Sunday, February 26, 2012

TheCry Hollywood Is Coming to California

TheCry Hollywood will take place on March 15th in Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, CA. In Canada, TheCry has hosted Christian prayer rallies not unlike TheCall, but this will be TheCry's first large-scale event outside of Canada. TheCry's events, as well as its leaders' reportedly dominionist rhetoric, have been documented by Dennis Gruending, Rick Hiebert and Religious Right Alert.

Materials advertising TheCry Hollywood emphasize the power and impact of the entertainment industry, and thus the importance of praying for God's influence upon it. According to its website, TheCry Hollywood will beseech God to bless those in the entertainment industry, pray for the release of "Holy Spirit inspired movies," and pray for the rescue of those involved in the sex industry. I'm admittedly puzzled by this last goal, as I do not see how it fits into TheCry Hollywood's entertainment-related theme.

In an invitation banner, TheCry Hollywood director Faytene Grasseschi discusses the objectives of the prayer rally.
"In 2001 our Prime Minister would not even mention the name of God at the 911 memorial -- he actually forbade it. Today, in 2012, Canada has a Prime Minister who is known for saying, "God bless you and God bless Canada." ... Long story short: we have literally seen the tide of a nation turn. We believe this can be directly attributed to the coordinated national prayer, reconciliation & blessing movement. God has put life and death in the power of our tongue ... Can you imagine with me what could happen if we could get hundreds of thousands of people with their hearts fixed and prayer, fasting and a spirit of faith towards Hollywood speaking life and blessing!? The potential is nothing short of massive."
At the 5:25 mark of an interview with It's Your Call, Faytene Grasseschi said that, "We're going to pray for Holy Spirit-inspired media to begin to impart family values ... and really believe God to move in this industry and in this city that touches the world."



Following the rally, the This Is That Conference will take place on March 16-17 at Angelus Temple. Scheduled conference speakers include Toure Roberts, Shawn Bolz, Patricia King, Faytene & Robert Grasseschi, Sean Feucht, and Fusion ministry director Rabbi Jason Sobel, who spoke at TheCall Detroit in November 2011.

Given my lack of familiarity with TheCry, I'm eager to find out what messages will characterize TheCry Hollywood. Will the rally adopt any stance on social issues as they relate to entertainment? Will the rally resemble American events such as the Response and various TheCall rallies? We'll see.


For more information on TheCry Hollywood, visit their website. For additional commentary, visit the following links.

Talk to Action: New dominionist effort to target Hollywood with prayer

Right Wing Watch: Targeting Hollywood with Spiritual Warfare

7 comments:

  1. .....and pray for the rescue of those involved in the sex industry. I'm admittedly puzzled by this last goal, as I do not see how it fits into TheCry Hollywood's entertainment-related theme.

    I suppose they're hoping Jennifer Swallows and Hugh G. Rection will turn over a new leaf and start starring in Ozzie and Harriet re-makes.

    Can you imagine with me what could happen if we could get hundreds of thousands of people with their hearts fixed and prayer, fasting and a spirit of faith towards Hollywood speaking life and blessing!? The potential is nothing short of massive.

    Should have left off the last three words. Since prayer doesn't have any effect, I'd frankly rather they put their energy into that than into activism which might actually result in even more boring movies than what we already get.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hooboy. I'm not familiar with TheCry either but my guess is we're in for more right wing craziness. Bring out the tinfoil hats.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Infidel -- The idea that prayer alone produces results is such an alien idea to me, as it apparently is to you. But then again, these are Charismatics we're talking about.

    Cognitive Dissenter -- It's fascinating. I didn't know about this group in Canada, so I probably need to pay more attention.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just what we need, more religious crazies. The RRRW likes to denigrate CA for it's purported liberal values, but in reality once you get outside the few blue areas it's a sea of red--and religious insanity. We've got more strip-mall churches and crazy preachers than you can shake a stick at. We're the home of the Crystal Cathedral (I hear it's up for sale), Rick Warren's "Saddleback Church" and Miles McPherson's "The Rock Church". We don't need Lou Engle and his traveling band of hate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Buffy -- I didn't realize that about California. I wonder how well TheCry Hollywood will play with California fundamentalists?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, yes, due to the severe shortage here, we need more evangelical imports. As my grandmother would have said, saints presarve us.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Backwater -- Well, the U.S. has been exporting evangelicals for years through missionary work, so naturally we'd develop a shortage.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are subject to moderation. Threatening, violent, or bigoted comments will not be published.