The Prophets of Late Night

Here's looking at you, John Oliver.

Also to a lesser extent- Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers all fit the profile to one extent or another.

I know what you are thinking- most of them aren't Christians.  Okay?  However, you don't have to be a Christian to have a similar function as a prophet.  All four of these guys spoke truth to power while Drumpf was president.  None of them shied away from criticizing the then-president.  

John Oliver is probably the one who most exemplifies this.  His recent pieces about welfare reform and timeshares are just the tip of the iceberg on how John tackles today's issues head on and tries to correct the issues that plague our culture.

In a lot of ways, a prophet is just someone that likes to speak the truth about issues to people, in the hopes of acquiring a course correction.  Often, what a prophet says is unpopular with some people.  A diehard prophet isn't afraid to say many things that are annoying or "against the grain" of popular culture to the people of their age.  While it's true that what these comedians say is not especially unpopular to a good percentage of the population, it also is wildly unpopular with another sector of the populace, and to me that's bold for modern culture, particularly as a comedian whose survival depends on being popular.  And annoying people in power seems at least a little risky, and these four have never feared retribution from Republicans or the Republican Party, or at least didn't fear it enough to shut up about the things that grieve them.

It's not just political speech either.  I watched this video here and it's obvious to me from this video that John sees the absurdity of the Oscars.  And I watched a tiny bit of the Oscars, and I get the feeling that Jimmy Kimmel kind of sees the absurdity as well- these vastly wealthy people self-congratulating on stage over doing their jobs... it's not the most impressive aspect of our culture.  I mean, you know Stephen Colbert's heart is in the right place- anybody who has seen "The Colbert Report" knows that Stephen has been functioning as a prophet in the political arena for some time now.  

We need more people willing to speak truth to power.  We need more people who have sold themselves out for the cause of truth and righteousness.  It's true, I wish they were all Christians, but sometimes you take what you can get.  I for one am grateful for these "Prophets of Late Night."  I hope you can see their value, too.