary Levi (“Chuck”), and producer Ralph Winter (Star Trek, X-Men).

I worked for several years in Hollywood and saw first-hand the “missionaries” working there and the odds that are against them. One of the ministries I follow, support and pray for is Mastermedia International. They work with the professionals in television, movies and other media, not just to communicate what Christians want and don’t want, but to tell them about God and that they are being prayed for. They also encourage Christians working in the entertainment industry.

We here at interlinc know what a powerful tool media is, whether it is used by us or the enemy. Teenagers are especially targeted and influenced by it.  Jones (19) even admits the negative effect TV and his show can have (around the 7 minute mark of part 2 of his video). While media can be evil, we often forget that it is made up of human beings – people that were made by God and who God wants to know and love. People like Angus T. Jones.

Don’t give up on Hollywood. Pray. Because prayer, as my wife will tell you, can make a difference.