I thought I could avoid it. The hoopla and hosannas. I'm talking about the Academy Award Celebration in Hollywood. I could just as well be talking about the college basketball championships. America's religious involvement with sport and entertainment is near its zenith. In fact, this year the Hollywood ritual of bequeathing the golden statuette, the Oscar, moved to what most seem to believe is its proper place - the Sabbath.

I was especially hopeful that I might miss the ubiquitous Oscar presentation by being airborne during the scheduled broadcast time. The fact that our West Coast departure had been delayed was even more encouraging. However no sooner had we reclaimed our baggage in Boston when overhead television monitors confronted us with the fact that we touched ground too soon. Our son who met us at the airport, suggested we duck inside a restaurant for some coffee. There the waitress tells us to have a seat, that they are just getting in gear for the big picks and directs our attention to...there it is again, the television.

Veteran screen actor Jimmy Stewart once commented about Hollywood's self-congratulatory preoccupation: "The way people give awards to each other around here it is amazing that there is time left to get anything done."

No one can deny the powerful influence of the media. The late Malcolm Muggeridge, former BBC correspondent, an atheist turned believer who in his last years became a bold spokesman for Christ, remarked, "It is a truism to say that the media in general, and television, in particular...are incomparably the greatest influences upon our society today, exerted in all social, economic and cultural levels." He once told audiences that if the devil would have offered Christ a fourth temptation in the wilderness, it would have been a prime time television contract. He suggests that to put Christ into the hands of this world's media would be to subject the Truth to distortion. The truth will not be subjected to a lie. Jesus Christ will see that His Great Commission succeeds. Jesus is God incarnate, not God in celluloid. He is alive to be answered to, not merely an image to be played upon a screen.

Hollywood seems to have a Great Commission of its own. It often irresponsibly defines reality, promotes immorality, degrades human sexuality and glorifies both blasphemy and violence. As a missionary overseas, I was disturbed to see America exporting for international consumption the distorted values of syndicated TV shows such as "Melrose Place" and "Dynasty".

Perhaps Hollywood is doing so well because the church is doing so little?

It is ironic that Hollywood at the turn of the century was founded as a Methodist community. The Christians fled the area when the 'unsavory characters' from the film companies moved in. The unsavory quality of the Hollywood community grew in its unsavory influence because 'the salt of the earth' that could savor it, fled (See Matthew 6:13).

With the exception of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and a few other groups, there was no organized outreach to the entertainment industry in LA until 1980. Now ministries such as Associates in Media of Campus Crusade for Christ and others are attempting to take back the lost ground. Where are our Christian communicators? Once Christian writers like Lloyd Douglas could boldly publish their accounts of Christ and His church as "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or "The Greatest Faith Ever Lived". Where is that boldness in the media today?

Last week Billy Graham celebrated his 80th birthday. In his lifetime he has effectively spoken to more people than any other human being in history. With characteristic humility Graham responded to questions about his ability to influence so many. "I'm no different from any other follower of Christ," Graham said, "except that, perhaps I take Him more seriously than some."

His 'taking Christ seriously' has led him to 'work a little harder, stay at it a little longer and plow a little more deeply'.

May we do the same.