Ministers and preachers that were compelled by their character and their faith to try and make the world a kinder, more just place. They didn't try to impose their beliefs on you...

I can respect that- and even as an atheist I can recognize the strength that kind of faith can give a person. If that strength and unswerving loyalty to a cause is used to help humanity then it doesn't matter that I think it is based in stone age superstition- more power to them, I would be happy to help them and consider them a friend.

However, in my experience, such people are the exception. Again, I am speaking only of my experiences here in the USA where faith has been perverted into a political weapon.

Here it is all too often used as a way for believers to set themselves above others, to dictate the behavior of others, to oppress others... in short it becomes an excuse to let the most evil inclinations to surface and run rampant. It becomes a tool used by demagogues to control and manipulate.

I grew up in the Bible Belt- Oklahoma... and while some of the best human beings I met were ministers, or preachers... the only time I have coldly debated pros and cons of killing someone in the next 60 seconds, it was an evangelical preacher and his assistant in rural Oklahoma. I was 17...In the end, I didn't do it- of course... but I had motive, means and opportunity, and in the heat of the moment I really wanted to... still think it would have been justified, morally- maybe not legally, they were trying to force their way into my house... but it would have been a double homicide.