{"id":1639,"date":"2007-07-28T19:06:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-28T19:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/does-hollywood-have-a-prayer-yes-hundreds-in-fact.html"},"modified":"2007-07-28T19:06:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-28T19:06:00","slug":"does-hollywood-have-a-prayer-yes-hundreds-in-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/does-hollywood-have-a-prayer-yes-hundreds-in-fact.html","title":{"rendered":"Does Hollywood have a prayer? Yes. Hundreds, in fact…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Fed up with all the schlock coming out of Hollywood? <\/p>\n

Hit your knees. <\/p>\n

That, at least, seems to be the message of a new ministry<\/a> that’s cropped up in California, started by a woman who has produced documentaries for NBC:<\/p>\n

While most of us shake our heads, snicker or secretly gloat over celebrity scandal and misfortune, the Hollywood Prayer Network views the planet’s “most influential zip code” as an important, yet written off, “mission field,” rife with people just waiting to be introduced to God.<\/p>\n

Karen Covell, a producer of documentaries and TV specials (“Headliners and Legends with Matt Lauer”), founded the non-profit ministry partly out of frustration with other members of her own faith.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes the Christian church outside Hollywood hates Hollywood,” she says. “If I can get the church to pray for the people of Hollywood, they can’t hate them or be afraid of them anymore.”<\/p>\n

In what may be a first, the prayer network is calling for Christians to stop boycotting movies and asking them to turn their TVs back on.<\/p>\n

Instead, the network gives away stickers that you can put on your remote control to remind you “to pray for the people involved in the shows on your screen” while you channel surf. You can also buy (on the network website) red rubber wristbands embossed with the Hollywood zip code, 90028, to remind you to pray for “America’s culture shapers.”<\/p>\n

Nearly 5,000 people are on the network’s email list; “people who want to create art but keep an ethical and moral code to our lives,” Covell says.<\/p>\n

And the ministry has put together nearly 650 prayer partnerships, in which a Christian outside the industry is teamed up with someone on the inside. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Will it work? You never know. It can’t hurt. I have to think more than a few people in Middle America are shocked to learn that there are actually devout Christians in Hollywood. (Though, clearly, there aren’t quite enough…) <\/p>\n

Photo: First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, CA<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fed up with all the schlock coming out of Hollywood? Hit your knees. That, at least, seems to be the message of a new ministry that’s cropped up in California, started by a woman who has produced documentaries for NBC: While most of us shake our heads, snicker or secretly gloat over celebrity scandal and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Hollywood have a prayer? Yes. 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