By Allan R. Andrews
American Reporter Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Who most influenced America's spiritual life in the 20th century?
Going into its second year of broadcasting, Public Television's "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly" joined the cadre of list makers last week when it posted its choices of the 25 most influential religious figures of the 20th century among Americans.
In a bit of a hedge, the program's staff and advisers listed the 25 selections alphabetically without rank ordering. They posted the list to the program's web site and asked visitors' opinions on who should or should not have been on the list. At last check, about 30 persons had responded.
For the record, here's the list (alphabetical):
Karl Barth,theologian;
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian and martyr;
Martin Buber, Jewish theologian-philosopher;
14th Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader;
Dorothy Day, Roman Catholic social reformer;
Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science;Mohandas Gandhi, Hindu activist for non-violence;
Billy Graham, American evangelist;
Gustavo Gutierrez, Peruvian founder of "liberation theology";
Carl F. H. Henry, theologian and first editor of Christianity Today; Abraham Joshua Heschel, rabbi and civil rights activist;
Pope John XXIII, convener of Vatican II council;
Pope John Paul II, current defender of traditional Roman Catholicism;Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights activist and martyr; Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Islamic revolution in Iran;
C.S. Lewis, British popular writer and defender of Christianity; Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and spirituality writer;
Elijah Mohammed, founder of Nation of Islam in U.S.;
Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian and social analyst;
Norman Vincent Peale, New York clergyman who popularized psychology in Christianity;Walter Rauschenbusch, father of social gospel;
Albert Schweitzer, German theologian and medical missionary to Africa;
Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, Lubavitcher Rebbe considered by followers to be the Messiah;
Mother Teresa, Calcutta nun, founder of Missionaries of Charity;
Elie Wiesel, Jewish writer and analyst of the holocaust.
When the program's host, Bob Abernethy, put the list in front of three specialists, they took cautious cracks at it:
The University of Chicago's Martin Marty saw William James, who chronicled the varieties of religious experience among Americans, as an oversight by the committee.
Phyllis Tickle, a religion editor for Publisher's Weekly, thought the lack of a Pentecostal representative an oversight. She noted Pentecostalism boasts being the largest growing segment of the Christian church. She, along with Marty, also thought that African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu should have been on the list.
New York Times religion writer Peter Steinfels thought the list was amiss in not including representatives from the arts. He cited the lack of any great religious composer on the list.
I wondered why a contemporary TV cleric such as Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson or Robert Schuller was not included, given the influence of TV. I also wondered if including Barth and Bonhoeffer also demanded including Emil Brunner or Rudolf Bultmann, Christian theologians of similar stature.
The PBS program also invited discussion of who perhaps was wrongfully included. While the three on-air critics hesitated to say one or another should not be included, they hinted Rauschenbusch perhaps was marginal and that the inclusion of Rebbe Schneerson perhaps an overstatement of his group's influence on Judaism.
Those who responded on-line to the invitation to comment were harsher in their criticism. (The postings remain at http://www.wnet.org/cgi-bin/netforum/re_comment/discuss/3-3 ).
Several argued the oversight of Joseph Smith or some other Mormon representative was unforgivable. In a sweeping comment, one reader said of the neglect of Mormonism: "Your erudites should be embarrassed to have forgotten (or deliberately omitted) this tremendous organization."
Another scored the committee for not including a representative of feminist theology, saying, "Aren't you aware that a revolution has taken place in Biblical scholarship and theology -- gender equality."
One reader wondered why Princeton theologian J. Gresham Machen was not included. Still another called for the inclusion of mystical writer Evelyn Underhill, and one called for the inclusion of Gerald Gardiner, the founder of Wicca.
Several posters to the web site's forum concurred with the noted neglect of Pentecostalism, and called for the inclusion of David DuPlessis.
Among others suggested by web site visitors: Emmanuel Swedenborg, Marilyn Manson, and Frank Buchman, all contributors to small but influential segments of America's religious life. One poster suggested William James, another Bishop Tutu.
Perhaps more interesting were those whom the online commentators thought wrongfully included.
One poster called for dropping Elie Wiesel. The same person, arguing that these people were either not religious or not influential, called for dropping Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Mary Baker Eddy, charging "This is a list compiled by a group of politically correct types anxious to please a PBS audience."
Another thought Mary Baker Eddy should be dropped to make room for a Mormon representative, saying, "Surely Mormons have more influence on the U.S. and the world than Christian Scientists."
One poster, who called herself a "religion writer" thought "Mary Baker Eddy oddly out of place in this mix."
One astute poster noted a problem with the listing: "What," he asked, "is meant by 'influence'?" He cited Adoph Hitler as one who has "influenced" 20th century Judaism more than any Jewish figure, and he argued that Mother Teresa, though a widely beloved woman, should not be construed as one who "influenced" religion in the United States.
Along those lines, I think if one measured "influence" only, one would have to consider Sigmund Freud or Carl Gustav Jung or Madelyn Murray O'Hair or Shirley MacLaine.
The same poster who wanted Machen included also argued for including Rousas John Rushdoony, proponent of a conservative Reformed Presbyterian movement known as "Christian Reconstruction." To support his argument, the poster noted: "He has already been featured on [PBS?] with Bill Moyers."
Come to think of it, how come Moyers didn't make the list?
Allan R. Andrews is an editor and freelance writer working in Washington, D.C. He is one of the top 25 religious influences on his four elementary school children. He can be contacted at allan.andrews@reporters.net