Two Individuals Who Continue To Influenced The World - One Person At A Time....
Influencers, trending names, hot topics, and individuals you should know about.
Let's first sit down and get to know,
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolentcivil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism.
What's the snap shot story on Martin Luther King, Jr's life?
Born Michael King, his father changed his name in honor of German reformer Martin Luther. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized
nonviolent protests inBirmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. He also established his reputation as a radical, and became an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his life. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.
How has Martin Luther King, Jr. "Influenced the World"?
On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., called the Poor People's Campaign. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting, and the jury of a 1999 civil trial found Loyd Jowers to be complicit in a conspiracy against King.
King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor. A memorial statue on the National Mall was opened to the public in 2011
Today the thoughts are shifting like the shifting of the sands blown by the wind; however, in the midst of things another man seems to be rising up and taking a simple stand. It's imperative that we next sit dow, have a cup of tea, and talk with, today's Catholic Pope - Pope Francis.
What's the brief story on Pope Francis life?
Francis (Latin: Franciscus; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936) is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church having been elected Bishop of Rome. He is thereby also the Sovereign of Vatican City.
Born in Buenos Aires as the son of Italian parents, Bergoglio worked briefly as a chemical technician before entering seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1969. From 1973 to 1979 he was Argentina's Provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and a cardinal in 2001. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, on 13 March 2013 the papal conclave elected Bergoglio, who chose the papal name Francis in honor ofSaint Francis of Assisi. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.
How is Pope Francis "Influencing the World"?
Throughout his life, both as an individual and a religious leader, Bergoglio has been noted for his humility, his concern for the poor, and his commitment to dialogue as a way to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and faiths. He is known for having a simpler and less formal approach to the papacy, most notably by choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace formerly used by his predecessors. In addition, he is known for favoring simpler vestments void of ornamentation, by starting to refuse the traditional papal mozzetta cape upon his election.
Pope Francis has affirmed Catholic teachings on sexual morality. He said that while homosexual acts were sinful, the homosexual orientation was not. He favours a wider active role for women in the Church, but believes the ordination of women into the Catholic priesthood is impossible. In addition, Pope Francis said that it was necessary to listen to young people and admired their non-conformism. In general, he is seen as advocating a more merciful attitude than his predecessor.
What is Pope Francis doing today?
Pope Francis recently began his first visit to the town of St. Francis of Assisi that he would
use personal, intimate gestures to send a strong message to the world at large. Shortly after dawn, at the Serafico Institute, a religious charitable institution in Assisi, Italy, that treats seriously disabled children, the pope stopped to greet every child gathered in the institute’s chapel — there were more than 100 in all — kissing some, bending an ear to a whispered greeting, making the sign of the cross on the foreheads of those unable to speak.
Later, in the room where St. Francis famously stripped off his clothes to dedicate his life to Christ, living in poverty, the pope used similar warm gestures addressing a group of poor people challenged “by this savage world, that doesn’t give work, doesn’t help, doesn’t care if there are children in the world who are dying of hunger.”
Then, in an impromptu moment — one of several delivered Friday — he appealed to the Roman Catholic Church and to all Christians to divest themselves of worldliness, which leads to “vanity, arrogance and pride,” because “it is bad for us,” he said. “It is the cancer of society and the enemy of Christ.”
With the world’s media as his megaphone — officials said more than 1,000 journalists were accredited for the visit — Pope Francis spread a message that would have reverberated with St. Francis, who was entrusted nearly 800 years ago by God to “repair my house.”
The church and Christians everywhere must look to St. Francis as an example for their own lives, eschewing personal comfort to care for those less fortunate, the pope said. They must strive to become “instruments of peace,” and not “instruments of destruction,” respecting everything that God has created, he said in his homily.
Referring on Friday morning to a day of national mourning after the shipwreck of migrants off the island of Lampedusa on Thursday, in which at least 110 people died, the pope said: “Today is a day of tears. Such things go against the spirit of the world.”
The pope’s carefully choreographed pilgrimage to the hilltop town of Assisi on the feast day of St. Francis retraced the footsteps of a holy man beloved throughout the world and widely respected even among people of other faiths. The pope visited the site — now a shrine — where the saint is said to have heard the voice of Jesus and was converted. He prayed before the tomb where the saint is buried, in the lower church of the frescoed Basilica and was scheduled later Friday to visit the hovel where the saint lived and the hermitage where he prayed.
“In Assisi, everything speaks of Francis and today everything speaks of you,” said the bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino, at the start of a Mass in a square next to the Basilica attended by thousands.
From the moment Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio announced last March that he would be known as Pope Francis, he has repeatedly manifested his intention to follow in St. Francis’s footsteps. This came through in small gestures, like his decision to live in a guesthouse at the Vatican rather than in the more luxurious apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
And it came through in his intent. Since his election six months ago, the pope has steadfastly initiated a series of measures aimed at reforming the church, reeling under years of criticism for the way it mishandled sexual abuse scandals involving the clergy, and under more recent allegations of mismanagement and corruption within its administrative bodies.
The pope has made changes within the Vatican hierarchy and he has instituted commissions to examine the inner operations of the Vatican’s financial institutions, which have drawn the attention of Italian prosecutors.
This week, a group of eight cardinals picked by the pope to be his advisers began meeting at the Vatican to discuss how to make changes to the 2,000-year old institution. On Thursday, at the end of a three-day meeting, the Vatican announced that the cardinals planned to produce “a new constitution with significant new aspects” to regulate the curia, as the administrative arm of the Vatican is known.
The intent is to place the curia at the service of the universal church, “in terms of subsidiarity, rather than the exercise of centralized power,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told reporters on Thursday. “The intended direction would be to put this into practice in the service of the church in all her dimensions.”
“It is very moving to be in Assisi on the Feast Day of St. Francis with Pope Francis, there is great expectation and joy in the church,” said Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, one of the eight advisers, who were all present in Assisi on Friday.
The cardinal accompanied the pope to his visit at the Serafico Institute for children.
“The Holy Father wanted to present to people in their moment of need, to show the merciful face of God in a moment when they are suffering,” the cardinal said. “That’s why his presence is so important. It challenges us to love more deeply.”
What do these two have in common? Why are they having a global influence?
Both men have simple life principles,, both of them are living them out one day at a time, both men have NOT dictated or come across like they are God, and both of these individuals are not seekers of fame...
Why would these elements lead to having a global influence?
Because the power of love, acceptance, and a simple truth are deeply impacting and life giving.
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tags: Martin Luther King Jr, Pope Francis, Influencers, Naya Rivera, Miriam Carey, Sinead O'connor, Chuck Smith, Influential, Influencers, government, global, impact, power, love, acceptance, truth, hope
