Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
Over at Unfogged, Brock Landers linked to this list of America's top 50 most influential evangelical Christians. It's from January, so I suppose Ted Haggard has probably fallen out of the rankings, but I found it interesting how few of these people most non-evangelicals would recognize. I knew 22 of the 50 (Jakes, BGraham, Warren, Crouch, Meyer, Bush, Dobson, Colson, FGraham, Schuller, Stanley, Sekulow, Crouch Jr., Hinn, Hagee, Haggard, Kennedy, Parsley, Hannity, the Pope, Santorum, and Dr. Phil - those last four sound like a punchline), which probably puts me well ahead of most heathen liberals, but then sometimes I watch JesusTV late at night because it's funny. I should have recognized Jim Towey, what with him being in the government and all, but I didn't. I'd also never heard of Anne Graham Lotz, despite her being Billy Graham's daughter and living just down the road in Raleigh.
How'd you score?
31, bitches. Bonus points: I own books by 10 of them (Jakes, Graham (the old one), Meyer, Dobson, Colson, Lucado, Maxwell, Hinn, Parsley, and the Pope). Good reads, all.
That last sentence was sarcasm.
Posted by: Brock Landers at December 12, 2006 11:36 AM(Actually, Good Morning, Holy Spirit by Benny Hinn is a pretty good read, especially if you find JesusTV amusing.)
(And what sort of adult male goes by the name "Benny"?)
You didn't know the Very Reverand Dollar? You should look that guy up; he's really, um, something.
Posted by: Jackmormon at December 12, 2006 02:17 PM9, counting Ted Haggard, who I only heard about b/c he's gay. I win!
Also, I seriously contest the grouping of the Pope with "evangelical christians".
Posted by: Michael at December 12, 2006 03:46 PMPresident Bush served for six years as the 46th governor of Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and as a compassionate conservative.
Posted by: Michael at December 12, 2006 03:50 PMAnd it's great that they're greedy enough to want to count the Pope as among them, but still narcissistic enough to rank him several spots below Sean Hannity as an "influencial christian".
Posted by: Michael at December 12, 2006 03:55 PMCan we make this into a "soon to be discredited" list? If so, we can probably go ahead and cross off: 3, 8, 10, 28, 33, 35 (just because he looks like Spock), 44, and 46.
Posted by: HemlockEcho at December 12, 2006 06:39 PMOh and don't miss the banner ad for resolvechurchconflict.com.
Posted by: HemlockEcho at December 12, 2006 06:41 PMDiscoer the relief that an expert peacemaker brings!
Posted by: Clownæsthesiologist at December 12, 2006 09:53 PMI can't believe Dr. Jack van Impe didn't make the cut.
Posted by: Spike at December 12, 2006 11:02 PM