Alright, I told Kalila I wasn’t going to do this blog last week when I had the idea, but I was compelled for whatever reason. So here goes, my thoughts on Time Magazine’s choices for the 25 most influential evangelicals. I will add their method of choosing:
TIME’s list of 25, composed with the help of preachers, politicians, scholars and activists, deliberately leaves out some familiar figures–Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Don Wildmon–whose stories are well known. Instead, we focus on those whose influence is on the rise or who have carved out a singular role for themselves. The following pages serve as a primer to their growing force in American life.
Rick Warren. Warren got the lead in this article, with a large picture and favorable write-up. He is the author of “The Purpose Driven Church”, “The Purpose Driven Life”, and their acompanying paraphernalia. His websites (www.pastors.com, and www.purposedriven.com) have been fueling the the “purpose driven” movement for the past few years as they have been promoting the “40 Days of Purpose” which has been blitzkrieging America. I will blog on Warren more in the future. I would have to agree with Time’s choice here. Zondervan launched an incredible advertising campaign, so much so, that you see the “Purpose Driven Life” at every Walmart and Target across the country. Hard to criticize a guy who really doesn’t care much for the attention. He’s just looking around at the church and wondering why we can’t remove unnecessary barriers. He’s a Southern Baptist, he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (the largest seminary in the country), Fuller Theological Seminary, and he did a lot of research before he ventured into planting a different kind of church in Mission Viejo, CA. Although I might not agree with all of his ideas, and I think he can be theologically shallow, there is no doubt that he is making an impact. It will be interesting to see in the next few years how churches defined as “Purpose Driven” will look like.
James Dobson. Again, I would agree with their choice here. He is the reigning Pope of family matters, and just gains popularity. It’s hard for me to criticize him since my mom met him in ‘96 and he prayed for me with her when I was backsliding. But I will say a few things. First, he is first and foremost a trained psychologist, not a preacher or bible scholar. That kinda bugs me, because a lot of what he can say has its roots more in Freud than in Jesus. Second, he just needs to shut his mouth sometimes when it comes to different cultural stuff. I applaud his efforts for pro-life activism for the most part, but he needs to give better reasoning on the homosexual issue. I have heard him on Larry King, Hannity & Colmes, and Scarborough Country, and each time I felt like I was seeing Bush talk about the War; there are just better reasons. Lastly, stop calling boycotts. He is starting to sound like Southern Baptist leaders when they were calling boycotts on Disney. Get over it already. People at Proctor & Gamble have families to feed too.
Michael Gerson. They call him, “The President’s Spiritual Scribe,” because he is one of Bush’s major speechwriters. An obvious position of influence, so thus whole-heartedly agreed. He was probably behind the Challenger shuttle speech, as well as the first 911 speech, which I both thought were appropriately done speeches for their contexts. He seems to help Bush weave in biblical allusion where called for. (Don’t know what you think of this one James).
Richard John Neuhaus. Although he is no longer an evangelical (former Lutheran turned Catholic priest), I guess he can still count. Neuhaus is the editor of “First Things” which is linked on the sidebar of my blog, so I would probably agree with this choice. He has been a voice for many years on all kinds of ethical and religious fronts. One particular issue I recall of note is one where he debated Stanley Fish on whether evangelicals should even be invited to the “dialog” of postmodernity’s quest for truth (February ‘06, http://www.firstthings.com/menus/ft9602.html).
T.D. Jakes. Unfortunately, I have to agree with this one. He is riduculous, and I hate the health & wealth/word-faith movements, but they are attractive to people. So as one of the “stars” of TBN, Daystar, and Inspiration, he cruises around in his newest Mercedes, while dressed in his previoulsy unworn Armani suit. He’s a guy I cringe at every time I come across on the tube or the tuner. I guess we can call him and Creflo Dollar “The Evangelical Pimps”.
Billy and Franklin Graham. No doubt here. Billy Graham is the most well-known Christian since the apostle Paul. I like the direction that Franklin is taking the ministry, but I thought the “Crusades” were over about 600 years ago. Billy’s theology has always been an enigma to me, but my good friend Danny O is one morsel of fruit from his ministry. We could call Billy the father/face of the Neo-Evangelical movement (if that’s what you want to call it).
Joyce Meyer. This one is a suprise to me. My mom loves Joyce Meyer, so maybe Time needed to balance out things by looking at probably the most influential woman. I might have thought of Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, or Tammy Fay for that matter.
More to come…
