There's a difference between people a person may truly admire, and people that person will claim to admire... My friend claims that Rage Against the Machine are amongst his heroes as he wants to give off the air of rebelliousness (and yes, he is over 11), but his true heroes will surely prove to be far less "cool"...

I think who you admire shows a lot about your personality in general and I remember learning how important it was from my 4th grade teacher, many moons ago. Admiring someone means we want to be more like them or have more of a specific quality you see in them. I couldn't agree more with Edit about the Manson thing... definitely counseling sessions, maybe some deprogramming too! And of course Jesus is The One I admire the most too. A lot has been said within the media recently concerning power thinking and books are selling like crazy on subject lines like " The Science of Getting Rich " and " The Laws of Attraction ". I consider this on the same level. The one thing they always seem to leave out is the fact that if you're not sure what you want or who you want to attract, you're likely to attract whatever you're most familiar with. That can be a problem.

I am a follower and admirer of Jesus and people will see me as a Christian (which I am).

Could be useful. If someone expresses an admiration for Hitler or Manson, that's a person you want to avoid or, if you're feeling kindly, take the time to try and convince them that they're in need of some form of  therapy or counseling. On the other hand, as with everything in life, it doesn't always pay to jump to hasty conclusions. The late William Buckley was known to express a grudging sort of admiration for Che Guevara, but obviously no one in their right mind was going to suggest that Buckley was a Communist.