The article I saw ( in the news ) cited a title including the phrase “the least of these” as being problematical for a religion-illiterate editor. I forget the rest of the title, but the phrase was being used as a referent that the editor didn’t “get”.
As for me, the only thing I could figure was that it was invoking St. Paul’s phrase in I Corinthians, “... but the greatest of these is charity” ( as I learned it. )
Seems reasonable, but is that it?
Matthew 25:31-46