?

In terms of recognition, impact, respect and media coverage?

When you read the Old Testament, the prophets are speaking to power not only to the Kings of Israel, but also to the Empires and Imperial powers of their day.

So Moses, the descendant of slaves, ends up speaking truth to power against Pharaoh in Egypt's imperial court. Daniel, a refugee in exile ends up speaking truth to power in the court of the Babylonian emperor. Isaiah speaks truth to power against the invading Assyrian armies, particularly the emperor Sennacherib.

Often times the prophets are willing to put their lives on the line which includes sometimes imprisonment and death in many cases for righteousness and justice.

Can you name one person from the other group in history who you think has done good for humanity?

So I am a Christian theist. But I think George Clooney as an atheist has done enormous good for humanity and that Jean Paul Sartre was a great atheist philosopher.

In that time he's taken up various causes from Environmental Justice, to social justice for the poor and promoting interfaith dialogue.

Before that as Cardinal Bergoglio in Argentina he was a largely unknown and obscure figure. Now he's probably the most popular religious and international figure globally.

In a Sermon he gave, he stated it's better to be an atheist than a hypocritical Christian. He said hypocritical Catholics and Christian live double lives, claiming to follow Jesus but exploiting people, money laundering, and engaging in injustice.

He was hinting that he believes at least atheists have more integrity and that Christians who are hypocritical should stop saying they follow Christ.

Link:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/23/pope...

The 16th century Protestant Christian version of Christopher Hitchens.

I use the analogy of Hitchens because even though one is religious and the other an anti-theist they both have similar characteristics. Witty, Controversial, Polemical, Contrarian and Acerbic. Both of them used their polemics to attack sacred cows in a very controversial fashion that challenged political correctness.

With Hitchens you see it in his attack on Mother Teresa, Dalai Lama, etc. With Luther you see it in his insults on the Pope saying "You say, “What comes out of our mouth must be kept!” I hear it – which mouth do you mean? The one from which the farts come? You can keep that yourself!”_(From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil)

In his description of Henry VIII Luther said he was " .. a pig, an asss, a dunghill, the spawn of an adder, a basilisk, a lying buffoon, a mad fool with a frothy mouth."

Overall I think Eisenhower was a pretty talented as a president and general. But I find some of the negatives of his presidency are ignored

(i)Iran Coup(1953). Installing the Shah's dictatorship and overthrowing Mossadegh's government

(ii)Guatemala Coup(1954). Overthrowing the democratic government of Arbenz and installing a dictatorship

(iii)Congo Coup(1960)Overthrowing the democratic government of Patrice Lumumba

(iv)MAD(Mutually Assured Destruction). Introducing the concept of Nuclear Brinkmanship

(v)Indian Termination Act(1956). Termination was a policy of forcibly removing Native Americans from the reservations and pushing forced assimilation which essentially means destroying their culture

(vi)Operation "Weetback". The forced and inhumane expulsion of migrants in 1954

(vii)Approving J Edgar Hoover's decision to initiate COINTELPRO(1956).

Don't get me wrong. I think Eisenhower was still a pretty darn good president, especially his decisions on Korea, Suez and Little Rock. But some of his negatives are often ignored.

This is a quote from Rev. Billy Graham at the inception of the birth of the religious right which I find interesting.

“I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”_Billy Graham(1981)

In a meeting with indigenous leaders from the globe Pope Francis seemed to endorse the NoDAPL protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock saying indigenous people should be given priority in activity on their land.

Earlier this year he wrote an open letter to President Obama along with Desmond Tutu and Jimmy asking for Leonard Peltier to be freed. Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist who's been in prison in the U.S for the last 40 years.

Links:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/pope-sides-tribe...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/15/po...

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/tag/pope-franc...

This was from the Pontifical Biblical Commission during Pope John Paul II's Papacy:

"The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life. It can deceive these people, offering them interpretations that are pious but illusory, instead of telling them that the Bible does not necessarily contain an immediate answer to each and every problem. Without saying as much in so many words, fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide. It injects into life a false certitude, for it unwittingly confuses the divine substance of the biblical message with what are in fact its human limitations"_Pontifical Biblical Commission(The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church).

The history of the Crusades and the Church's role is pretty controversial. On the one hand there were many atrocities committed in the name of God.

On the other hand you saw the rise of a code of chivalry among the Knights of Europe. Before the Knights were mercenaries hired by local lords to loot and plunder the countryside and peasants. During the Crusading Era you saw the rise of religious orders of Knights that took monastic vows. (i)The Order of St Lazarus centered on protecting lepers and setting up leprasariums for lepers. (ii)The Knights Hospitaller set up hospitals for the poor and sick, including non-Christian patients such as Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land.

The code of chivalry included these lines "To protect the weak and defenceless

To give succour to widows and orphans"

During this time period you also saw the rise of religious orders that rejected violence all together. So the Franciscans under St Francis of Assisi were strict pacifists. The Carmelites were a religious order in the Holy Land who were former Crusaders that rejected violence and Holy War all together for religious reasons.

"I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.' Then the King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me. These then, will be sent off to eternal punishment"(Matthew 25:43-46).

In the Old Testament it says:

"God's curse on anyone who deprives foreigners, orphans, and widows of their rights"(Deuteronomy 27:19)

Yet many on the religious right will have you believe that xenophobia to the stranger, refugee or outsider is mandated by Jesus. And when you point out these verses to them all of a sudden they stop believing in the "plain meaning of scripture" as "bible believing" Christians and come up will all sorts of sophistry to back up their hypocrisy and ideological idolatry.

"Do not ill-treat or oppress a foreigner; remember that you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not ill-treat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword"_Exodus 22:20-24.

"Do not ill treat foreigners who are living in your land. Treat them as you would a fellow-Israelite ,and love them as you love yourselves. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt"_Leviticus 19:33-34

The Bible seems pretty darn clear on it's stance on refugees. How people can say they support a Christian agenda and be against refugees and migrants amazes me. Jesus in Parable of the Sheep and Goats(Matthew 25:31-45) list one of the reasons why people don't enter heaven "I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me"(Matthew 25:43).

Leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Next to Nelson Mandela he played a pivotal role in ending Apartheid in South Africa. After the Apartheid era he was responsible for the Truth and Reconciliation commission in reconciling blacks and whites in South Africa.

In recent years he has continued fighting for human rights on issues like Palestine, HIV-AIDs, Sexism, as well as homophobia and transphobia. In all of his social justice campaigns he states "I don't have a choice, I do it because I feel God is making me do it" and sights Jeremiah as his inspiration.

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRDBWoV_hA0

Francis sent Trump a Telegram about him being president, being cordial. In it he quoted the Parable of Lazarus and Rich Man Jesus tells. In it the Rich Man ends up in Hell do to his failure to take care of the poor symbolized in Lazarus who was under such crushing poverty that dogs were licking his wounds at the Rich Man's gates. Which is interesting considering Trump is a Rich billionaire and his views on the poor.

In the past Francis seems not to have had a positive view of Trump. He said Trump wasn't a Christian because of what he saw as his racist and xenophobic remarks about migrants and refugees. But he also said he could care less about the personality of the president. He only cares how their policies affect the poor.

"Jesus served the people, He explained things because the people understood well: He was at the service of the people. He had an attitude of a servant, and this gave authority. On the other hand, these doctors of the law that the people… yes, they heard, they respected, but they didn’t feel that they had authority over them; these had a psychology of princes: ‘We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey.’ And Jesus never passed Himself off like a prince: He was always the servant of all, and this is what gave Him authority."

He basically hinting at Jesus emptying himself as Philippians 2 where it says Christ "emptied himself and became a servant". He's saying that Christ displayed authority through serving others, but religious leaders often display authority through authoritarianism, hypocrisy and self righteousness.

Link:

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/01/10/daily_h...

MLK is a hero of mine and though not perfect, he seemed to have lived out the best of what it means to be a Christian. The prophets of the Old Testament(Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos) preached social justice for the marginalized and the oppressed with Isaiah saying "See that justice is done-help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights and defend widows"(Isaiah 1:17) and "loose the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice and set the captives free"(Isaiah 58:7). King lived that out in his campaign against racial segregation in the South.

Jesus preached peace and nonviolence in the Sermon on the Mount. King lived out Jesus's injunction to turn the other cheek in his civil rights campaigns in Selma, March on Washington and other places, as well as Jesus's teaching on peace when he harshly denounced the Vietnam War. You can even hear it in his sermons when he quotes Jesus and the Old Testament prophets.

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL4FOvIf7G8

This is a short clip from the Anglican Archbishop of South Africa Thabo Makgoba. Successor of Desmond Tutu(the famous anti-apartheid activist) he is condemning anti-LGBT violence and discrimination. He takes a somewhat conservative view of sexuality, but says that is no reason for bigotry and that we are called to respect difference.

He states that the ultimate moral responsibility is what was asked in the Good Samaritan parable, who is my neighbor.

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YdSbvp1UUk

Mark Colville is part of the Catholic Worker Movement started by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin which which was big in the 1960s and takes an Anti War and Anti-poverty stance.

He along with other Catholic Workers staged a series of protests at New York Drone Base over the issue of drone strikes the American government launches. Because of that he was arrested and faced two years in Prison.

Earlier in 2009 Fr. Louis Vitale was also arrested for protesting America's drone war.

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYOQnEVeJFM&t=13s