I’ll save you the suspense, I’m not on it. The current issue of Time Magazine has a cover story titled “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” which everyone is blogging mostly because Brian McLaren made the list. Speaking of McLaren, he’s issued a great annotated version of CT’s “The Emergent Mystique.
As for the Time list, among the bloggers who actually comment instead of just linking, Will Samson notes, “Although this list skews heavily conservative and seems to measure influence by standards like books sales, I found it to be an accurate for what it was describing and it looks more like the American Evangelical Church, as it is today.” Personally I found that I’d never heard of quite a number of the people on the list. Aaron Klinefelter enjoyes it less, and suggests, “If we’re going to have Best Christian of the Year Awards, let’s atleast have a category for Worst Sinner. Then we may have something decent to talk about.” He also provides a link to The 50 Most Influential Christians in America, which omits Brian McLaren but includes John Piper and a broader spectrum. The Cynic in me wondered right away if this one was an entire list created just so that Bush could be at the top of it. I also don’t quite know how Mel Gibson rates above Billy Graham. Rick Warren makes the list, as does Tony Campolo. Rick Warren seems set to inherit the spot of national honour previously occupied by Billy Graham, but somehow that doesn’t thrill me. Wait, I’m not even American…
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