The "Evangelical Pope": The late Reverend John Stott 

The death of an international figure often invites a raft of revisionism: an effort to interpret the person's legacy in terms that suit political or ideological prejudices. Recent commentary over the passing of an evangelical leader, the Reverend John Stott, exemplifies this vice, perhaps most grievously in an essay by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Whatever the intent, it was a "tribute" typical of those that degrade rapidly into mere propaganda.

A longtime Anglican minister at All Souls, Langham Place in London's West End, Stott was one of the world's most influential figures in evangelical Christianity over the past half-century. He was a key framer of the 1974 Lausanne Covenant, a touchstone document in the rise of global evangelicalism. He wrote nearly 50 books, and his preaching and teaching reached beyond England and the United States into the developing world. He died in July at the age of 90.

But to suggest, as Kristof and others have done, that Stott interpreted the mission of Jesus as a call to social justice — as if Christ was crucified for his jeremiads against global warming — is to belittle the heart and soul of his ministry.