It is interesting how many readers called attention to Luther's anti-Judaism. He certainly cannot be defended on that score. There is probably a thread of truth to drawing a line from Luther to the Holocaust--at least in laying down a bedrock of European anti-Judaism which bore fruit centuries later.

However, Christians take note. There is a point of "faith" here which must be faced. Christian scriptures are full of anti-Jewish statements.

If one is a Christian who believes that scriptures are the inerrant "word of God", then one is stuck with these statements. If one repudiates the anti-Judaism of the New Testament, then one cannot hold to an inerrant scriptures.

You have to make a choice. There is no in-between stance that allows part of scripture to be inerrant word of God and part not so.

"All 27 of the above posts are appalling."

Not I. I'm still brown. :0

Luther was an evil man, who loved nothing and no one. To love an evil man is to shun good will, good fellowship.

I mean, hey, I dunno how it is in *your* religion, Tell, but if you're that casual about accusing 27 people of hypocrisy, no wonder you Bible guys are always at each others' throats.

Wasn't there a 'command' against 'false witness against your neighbor,' neighbor?

"All 27 of the above posts are appalling. You hypocrites! Christ commanded you..."

How, exactly, is it being a hypocrite, or by implication, 'not telling the truth' for a Pagan to... Not be Christian?

All 27 of the above posts are appalling. You hypocrites! Christ commanded you and I to love your God with all your heart and love all others as your self whether they are for or against the reformation.

Pray for Christian unity, help each other discern the gospels; ask leaders from a Catholic, Babtist, Mormon, Evangelical, and Lutheran Church to an ecumenical sharing; also invite a Jewish and Muslim leader to an interfaith worship session and try to learn about each other. Get on with it then or Satan will have conquered you.

(Pardon if I reverse the columnist's order in these statements, just for some clarity:)

"Such a reading of the seasons eventually proved to be too much, of course; and we westerners early began to tame our forebears' anxieties."

Exaggerate, more like. Samhain, and the observance of the coming winter season, for the ancients, may not have been exactly *cuddly,* but it wasn't fraught with the terror of a 'rupture' of the Church-ordained assertions that we humans are supposed to be separate from the land and our ancestors.

Someone wrote in the idea of our ancestors being terrified, benighted, and superstitious about something that happens every year... later.

Think about it.

"it was understood by our Celtic and European forebears to be nothing less than the eve of an annually-repeated rupture between the living and the dead."

I had the amusing image of one of my beloved elders clutching at some pulled muscle and being like, 'Don't try lifting those Veils all by yourself, missy, you might rupture something.' :)

" All the customary protective membranes and trustworthy barriers faded away during those black-dark hours of 31 October when heaven stopped in order that earth might shift from her rhythms of living to the merciless months of dying."

That's a little melodramatic. For people on the land, winter is no joke, (and I don't want to *overstate* a modern's view of the value of fallow-times and other *good* and sacred things that come of the season, (like, if nothing else, the feasts that come of the culling of herds) .... but there was no expectation of 'Heaven' providing a comfy suburban existence in the first place.

These were not fearful people in that regard.

Frankly, much of the really spooky stuff from Celtic countries is sort of how the Christianization cast the lingering old ways into scary terms. Again, not to make it sound too cuddly, but it wasn't about this 'evil' and *abject superstitious terror* some try to claim when they don't like a Harry Potter book or something.

justillthen:

Re: Farnaz's post

Luther was a racist pig, nothing more, nothing less. Farnaz's post is apt and to the point. Perhaps, when racists such as youself and those to whom she and others post, learn civility, tolerance, etc., read a book, she will post differently.

In the meantime, I would concentrate my efforts on all the bigots to whom she does post. I doubt you'll ever actually reach her true discourse level, but, then, she rarely wastes her time revealing it on this blog. Since you wouldn't understand it, it doesn't matter. What may happen is she'll use "nicer" words.

Martin Luther released a venemous attack on Jews in "On the Jews and Their Lies" that culminated in Kristallnacht.

He was never tolerant of people who disagreed with him on religion. He felt that he had found the new truth that replaced the Catholic Church and no one should disagree with hi,

We only remember the religious result of Luther's reformation. At the time, it had more to do with the secular rulers shirking of the control and influence the church had enjoyed since Constantine. Without the support of some of the Royalty and nobility, Luther would have merely been branded as a heretic. The royalty and Nobility ruled because their potions were ordained by God. The church played a major role in the determination of the emperor and the marriage lines of the royal families. Church holdings and property title had very much to do with the growth of Luther's protest. This break with the Holy Roman Empire's tradition was an early move toward a more secular control of goverment function and finance.

The Reformation has not been over for decades, but for centuries. It has primarily resulted in the endless multiplication of weird sects, all fighting against each other.
As for Luther, his principal legacy to the West has been a tidal wave of misogynism and anti-semitism.

For that church door on this Sunday after Halloween (for those eyes that have not seen):

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a
mythical character as was mythical Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.

Many of the 1.5 million Conservative Jews and many of their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.

Current crisis:

Realization that the Jews are not god's not chosen people.
www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm

Farnaz2 :
Take different drugs. The ones you are on do not serve. Or better yet, get off of the drugs altogether.
Hate as a religion is an ugly thing. Even if you believe you have justification for what you hate, it is still ugly.
Noone important listens to someone spewing Pig This and Pig That.
But then I do not imagine that you are interested in discourse.

wizard2:
Follow up.
The supernatural IS fact, at least to the religiously inclined. I am one of those. Perhaps that is easier BECAUSE we look for how the rest of it makes any sense. That is to me a deeply logical reason to seek spirituality.
Be that as it may, I believe that 500 years ago it was far easier to recognize, (define that word), the 'supernatural' than today. We have lost touch with the ESSENTIAL world, because we have cars and iPods and hannah montana and paris hilton and all things meaningless. Supernatural is lost to the 21st century brain. Perhaps yours included.

wizard2:
It may be easy for you and many to judge the actions of meaningful people that lived 500 years ago. Have you ever spent meaningful time meditating on what life, and consciousness, was like then? The supernatural WAS close, because there was less to buffer it. This may be a good thing. Today the current religion is 3rd Rock and Hannity. We download jon stewart onto our iPods. How buffered that is from life and death, when 500 years ago wolves still roamed outside of town and would EAT YOU if you ventured alone too far.
We have killed all of them. How human. Manifest Destiny is a philosophy of self indulgence. Do you have any idea?
Please be less judgemental of what you do not understand.

Farnaz2,

Next year at Halloween, you could save yourself a lot of time and trouble by simply buying your daughter a Sarah Palin mask.

Regards to you and her.

CCNL, Dear,

I have warned you to keep the Tanakh out of your posts, and, by now, you must know where this sort of thing will always lead you.

Ever wonder how and where your International Catholics get all their money from?

http://www.catholicarrogance.org/CroatianHolocaust.html

It's this sort of thing, but, dear, the Croats were not alone. They were accompanied by their fellow halucinators from all over the world, including Ireland. What did all the Jew killers have in common? Hint: The weren't Hindus. They weren't Buddhists.

Much more to come from present day Vatican Bank wealth accumulation, present and past Catholic nazis, Christian nazis of all denominations from today and yesteryear.

Luther was, of course, a great aid to the German Lutherans and Catholics, alike. Even Wikipedia notes his helpfulness to his Pig descendants.

In my last post, I wrote,

Martin Luther was then and is now a filthy, racist, psychotic pig. Had my daughter not had her heart set on a witch's costume, I would have had one made for her of the pig Luther.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies

Let me clarify. If there is a hell, such as the Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians envision, then the Pig Luther is in it Oinking away in flames just as he did in the flesh.

Next year, if my daughter again goes to a Halloween party, I'm going to have a Luther costume already for her. She's always been partial to witches, so I'm thinking, for Luther, maybe a witch with a Pig Face, similar to that which he had in life. Odd, the Christians didn't take that as ominous.

Let me make sure I got this right...

Everyone who believed in ghosts was going to flock to the church for protection, which they would seem to receive because the ghosts never bother them at church, despite the fact that every dead person is taken to the church before they're buried out back.

If the dead people are anywhere -- it's at the church.

But it is 1517... Maybe they didn't take dead people to church then.

"Martin Luther used his All Hallows well."

Yes, he did. But he couldn't have done it without a receptive audience that had already psychologically accepted the supernatural as fact that does not adhere to any logic whatsoever. So when it gets weird, you're gonna buy into it because none of the rest of it ever made sense, either.

Luther didn't stop there. He followed it up in 1543 with "The Jews and Their Lies," which was later adapted into an expanded version we now call the Holocaust.

"DMZ1 : Let's not get too carried away here. Martin Luther was a vicious antisemite. He also said that 'reason is the enemy of faith'. These are not heroic qualities. Indeed, they are wretched qualities."

And he had two other, much more destructive qualities, on of which destroyed him and the other destroyed the "Church he Loved"

Luther was, by all accounts, quite superstitious, (not at all uncommon in that time) and inordinately fond of his own opinion. Being unable to accept the Church's word when it said that he could be saved, by faith and works, and being convinced that EVERYONE was worthless, (an approach to god (small case intended) that assumed that the Creator and "King" was as arrogant as the kings he was familiar with, Luther took the religious "we are all unworthy..." far too literally. Since through out his time as a cleric, his superiors tried to temper this excessive humility by using the claims and proofs that they taught, i.e. that as he had been baptized, and had available to him confession for the remission of sin and good works (and thereby indulgences) for the remission of deserved punishment, his deeply de[pressing sense of self worth was not a proper attitude for a Catholic.

His pride led him to reject his spiritual leaders guidance, and when he declared himself to be as much an authority as the pope, he made a mistake he didn't recognize and couldn't undo. By giving temporal leaders, such as his patron Frederick of Saxony, cover from Papal authority, he destroyed Papal, and eventually Holy Roman Imperial authority for good. In doing so he destroyed Religious authority in Christianity, for as Luther could deny the authority of the Pope, every other "reformer" could reject any other "Reformer"'s authority equally easily. Since Luther, except for Uniate Catholics, no Christian can properly claim ANY authority, and outside the Church there is no Authority that is actually accepted by more than a few of such "Authorities followers."

While Frederick earned the appellation, "The Wise" for his shielding of Luther, he did so and thereby brought down the very system that made his fiefdom what it was. The political disintegration of a Europe beholden to the Pope as the court of last resort, in the end, made Europe beholden to War as the court of last resort. The five hundredth anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses should be mourned by all good Eurocrats as the start of a five hundred year struggle in the wilderness for European peace.

Martin Luther was then and is now a filthy, racist, psychotic pig. Had my daughter not had her heart set on a witch's costume, I would have had one made for her of the pig Luther.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies

I apologize for resubmitting my response but felt it necessary because of typos.

Ms. Tickle, thank you for your essay, which is especially appropriate for those of us who are Episcopalians. I have tried to follow developments in the Church since serving on my diocesan churchwomen's board during the early 1970s and am writing from that experience.

In terms of "reformation," it seems to me the Episcopal Church went through a reformation during that period through the rewriting of the Prayer Book and the ordination of women. We parishioners were not aware of the significance of prayer-book revision, especially the Baptismal covenant from an emphasis on "I'm not so hot, and I need self-examination and regeneration" to "I'm hot, and you need self-examination and regeneration."
Certainly, you would agree that the Baptismal covenant has been prominent in the last several decades, and that change may have something to do with our lack of being able to please each other.

The ordination of women, as we well know, came into the church in a sort of back-door fashion, drawing on language of rights and discrimiation. "It is theologically impossible to ordain women to the priesthood" vs. "There are no theological objections to women in the priesthood" was an argument that was never resolved for those of us in the pew. So, we have different expectations of the role of the priest and, in my opinion, have suffered further from the loss of the teaching office which was so splendid in my youth.

In view of the new reformed modern Church, who can be happy about its new identity? Aside from having failed to achieve reconciliation within its household and alienating parts of the Anglican Communion, there is its sad history of lobbying publicly for abortion-on-demand, made painfully clear when Presiding Bishop Browning signed the Interfaith Letter urging Congress not to override President Clinton's veto of the attempt to ban the partial-birth abortion procedure. And to make matters worse, on the same date as the Letter, Bishop Spong appeared before a House Subcommititee and made a forceful appeal for legalizing "assisted suicide," which was broadcast on C-SPAN. In one remarkable day the Church effectively declared its disinterest in the fate of the unborn and the dying," which just shows that even the new Baptismal imperative "to respect the dignifity of all human beings" has a limited warranty.

All in all, I don't see much attractive in the emerging church as the Episcopal Church would embody it. So with due respect on this Halloween, Trick or Treat seems a suitable label for a church which once meant so much to so many.

oops! I meant to write "Ms."

Sorry about that!

Mr. Tickle, thank you for your essay, which is especially appropriate for those of us who are Episcopalians. I have tried to follow developments in the Church since serving on my diocesan churchwomen's board during the early 1970s and am writing from that experience.

In terms of "reformation," it seems to me the Episcopal Church went through a reformation during that period through the rewriting of the Prayer Book and the ordination of women. We parishioners were not aware of the significance of prayer-book revision, especially the Baptismal covenant from an emphasis on "I'm not so hot, and I need self-examination and regeneration" to "I'm hot, and you need self-examination and regeneration."
Certainly, you would agree that the Baptismal covenant has been prominent in the last several decades, and that change may have something to do with our lack of being able to please each other.

The ordination of women, as we well know, came into the church in a sort of back-door fashion, drawing on language of rights and discrimiation. "It is theologically impossible to ordain women to the priesthood" vs. "There are no theological objections to women in the priesthood" was an argument that was never resolved for those of us in the pew. So, we have different expectations of the role of the priest and, in my opinion, have suffered further from the loss of the teaching office which was so splendid in my youth.

In view of the new reformed modern Church, who can be happy about its new identity? Aside from having failed to achieve reconciliation within its household and alienating parts of the Anglican Communion, there is its sad history of lobbying publicly for abortion-on-demand, made painfully clear when Presiding Bishop Browning signed the Interfaith Letter urging Congress not to override President Clinton's veto of the attempt to ban the partial-birth abortion procedure. And to make matters worse, on the same date as the Letter, Bishop Spong appeared before a House Subcommititee and made a forceful appeal for legalizing "assisted suicide," which was broadcast on C-SPAN. In one remarkable day the Church effectively declared its interest in the fate of the unborn and the dying," which just shows that even the new Baptismal imperative "to respect the dignifity of all human beings" has a limited warranty.

All in all, I don't see much attractive in the emerging church as the Episcopal Church would embody it. So with due respect on this Halloween, Trick or Treat seems a suitable label for a church which once meant so much to so many.

John 3:16- a single passage in the NT without any attestation in the other gospels. Analyses by many contemporary historic Jesus exegetes has determined that the passage was simply more embellishment of the life of the simple preacher man.

e.g.

http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php/350_Jesus_to_Nicodemus

"The question of historical value affects not only the setting but also the contents of the discourse. "

" These problems lead some to regard the whole discourse as a Johannine creation...."

Analogous problems with Mark 16:16 i.e. single attestation.

e.g.
See
http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php/522_Later_Markan_Endings

Let's not get too carried away here. Martin Luther was a vicious antisemite. He also said that 'reason is the enemy of faith'. These are not heroic qualities. Indeed, they are wretched qualities.

Phyllis,

I enjoyed your article about Martin Luther and the historic event which began on October 31, 1517. In our home we do not celebrate Halloween but we do commemorate this day. Our hope is that men's hearts will be changed much the way God changed the world through Martin Luther.

All Hallows Eve reminds us of the thin veil between life and death, but it also allows us an opportunity to face our fears. It allows us an opportunity to express a part of ourselves in costume. Most faith traditions exist to move us beyond our fears to a place of love and courageous interconnection with the transcendent and with each other. They are means to the end of living in/with/through radical love, a love that loves both friend and enemy.

"The Reformation is over now."

The ultimate Reformation is not over. Luther's soldiers have been killed and alien views of Christianity have organized, become normalized, and are tolerated, but the idea that Christianity is the only civilized form of life is still a dark force in the world. The ultimate reformation calls for more civilized views of religion to be articulated and generally accepted. That was the essence of Luther's protest and is still evolving today.

"the question for us this All Hallows is how do we greet this new thing that has come among us? How do we embrace--or barring that grace, how do we live in balance with--this radical new form of being that decries hierarchy and creeds and calls instead for merciful justice, incarnated belief, the employment of the ancient practices of Judeo-Christian formation and, for Christians specifically, the pursuit of the actualness of what Jesus of Nazareth said? How indeed?"

It would go better if this "radical new form" added tolerance for others and respect for the Constitution into the mix.

Overall I enjoyed that article, as a fan of a Reformation. I appreciated the comment towards the end, about "the pursuit of the actualness of what Jesus of Nazareth said". It is often easy to forget, considering Luther's importance as an historic figure, that his goal from the start was exactly that - understanding what Jesus did and why, and preaching God's Word. Man's understanding of God's creation grows and changes continually, but the essential tenet of Christianity - believe and be saved, for Christ's sake - never changes (John 3:16, Mark 16:16, Heb 11, etc). The motto of the Reformation: VDMA - Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum - the Word of the Lord endures forever.

I have always been aware that Jesus was a practicing Jew, and that his followers were or became Christian. I think the same must be true of Brother Martin. He remained a Roman Catholic--at least in his own mind-- but those who came after him became Lutherans.

For that church door on this Halloween of 2008 (for those eyes that have not seen):

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a
mythical character as was mythical Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.

Many of the 1.5 million Conservative Jews and many of their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.

Current crisis:

Realization that the Jews are not god's not chosen people.
www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm

2. Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics. www. earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

Current crises:

Pedophiliac priests, atonement theology and original sin!!!!

3. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

Current crises:

Adulterous preachers, "propheteering/ profiteering" evangelicals and atonement theology. .

Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations, embellishments, lies, and myths surrounding the founders and foundations of said rules of life.