Many of you know World as a publication that strives to compete with other newsweeklies, but with an avowed evangelical Christian slant.
As a longtime reader of the publication, I appreciate it most for covering items that did not show up in The Washington Post and The New York Times the previous week, as both Time and Newsweek are known for doing so lamely.
So it's not surprising that World founder Joel Belz over at the WorldViews blog pointed out that Time, in its list of "100 men and women" who are transforming the world through their "power, talent, or moral example," sadly failed to include more than three people who could be considered religious figures.
While I cannot say here how disgusting I find the magazine's hero-worshiping style and selection -- Will Smith is on the list? Power? No. Talent? Definitely not. Moral example? Let's hope not. -- I do respect such efforts to catalogue the influential and powerful. It's relatively interesting, good for conversations (and blog posts) and probably good for the magazine's bottom line. But as Belz notes, the lack of religious leaders in the list is truly disturbing, especially since being a "moral example" is one of the qualifications:
Indeed, TIME lists 27 "artists and entertainers," 16 "scientists and thinkers," 22 "leaders and revolutionaries," 21 "heroes and pioneers," and 23 "builders and titans." (The fact that this actually adds up to 109 people may be because TIME saw no mathematicians among the world's most influential people). The three who might fall into the "religious" category are Muqtada al-Sadr of Iraq, Pope Benedict, and Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. Is organized religion really that miniscule in its worldwide influence these days -- or is that just the secularist perspective of the editors at TIME?
I would like to think that the lack of religious leaders on the list is not due to "the secularist perspective" of the editors. Smart secularists should be able to recognize the importance of religion in the world. The magazine clearly understood it in putting together its list of the 25 most influential evangelicals in February 2005. I would also, obviously, disagree with the position that organized religion is "miniscule in its worldwide influence," but an argument could be made that it is difficult to nail down 15 to 20 truly significant international leaders.
Who then should be on the list? Based on the inclusion of Tyra Banks, Stephen Colbert and Steve Nash (who was owned by NBA MVP rival Kobe Bryant on Sunday), one would think just about anybody can get on that list. So why did the editors omit the Dalai Lama, Rick Warren, Osama bin Laden and Tom Cruise (in jest, for his Scientology crusade)? Who would you add to the list?