 Martin Luther –
Life and Teaching in the Christian Spirit
of Love for Neighbor?
Most of the murders and other crimes “in the name of God” mentioned above were committed by the Catholic Church. Does that mean that the Protestant-Lutheran Church should be regarded more positively?
How humane, freedom-loving and tolerant was the Church-founder Martin Luther? How did he regard his fellow men, and did he love his neighbor – which should be the highest commandment?
A man like Martin Luther is still highly regarded today. His Church follows in his footsteps, as was confirmed by Hermann von Loewenich (until 1999 the Lutheran bishop for Bavaria) on internet: We want to preserve the historic heritage of the Lutheran tradition as our cultural and spiritual homeland.
A Lutheran theologian compiled Luther’s demands in an extensive brochure, The Theologian, No. 3:
Luther called on the ruling princes to kill the rebellious peasants: Lunge, strike, and throttle whoever can do so. If you be killed in doing so, salvation to you: a more blessed death you will never attain. For you die in obedience to the divine word and commandment. (Wider die stürmenden Bauern, Weimarer Ausgabe der Lutherschriften [Against the Rebelling Farmers, Weimar Edition of the Luther Writings])
Luther demands the persecution of preachers who hold other beliefs: …and if they were to teach the pure gospel, yes even if they were like the angels and Gabriel from the heavens … If anyone wants to preach, let him prove his calling or order … If he refuses, may the superior command he be turned over to the proper master, called Master Hans [the executioner] …
Luther slanders and libels the Jewish population and demands their persecution:
If I could I would strike him [the Jewish citizen] down and pierce him with the sword in my rage.
… that their synagogues or schools be set on fire and may all that will not burn be heaped and covered with earth, that no person should ever see a rock or stone of it ever again. And this should be done for the glory of our Lord and of Christianity so that God may see that we are Christians.
… that also their houses be broken and destroyed …
… these worthless fellows and plunderers deserve no mercy and no pity.
… that they be forbidden to publicly praise God, to give thanks, to pray, to teach on pain of death … (Martin Luther, Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, Wittenberg 1543 [About the Jews and Their Lies])
Luther: It is such a desperate, viciously evil, vilely poisonous, thoroughly diabolical thing with these Jews, who for 1,400 years have been our plague, our pestilence, and all our misfortune, and still are today. In sum, we have righteous devils in them.
Luther even claimed that Moses, were he alive today, would be the first to set fire to the “Jewish houses and schools.”
Luther further demanded that one should take away from the Jews their entire religious literature, put them under house arrest, take all their money and goods, and send them into forced labor.
Luther also called for war and the “murder” of Turkish opponents in war: ... and with joy raise the fist and strike in comfort, murder, rob, and do as much damage as ever they may …
Luther wanted the death of “usurers”: ... so if one takes the highway robbers and murderers and breaks them on the wheel and beheads them, how much more should all usurers be broken on the wheel and bled and all misers be driven out, cursed and beheaded …
Luther demanded the death of unfaithful partners: Why are adulterers not killed? and wanted to torture prostitutes to death: If I were judge, I would want to have such a French poisonous whore broken on the wheel and bled.
Women with magical skills should be tortured and killed according to Luther: The sorceresses you should not permit to live … It is a just law that they be killed … If they will not convert, they will be handed over to the torturers.
Luther, about handicapped children: But when people tell about the devil-like children … so I say that they were either disfigured by the devil or that they are true devils. Many disabled persons who had been entrusted to Lutheran homes for the handicapped (for instance, in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria), were handed over to the state authorities in 1940/41, ultimately making reference to Luther’s teachings on the state (obedience toward authority). Those responsible knew that the handicapped would be killed.
In the end, Luther wanted to kill the pope: The pope is the devil; if I could kill the devil, why would I not do it?
The Lutheran Church also calls itself “Christian.” But where is the Christian spirit, the spirit of love for God and love for one’s neighbor in what Luther said? His instructions and maxims were put into bloody practice by the people and the regional rulers, down to the despots of the Third Reich.
The one who gives such bestial and murderous instructions to his fellow man, which reach into the present day in different form, cannot be expected to have a sympathetic heart or compassion for animals. Whether it is war, the destruction of many people, animals and land, or whether it is animal experiments or genetic engineering, the ethics and morals of both denominations are hardly different. To put it clearly: both church institutions are un-Christian.
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