Luther's Anti-Semitism

Red 5 · #1 22nd May 2012, 09:52 PM

I have been a lurker here for awhile and just decided to join up. I'm currently a graduate student and most of my friends are atheist. As such I always have to defend my faith to them. One thing they always bring up is Luther's anti-semitism and how Luther laid the foundations of the holocaust. I was wondering how you dealt with this issue, because his anti-semitism is disturbing.

cerette · #2 22nd May 2012, 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by Red 5

I have been a lurker here for awhile and just decided to join up. I'm currently a graduate student and most of my friends are atheist. As such I always have to defend my faith to them. One thing they always bring up is Luther's anti-semitism and how Luther laid the foundations of the holocaust. I was wondering how you dealt with this issue, because his anti-semitism is disturbing.

Howdy,
I see comments like these as good opportunities to witness about Lutheranism being a "Christ-focused" religion rather than a "Luther-focused" religion. Luther as a person is not very interesting really, but his Biblical teaching is what's interesting and important. Nowhere do we "worship" Luther or consider him a "less sinful" person than the rest of us. We just use his name because in this day and age there are so many different groups and it's good to be able to "label" oneself.

To claim that Luther laid the foundations of the holocaust sounds rather stupid.

bach90 · #3 23rd May 2012, 12:37 AM

I would note, Luther was NOT an anti-semite. Anti-semitism is a 20th century idea which holds that Jews, as a race, are inherently inferior. Anti-semitism is racial not religious in nature, even a baptized Christian who grew up as a Jew would still be considered Jewish and racially inferior. For Luther, once someone was Baptized,that's it. They are Christian not Jewish. As far as Luther laying the foundations for the holocaust, that is ridiculous. While he did, regrettably, advocate violence this was when he was rather old and sickly. Read his last sermon though, only a few days before he died:

We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord. - Martin Luther

And what he said about the fifth commandment:

We should fear and love God, that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every physical need. - Martin Luther

cerette · #4 23rd May 2012, 12:50 AM

Originally Posted by bach90

I would note, Luther was NOT an anti-semite. Anti-semitism is a 20th century idea which holds that Jews, as a race, are inherently inferior. Anti-semitism is racial not religious in nature, even a baptized Christian who grew up as a Jew would still be considered Jewish and racially inferior. For Luther, once someone was Baptized,that's it. They are Christian not Jewish. As far as Luther laying the foundations for the holocaust, that is ridiculous. While he did, regrettably, advocate violence this was when he was rather old and sickly. Read his last sermon though, only a few days before he died:

We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord. - Martin Luther

And what he said about the fifth commandment:

We should fear and love God, that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every physical need. - Martin Luther

Very good points indeed! Well said.

DaRev · #5 23rd May 2012, 08:04 AM

The "foundations of the holocaust" were laid in the occult, not in Luther.

Kalevalatar · #6 23rd May 2012, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Red 5

I was wondering how you dealt with this issue, because his anti-semitism is disturbing.

Indeed, it is. But then, Luther was very much a man of his own time, whereas I am a woman of my own time. The simplest way to deal with the issue is to strongly reject Luther's personal Judenhass: Lutherans today do not share those views. First and foremost, we should remember that Luther fervently wanted Jewish people to convert to Christianity and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. And that still applies.

Basil the Great · #7 23rd May 2012, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by DaRev

The "foundations of the holocaust" were laid in the occult, not in Luther.

Rev - I disagree. I have studied carefully the history of anti-Semitism from roughly 150-200 A.D. up to the time of Hitler and there is no doubt in my mind that the "foundations of the Holocaust" were laid by 1700+ years of violence and discrimination and negative teachings against Jews by individual Christians and Popes and saints. Jews were massacred. They were driven out of one country after another. They were forbidden to enter into various occupations. They were forced to live in Ghettos. They had to wear arm bands so everyone could see that they were Jews. The list goes on and on and on. For all practical purposes, many Christians were taught by their priests and ministers that Jews were the enemy. I am not alone in my thesis. The famous German Catholic theologian Hans Kung has also expressed such a view.

DaRev · #8 23rd May 2012, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Basil the Great

Rev - I disagree. I have studied carefully the history of anti-Semitism from roughly 150-200 A.D. up to the time of Hitler and there is no doubt in my mind that the "foundations of the Holocaust" were laid by 1700+ years of violence and discrimination and negative teachings against Jews by individual Christians and Popes and saints. Jews were massacred. They were driven out of one country after another. They were forbidden to enter into various occupations. They were forced to live in Ghettos. They had to wear arm bands so everyone could see that they were Jews. The list goes on and on and on. For all practical purposes, many Christians were taught by their priests and ministers that Jews were the enemy. I am not alone in my thesis. The famous German Catholic theologian Hans Kung has also expressed such a view.

Depends on what history you read, I guess. Certain historical accounts of Hitler and his hatred of those who were not of Arian origin had its roots in the occult

Red 5 · #9 23rd May 2012, 10:06 PM

Thanks for the responses. I'm new to serious Lutheranism and I have much to learn. I think that the responses so far have helped a lot.

bach90 · #10 23rd May 2012, 11:45 PM

Evolution...Darwinism rather, is very much at the heart of Nazism as well. Weaker races and feeble peoples needed to be destroyed first (the Nazis massacred thousands of disabled and mentally ill people starting in 1934, the first extermination camps were not in operation until late 1942). It was a very popular idea, even the USA sterilized the mentally ill through the 1960s. Satan tricks nations into doing a lot of crazy ideas, like murdering 33% of a nation's children.

These sick, radical, anti-Christian ideas are a result of viewing life as a product rather than the image of God.