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One of the articles that goes with the list asks, "Does Bush Owe the Religious Right?" It starts off with a quote from Bob Jones III. While he fits under the "religious conservatives" discussion of the particular article, he may not fit under the larger heading, "Evangelicals and America." Until recently, he proudly wore the fundamentalist name to distinguish himself from the broader evangelical movement led by Billy Graham, Carl Henry, J.I. Packer, John Stott, and others. (He now prefers the term preservationist, since the historical term fundamentalist now has only a pejorative meaning with violent overtones.) He offers a separationist model that is conservative and is a form of Christianity — but it's not evangelicalism. Likewise, another article looks at how Democrats are "trying out a more soulful tone." While there are many such species of evangelical Democrats, not all Christians who quote Scripture in that party are evangelicals as the term properly understood: combining the conversionist, activist, biblicist, and crucicentrist doctrines of 1700-1920 "fundamentalism" with the rejection of 20th-century fundamentalism's demands to "touch not the unclean thing."

A list of the 25 most influential evangelicals published by an evangelical group (such as Christianity Today) would surely be somewhat different than Time's list. But Time's reporters clearly did their homework and chose these names with care; they each bring something unique to the movement. Arguing that person x would have been a better choice than person y is fun and can stimulate good thinking, but let's be thankful that evangelicalism and its diverse leadership are becoming better known and better understood by the larger culture. Weblog has been able to meet many of these people in the course of business, and knows that they would rather point the way to Jesus than capitalize on their fame for their own ends. Let's pray that they'll find many opportunities to do so as a result of this package.

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February (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49