James McKendree Wall (27 October 1928 – 22 March 2021) was an American Methodist minister and journalist who wrote extensively on religion in the United States.
Time wrote that "Wall brought to that journal a bright streak of professionalism while indulging his affection for writing; he was his own film critic.
[5] During his Century editorship, Wall had a significant role in developing the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system.
Wall served as a member of a bioethics policy task force for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from 1994 to early 1996.
He also served on a special committee of the National Academy of Sciences that, at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monitored dose reconstruction studies at nuclear weapons processing sites, was a member of the Program Review Committee for Battelle 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.
[8] In 1983-84, Wall took a six-month leave from The Christian Century to manage Congressman Paul Simon's successful primary campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois.
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".