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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
How about Brian David Mitchell, kidnapper of Elizabeth Smart? His defense is predicated on the fact that he's a prophet.
I see your point, but I subscribe to the idea that one man's prophet is another man's pain in the ass. I think that would apply to just about everyone on your list, with the possible exception of your wife. I don't want to go there.
By your definition, the idiots that used to hang out in front of the VFW in Grinnell, IA and called me "faggot runner-boy" every time I ran by there at the start of my warm-up loop 5 days a week would qualify as prophets. They were consistent in their message, I didn't want to hear it, and they were at least 2/3rds right in that I was indeed a teenaged runner.
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Well, let me add one additional criteria, one that might even rule out some of the people I mentioned: it should actually hurt to speak the word. It shouldn't be any fun. The prophet actually pays a price for speaking the truth; it would be easier to shut up. That would rule out the VFW yahoos, who were simply indulging themselves for fun.
Here's one situation in which we've all had the chance to be prophets: you're in a group of people that wants to do something. Everybody seems to want to do it but you, but you know that it's stupid or wrong or harmful. You also know that everybody in the group wants to think it's okay to do what they want, and they'll all be pissed at you if you speak your mind. Some of them might even break off with you. And you're not an outgoing guy, particularly. But you speak up anyway, strongly, because you know there's a greater good at stake than whether all your buds still love you.
And folks, that is hard for most people to do, even with a peer group. That's the part of being a prophet that the VFW guys, and maybe even Jon Stewart, fall down on.
I don't claim that all prophets are right, but that they believe they're right and are willing to pay a price to keep speaking their truth, instead of only saying the truth when you're paid.
As for being a pain in the ass -- that's practically the base definition of a prophet. Reminds me of what they used to say about good newspaper editors back in the old days -- you could always tell when a good one died, because his funeral procession was really short; they pissed off _everybody._
The short job description for prophet: "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable."