Posted on 04/28/2006 9:01:49 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
The Church Report is pleased to announce this year’s list of The 50 Most Influential Christians in America. Thanks to the readers of the magazine as well as the online readers for contributing over 150,000 nominations. Each of the people on this list is most deserving of this recognition. As with all types of lists, there are those who are not on the list – not because they weren’t deserving – but simply because we did not have enough space to publish a list of the 100 most influential. The staff of The Church Report did not choose this list; rather, we feel that the nominations from Christians across America and around the world are much more meaningful.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE LIST ( WITH PICTURES AND INTRODUCTION )
The Pope's not an American, so it's a little strange to have him on the list. Maybe they didn't want to look very hard for Catholics. More significant is that the old "mainline" Protestant denominations don't show up much on the list -- except maybe Baptists. Are evangelicals and non-evangelicals really that split? Different worlds?
"If you go to the Church Report and click on the link "meet the staff", you will find several names which are also found on the list of the "top 50 Christians"... "
Thanks for pointing that out.
This is part of the staff...
Newt Gingrich...this one was a real good Christian the way he treat his cancerous wife.
Stephen Baldwin......what a nut this one has been for years.
Dr. Paul Crouch, Sr.#6
Joyce Meyer #7
Chuck Colson #10
Dr. Robert H. Schuller #19
Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr.#39
Dr. Phil McGraw #50
hmmmm.....
John MacArthur
John Piper
Chuck Smith
Lambert Dolphin
D James Kennedy
Greg Laurie
Franklin Graham
Billy Graham
RC Sproul
Chuck Missler
I'm no fan of Benny Hinn, but there's no doubt he's influential. I'm not sure the list is, or should be, a commentary on the theologies, whether sound or flawed, of its members, but simply a list on how much "influence" their opinions have over sizable segments of the Christian population, from Catholic to Methodist to Baptist to Evangelical and everything in between.
Then again, there are noticable exceptions going by the critera of influence. What about the Left Behind guys? Oral/Richard Roberts? Jerry Falwell? Pat Robertson? Hal Lindsey? Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson? Ralph Reed? That foul Bishop Spong? Heck, Reverend Barry Lynn, who just sits and whines on cable about Christianity, and thus provides cover for the increasingly leftwing "mainstream" American Protestant denominations? All these characters are far more influential (unfortunately) than many if not most on that list.
No Antonin Scalia,no Clarence Thomas,no Father Neuhaus,no Mother Angelica,no Father Fessio,no Paul Weyrich,no Scott Hahn,no Sam Alito,no Chief Justice Roberts,no William Buckley,no Phyllis Schlafley,no Michael Novak and Pope Benedict XVI in 44th place????? This list is quite a chuckle.
It's a wierd list, is all I can say. When I saw no Catholics in the top 40, I thought, "Aw, Geez, not this again..."
But no, there are some Catholics way down the list. And hardly the most orthodox (read, Christian) ones, either: Sean Hannity??? (Not that Sean isn't a good Christian! please please please please don't take me the wrong way! It's just WIERD to see him ahead of the POPE! I mean, either count the Pope or don't, but I dare say he had more of an impact on American Catholicism than SEAN HANNITY (??!!!))
Where's John Roberts? Who the heck is that guy at #1? Andm geeessh, McCarrick is yesterday's news...
>> no William Buckley,no Phyllis Schlafley,no Michael Novak <<
... no Kathryn Lopez, no Rod Dreher, no Jonah Goldberg... oh, wait, uh, nevermind. :^)
As an evangelical, a lot of the names do sound "right there" for me. It tilts a lot towards evangelical Christianity. I would probably add Chuck Smith, John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul to the list.
Still, questions remain. How do they define "Christian"? Do we mean Christendom or the universal church? (They may be synomymous to the world, but the two do have different meanings among evangelical Christians). Some of them like Robert Schuller aren't particularly Christian.
And do we limit Christians that are primarily concerned with evangelism or those who are in public life who also happen to be Christians and whose conducts are obviously tied to Christian beliefs?
Have a look at the response to this list from (evangelical) Christian-oriented Rapture Ready: (note: it is not allowed to link to this thread from RR accordint to their board rules. I think I can link it from this site though):
http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=239265
Interesting that the consensus seems to be not enough genuine Bible-believing teachers. Someone put his top 10 as:
John MacArthur (know him)
Charles Stanley (know him)
Tom Shrader (who?)
D. James Kennedy (know him)
Ed Hindson (I know him, but will be "who?" to many of you here)
Zola Levitt (I know him, but will be "who?" to many of you here)
David Reagan (I know him, but will be "who?" to many of you here)
Jan Markell (who?)
David Jeremiah (I know him, but will be "who?" to many of you here)
Jerry Johnston (who?)
Another poster from a mainline Protestant background (UMC) put his ideas of whom should be on the list. Note his mainline Protestant background shows here - his list reads like who's who of conservative-leaning mainline Protestant Christians:
John Stott
Thomas Oden
Alvin Plantinga
Ben Witherington
The category is "Christians". I'm not sure, logically or theologically that Christ could be called a Christian.
CC&E
CC&E
I think that tells us a lot about this "poll" so to speak.
What's that? Your list?
NOT very many reformed (Calvinist) types. But I guess Chuck Colson and D. James Kennedy ain't bad....
He's a neener. We don't have a list.
I can't swear to it, but I think that Eareckson Tada is a Calvinist.
She shows up at quite a few Calvinist Conventions.
Isn't Brother Cloud on your list? ;-)
The most influential Christians are the ones you see everyday, trying to be good Christians.
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