Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church

Preface and Acknowledgments

xi Preface and Acknowledgments Situated on a busy street in metropolitan Los Angeles, and with most of its congregation participants in the film business, the Oasis Christian Center strategically interacts with the Hollywood entertainment industry and negotiates social change by providing a religious identity as overcomer and champion that anchors its members’ difficult career choices and failed opportunities. By focusing on outreach to the entertainment community, Oasis creates spaces of community for ambitious people who find their personal goals frustrated, systems overwhelming , and relationships fractured. Here, they can achieve great confidence in a God who wants to use their talents to fulfill cosmic purposes. In the end, Oasis emerges as a way to resolve tensions of modern, urban life when ambition outpaces the ability to accomplish. To deal with their desire to succeed, individuals subsume themselves to a moral system that sanctions ambition and provides handles on how to work through failure, cope with challenges from overwhelming social structures, and manage exploitation and injustice. This new religious option fits a life context increasingly common among workers in the United States and allows for the continued strength of religion in the modern world. Hollywood Faith falls squarely into the emerging scholarly tradition labeled by R. Stephen Warner (1993, 2004, 2005) the new paradigm approach to American religion, which encompasses the work of such notable scholars of religion as Donald Miller, Nancy Ammerman, Rodney Stark, Roger Finke, Daniel Olson, Lynn Davidman, Andrew Greeley, James Davidson Hunter, Wade Clark Roof, Meredith McGuire, and Mary Jo Neitz. The term “new paradigm” embraces the unexpected, entrepreneurial forms churches can take and is now the dominant approach taken by scholars of American religion. Congregations, it turns out, are excellent vehicles for capturing and expressing social change. This perspective recognizes that congregations are free to adapt their operation to local cultures , and a growing number of scholars are taking notice.1 The intense interaction among the people of Oasis Christian Center contributed immeasurably to my own growing understanding of religion in our contemporary world. With warmth and hospitality, Pastors Philip and Holly Wagner, staff, and members generously shared their life experiences and insights into the church. I thank them for welcoming this stranger into their family. At Davidson College, special thanks to my Sociology of Hollywood seminar students for our interactions in 2005. I especially thank Justin Hartanov, Ellen Oplinger, and Kristen Shields for their permission to work with some of the xii Preface and Acknowledgments arguments from their final papers. Also, thanks to Jane Reid for transcription assistance and Joel Blanford for formatting assistance. Kristi Long, past editor of social sciences and religion at Rutgers University Press, first expressed interest in this project in 2003, and Adi Hovav, the current editor, graciously carried it through to completion. I appreciate Brad Christerson (Biola University), Elaine Howard Ecklund (SUNY Buffalo), and, most especially , Lynn Schofield Clark (University of Denver) for helpful comments on an early draft. Fred Kniss (Loyola University Chicago) provided excellent feedback on the full manuscript. Also, Professors Don Miller and Jon Miller received me as a visiting research associate in the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California during the summers of 2005 and 2006 to think and write. Michael Emerson (Rice University), H. Edward Ransford (University of Southern California), and Jon Johnston (Pepperdine University) continue to provide unfailing support. Finally, this book is dedicated to my wife, Laura, for her support of my scholarly pursuits. I also dedicate this book to our beautiful children, Genevieve, Nathan, Zachary, and Miranda. HOLLYWOOD FAITH ...