Luther Was An Anti-Semite!
July 11, 2008 - 11:19 pm
You study, you read and you think you’ve heard it all — and then you find out that Luther was an anti-semite.
The same guy that nailed the 95 Thesis to the door in protest of all the injustices carried out by the Pope and his minions in the name of God, actually hated Jews and thought Muslims were vermin. Perfect.
Apparently there was one thing he did agree with — that extermination was a legitimate way of squashing dissent. He believed that peasants that did not agree with him should be killed. He also disliked Calvinists because apparently they thought more kindly of Jews. He wrote, The Jews And Their Lies — hardly a pamphlet to encourage tolerance and love of thy neighbor.
My husband grew up in the Lutheran Church and he never knew this.
St. Louis was a killer. One of the most revered Saints, Luis IX of France, Leader of the Holy Roman Empire, canonized by the Pope with many fine cities and children named after him, led two crusades into the Middle East and made it his mission to kill as many Jews and Muslims as he came across.
I went to an elementary school in Puerto Rico called San Luis Rey. I never understood why Rey, meaning King, was placed after the name of a Saint. Now I know.
In teaching our 8 and 10 year olds about the Middle Ages, I wonder how much I should leave out?
What is the difference between the cruelty and ignorance that led to an entire continent uniting their men (and sometimes children) to walk to another continent and kill its inhabitants to recapture what they believed was sacred ground … and today’s Islamist extremist, who will traverse seas and oceans to kill who they believe is threatening their way of life?
It seems the only differences are 800 years and instant communication. Oh, and weapons technology.