Christians Unite for Strike's End

Editor’s note: Just one week after we posted the following story, writers voted to end their strike and return to work.

Everyone in Hollywood is ready for the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) to end its lengthy, debilitating strike. The strike has brought the film and television industry to a standstill, cost thousands of jobs and over $1 billion in total economic productivity, and angered fans across the world now deprived of their favorite television shows.

But beyond the obvious, headline-grabbing impacts, there is an even greater, more crippling effect on the average person in L.A. Many people (and not just the 12,000 striking writers) are suffering financially, emotionally, even spiritually from the effects of the strike, and Hollywood Christians are responding with care and prayer.

Earlier this month, Kim Dorr, Associate Pastor for Entertainment Ministries at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, joined up with an interdenominational coalition of Los Angeles-based Christian entertainment professionals to sponsor weekly prayer and fellowship gatherings as long as the strike is going on. Dorr, who also runs the Defining Artists talent agency in Universal City, recalls that in the early days of the strike she sunk into a “sky is falling” state of panic as wide swaths of the industry were laid off and the town appeared to be shutting down. But then Dorr realized that “for such a time as this, I was ordained to minister to these people.”

Thus, along with writer/showrunner John Tinker (Judging Amy, The Practice), writer John Wierick (The Matthew Shepherd Story), writer Barbara Nicolosi, and Karen Covell (founder of Hollywood Prayer Network), Dorr made plans to create a “safe spot where the two sides could come together without demonizing the other.” The result was a series of weekly gatherings that began January 25 and will continue until the strike concludes.

Thankfully, the three-month-old strike finally does appear to be nearing an end. Dorr and others cite industry rumors that the strike will likely end before the Feb. 24 Academy Awards—very good news for a town that has suffered immensely because of it.

“Every day that goes by it gets a little worse for the people affected,” notes Dorr, adding that the dominance of the film and television industries in L.A. leaves few alternative job choices for the thousands now out of work. “People are grasping at straws trying to figure out what to do. Actors and writers are used to going long periods of time with no work, but they always have the hope of receiving a call. With the strike there is no hope, and without hope the town has fallen into a desperate state of, ‘What to do now?'”

‘Everyman’s strike’ hurts many

It’s important to Dorr that Christians empathize with and care for the thousands of working people who are suffering, thus demystifying the impression of L.A. as a place dominated by the rich and famous. The writer’s strike, Dorr insists, is wrongly perceived as being predominantly white collar.

“It’s much more of an everyman’s strike than people think. Only a small percentage of those on strike are what you would call rich. Our focus should not just be on the writers and producers, but on the thousands of below-the-line people [grips, gaffers, technicians, set designers, etc.] who are getting laid off.”

Indeed, in such a heavily “industry” town as L.A., a massive work stoppage like this has significant trickle-down effects on the economy. Restaurants, hotels, theaters, and other service industries are being hit heavily as less and less money is being made and spent. The entire city is feeling the effects, both on the macro and micro level.

Wierick, who makes a living as a screenwriter, saw the strike coming for “about a year” and thus put enough money away to survive a lengthy period of no work. For him, the most profound impact of the strike has been emotional.

“Beyond the economic impact of the strike, there is a severe emotional and spiritual toil,” Wierick commented. “People kept from their work for so long become frustrated and depressed.” Wierick, an elder at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, suggests that the Thursday night gatherings offer a place for those struggling to find hope.

At the January 31 event at Hollywood Presbyterian, a group of about 30 writers, actors, and other industry-friendly people braved the Thursday night Hollywood traffic (heightened by the Clinton-Obama debate down the street at the Kodak Theater) to come to a one-hour service of ministry to and prayer for Hollywood.

Eric Bryant, pastor from Mosaic, delivered a message about how “we can know that the future can be better than what we’re going through now,” and that we shouldn’t be paralyzed by our painful pasts, present disappointments, and fears of the future. He said that Christians—even in their own suffering—have to step up and offer comfort to those who are hurting. During a small group prayer time, Bryant called for prayer for all those suffering from the effects of the strike, but also for those who are just in need of love, like Britney Spears or Heath Ledger’s family.

“There are people out there that—if we [as Christians] don’t get out of bed—will not be helped,” said Bryant. “Our chief question should not be one of blame or pity, but ‘who out there needs a hug?'”

‘A night to repent’

for this week’s meeting—slated for Thursday—screenwriter and former Act One Director Barbara Nicolosi will deliver a “penitential-themed” message to the group, in the spirit of Ash Wednesday.

“We decided to have a night to repent as members of this large industry for our own individual small failures of greed and fear, and then know that this would go up from our corner of the industry and maybe bring down God’s mercy on the whole town,” said Nicolosi. “Christians in the business should be able to witness to both sides a way to get along together and make beautiful things without resentment and demonizing”—a pretty revolutionary concept, notes Nicolosi, for an industry conditioned to distrust and blame. “The idea of accepting the blame for the errors that we each have made because of our own greed and fear would literally strike people dumb.”

Nicolosi finds it interesting that in the two weeks of concerted prayer efforts by Christians in Hollywood, more progress in WGA negotiations has been made than in the previous two months. When the strike finally ends, few in Hollywood will consider the possibility that Christians played—or, more accurately, prayed—a role behind the scenes.

But as Nicolosi and others like to think, “Maybe it was our prayer too.”