Frank Charles Laubach (1884-1970) born in Benton, Pennsylvania, was a Congregational Christian missionary, educated at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and due to his advocacy for literacy, became known as "The Apostle to the Illiterates."

This work is clearly the result of a lifetime among the poor and illiterate as a kind-hearted Christian willing to drop all dogma in order to bring food to the hungry and genuine comfort to the oppressed.

While an informed "anti-communism" drives much of his belief-system, he rejects the obsession of the evangelical church which makes it willing to become hate-driven, armament-launching and isolationist.

Writing in 1958, in the teeth of fanatic anti-communist obsessions in America, he states "Compassion is the most important theme in the world at the present time." [17] Fears of communism are missing the point. He clearly sees "Hunger as the world's chief problem".

Laubach prophetically seeks to reorient the Christians to their own faith: "We do not understand or practice the religion we profess." [19]

As a world traveler, and living among its peoples, Laubach has seen the effects of communism and its ruthless starvation and oppression which led to at least 60 million deaths. "Communists have done what they ought not to have done, but we have left undone what we ought to have done." [20]

He is prescient about the rise of the Chinese in spite of their oppressive rulers. And he is realistic about technology, understanding it as just as likely to leave us either enslaved or annihilated. [22]

This work spells out the rationale for feeding the hungry. And he relentlessly ties this task to the Biblical message of Isaiah, Micah, and Christ. [24]

Whatever evil is said or done to missionaries, and in some cases said or done by them, the work of missionaries has left monuments of good in the face of individual and institutional oppression. For example, "The fight of missionaries against slavery in Africa is one of the most heroic stories of all time." [39] Their graves cover the continent. [41] ( )