James M. Wall

James McKendree Wall(27 October 1928 – 22 March 2021) was an AmericanMethodistminister and journalist who wrote extensively onreligion in the United States.

The Reverend James M. Wall
Wall in 2017
Born	James McKendree Wall (1928-10-27)October 27, 1928 Monroe,Georgia,US
Died	March 22, 2021(2021-03-22)(aged 92) Elmhurst,Illinois,US
Alma mater	Emory University University of Chicago
Occupations	Methodist minister journalist
Office	Editor ofThe Christian Century(1972–1999)
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Mary Eleanor ​ (m.1953)​
Ecclesiastical career
Religion	Christianity (Methodist)
Church	United Methodist Church
Ordained	1955
Website	wallwritings.me

Life and career

Wall was born on October 27, 1928, inMonroe,Georgia.He received an undergraduate degree in journalism and aMaster of Divinitydegree fromEmory University,as well as aMaster of Artsdegree from theUniversity of Chicago.He was ordained as a minister in theUnited Methodist Churchin 1955.

He edited the United Methodists'Christian Advocatefrom 1962 to 1972.Timewrote that "Wall brought to that journal a bright streak of professionalism while indulging his affection for writing; he was his own film critic."

Subsequently, he served as editor and publisher ofThe Christian Centuryin Chicago from 1972 through February 1999. TheCenturywas considered the flagship magazine of USmainline Protestantism.From 1999 through 2008, he wrote a column forThe Christian Century,while serving as senior contributing editor. He was a contributing editor from 2008 until July 2017 when his name was removed from theCentury'sprint masthead. According toNewsweek,Wall began hisCenturyeditorship by resolving a financial crisis and shifting the focus: "I see the Century as the midwife of ideas and issues. We're less interested in being programmatic than in reporting the world from a religious perspective", he said.He began a blog on April 24, 2008.

In its obituary for Wall,The Christian Centurynoted "hisecumenicalinterests, his stabilization of the magazine's financial picture, and his encouragement of some new directions for the Century's pages "as well as Wall's love for politics and" extensive pro-Palestinian writing [that] at times devolved into anti-Semitism ".

Wall died on March 22, 2021, inElmhurst,Illinois.

Film rating

During hisCenturyeditorship, Wall had a significant role in developing theMotion Picture Association of America film rating system.According to William D. Romanowski, he came to the attention of the film industry after defending the value of such films asThe Graduate,Bonnie and Clyde,andThe Pawnbroker.His July 1968 speech to theNational Association of Theatre Ownershad a "profound effect" on theater executives, "raising the prospects of vastly improved lines of communication between organized exhibition and religious organizations".

After serving several terms as chair of theNational Council of Churches's Film and Industry Committee, in 1994 Wall was named Special Consultant, Relations with the Motion Picture Industry, for the National Council of Churches, and was the organization's representative to the appeals board of the ratings board of the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Advisory positions

Wall served as a member of abioethicspolicy task force for theNational Aeronautics and Space Administrationfrom 1994 to early 1996. He also served on a special committee of theNational Academy of Sciencesthat, at the request of theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention,monitored dose reconstruction studies at nuclear weapons processing sites, was a member of the Program Review Committee forBattelle Memorial Institute,which monitored a program that identified a permanent location for the nation's high-level nuclear waste disposal site, and was a member of a special committee of the National Academy of Science that produced a 1988 report on the use of animals in biomedical research.

Democratic Party

Wall was active in theDemocratic Party,serving in a variety of roles. He was chair of theJimmy Carterpresidential primary and general election campaigns in Illinois in 1976 and 1980 and a delegate for Carter at the 1976 and 1980 Democratic National Nominating Conventions.He served a term on the Democratic National Committee and was an unsuccessful candidate for theHouse of Representativesin 1972. Also that year, Wall was an organizer and chair ofGeorge McGovern's Illinois delegates to the Democratic National Nominating Convention.In 1983-84, Wall took a six-month leave fromThe Christian Centuryto manage Congressman Paul Simon's successful primary campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois.Wall worked for Democratic candidates with whom he disagreed on significant issues, but as a 1992 article in theChicago Readernoted: "What Wall learned 20 years ago is that politics is about power, not perfection. A president with whom you agree 70 percent of the time is better than a candidate with whom you agree 100 percent—and who loses to somebody with whom you agree only 10 percent of the time."

Awards and honors

He was Alumnus of the Year in 2001 at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

He was awarded honorary degrees byEmory University,Elmhurst College,MacMurray College,Willamette University,Coe College,andOhio Northern University.

In an introduction to two lectures delivered atPrinceton Universityin 2000, Wall's work combining religion and contemporary culture was described by Princeton's Amy Scott Vaughn,

"James M. Wall invites us to join a search for grace in the practices of everyday life. He examines the secularity that stands as a barrier to finding God’s grace and then considers avenues to finding God’s grace within that very secularity. Our society, says Wall, is dominated by people and institutions that want to keep the sacred from being an essential part of our private and public lives. Wall challenges us to lead youth out of the secular mind-‐set and into a larger space where God will find us with a redemptive word of grace".

Works

Books

• Church and Cinema. A Way of Viewing Film.Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1971.
• Winning the War: Losing Our Souls.Christian Century Foundation, 1991.
• Hidden Treasures, Searching for God in Modern Culture.Christian Century Foundation, 1997.

Book chapters

• "Biblical Spectaculars and Secular Man," inCelluloid and Symbols,edited by John C. Cooper and Donald Messer. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 1972.
• "François Truffaut," inThree European Directors: Truffaut, Fellini, Bunuel,edited by James M. Wall. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1973.
• "Integration and Imperialism: The Century 1953-1961" and "Adopting Realism: The Century 1961-1971", inA Century of the Century,edited by Linda-Marie Dellhoff, Martin E. Marty, Dean Peerman, and James M. Wall. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1987.
• "2001: A Space Odyssey and the Search for a Center," inImage and Likeness: Religious Visions in American Film Classics,edited by John R. May. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1992.
• "Searching for Grace in the Stuffness of the Secular" and "Overcoming Secular Barriers to God's Grace", inLife Together: Practicing Faith with Adolescents.Princeton, NJ: Institute for Youth Ministries, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2001.
• "Happily Uncharted," inConnected Spirits: Friends and Spiritual Journeys,edited by Andrew J. Weaver and Donald Messer. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2007.

As editor

• Theologians in Transition: The Christian Century "How My Mind Has Changed" Series.Crossroad Publishing Company, 1981.

Bibliography

• Contemporary Authors.Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co. 1971.
• Hart, Gary Warren (1971).Right from the Start: A Chronicle of the McGovern Campaign.New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Publishing Company.ISBN978-0812903720.
• Romanowski, William D. (2012).Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies.New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0195387841.
• Hartley, Robert E. (2012).Paul Simon: The Political Journey of an Illinois Original.Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.ISBN978-0809329458.
• Lee, Phillip (2017). "A Road Movie from Georgia to Palestine and Home Again: Interview with James M. Wall".Media Development.LXIV(3): 21–27.
• Schram, Martin (1976).Running for President: A Journal of the Carter Campaign.New York: Pocketbooks.ISBN978-0812903720.

External links

• Publications by James M. WallatResearchGate
• "God is in the Precincts",Chicago Reader
• Wall's biographical sketchArchived2018-03-27 at theWayback Machineat the University of Chicago Divinity School
• Wall's blog