Variety Summit Sees Hollywood as a ‘Mission Field’ for Christians (Part 2)

Last updated on: July 2, 2015 at 5:07 am by Kate O'Hare

Variety Summit Sees Hollywood as a ‘Mission Field’ for Christians (Part 2) 2015-07-02T05:07:52-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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“I’ve been surprised,” said Wilder, “by the people that have embraced it that aren’t Christians. I will run into people that aren’t religious, but that are just trying to reach that audience, studios and things like that. The people at Fox Home Entertainment will say as well, ‘This is a really important audience that we need to understand and reach out to better.’ I’m glad to see that they’re trying to listen and learn.”

Asked what people of faith have to do to succeed in the industry, Wilder said, “You just have to excel. You have to be true and honest with who you are. I’m not sure there’s any one-stop-shopping for that. If it was, everyone would just churn out hits in Hollywood.

“I think of myself as a journalist; I’m a journalist who happens to be a Christian, not a Christian that happens to be a journalist. While Christianity certainly came first — I grew up in church and all that, and that’s what people look at me as — that’s definitely a layer to what I am, but I’m also a wife a mother and things like that.

“You just have to excel at what you’re wanting to do professionally. Hopefully that’s what I’ve done, or I wouldn’t still be here after 23 years. Christianity has just been an important part of what that is, and it helped me stay focused and know what truly is important. That’s my honesty and my values, that I try to hold up to what I find in the Bible. That’s what works for me.”

Hollywood as the next great ‘mission field’ …

Wilder also thinks of Hollywood as “a huge mission field.”

She continues, “I don’t think there’s any sort of job you’d want to rule out as a Christian — let’s say, maybe prostitution. But where would Jesus go? Where would he go and preach?”

Wilder recalled a time that she told someone that she was invited to a charity fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion.

“He’s like, ‘I’m absolutely not going there.’ I’m like, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘Do you call yourself a Christian?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, and what better place to be, quite honestly?’ To discount something like that because you’re a Christian would be crazy.

“It’s an amazing mission field out there for sure. Follow your passion for your career, and what that’s going to be, and go where the jobs take you. Be true to who you are, and don’t limit yourself. You never know where you’re going to have an effect. I do feel very strongly this is where God wants me to be.

“I remember times when I thought about leaving here. I was talking to my mom, or my mentor, my prayer partners, and saying, ‘How can a mission field be going to the
Oscars? Doesn’t that sound crazy?’ I have friends and colleagues that are missionaries. What I was thinking in my head as a mission field was in Haiti, working with disadvantaged children, and building homes in Tijuana.

“I’m thinking, ‘My mission field is getting dressed up in designer gowns and going to the Oscars. Are you kidding me?’ I mean, just to wrap my head around that didn’t
make any sense. But my friends said, ‘What better place for you to be?’ That’s why we got this [summit] off the ground, and why we can keep it running, because we’ve got someone on the inside who’s going to make sure it’s going to happen every year.

“People said, ‘Well, maybe you should try something else,’ and you’re sitting there, saying, ‘No, actually, we’re going to keep doing this. We’re going to keep getting Variety‘s name out to other faith and family conferences.’ Isn’t that fantastic? Maybe that’s it. I won’t know until the end, but maybe that’s it.”

To quote “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “We are pilgrims in an unholy land” …

Ironically, the day after the Summit, Variety announced it was doing a huge special issue (I wasn’t approached to contribute to it) celebrating the rise of LGBT people in Hollywood, and how the entertainment industry contributed to the social upheaval that led to the SCOTUS decision legalizing same-sex “marriage.”

Wilder may be managing editor, but Variety still is beholden to cover the entertainment industry and the larger Hollywood community as they are, and they contain a disproportionate number of LGBT people as compared to the larger population, along with a preponderance of politically liberal people in general. That’s happened in part because, for whatever reason, too many serious Christians and other social conservatives avoid show business and media as a career.

That makes me wonder if, one day, we’re going to be called to task for walking away and giving up a chance to influence the larger culture, and especially new generations.

After all, if Roma Downey and Mark Burnett can do it, it can be done.

Images: Courtesy Variety/Kate O’Hare

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