Newsmax recently released their picks for the 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. I’m sure it was no small project to sift through the thousands of possibilities among the millions of Evangelicals to arrive at a mere 100. Their top-ten are Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Jerry Falwell Jr., Joyce Meyer, Mike Pence, and the combination of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. It’s quite a list and has generated no small amount of response. I spent some time pondering it over the holidays and thought I’d share a few thoughts on it. First, the list is pretty good. That’s not to say I like or respect the people on the list or that I even regard them as evangelicals (or Christians for that). But I see what Newsmax was trying to accomplish and I think, according to their criteria, they assembled a list that meets their purpose. These 100 people undeniably wield tremendous influence over American Christianity. (Their criteria was simple: They chose people who share “a common belief in the holiness of scripture and the centrality of faith in Jesus Christ for their lives.”) Second, the list is terrible. Though I agree that these people wield tremendous influence over American Christianity, I wish many of them did not! In fact, there are some in the top-ten (and far more in the full list) who are clearly not even true believers in Jesus Christ. They are, in reality, “evangelical unbelievers” or “evangelical heretics.” Which brings us to our … Continue reading The 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America