Three and a half years ago I posted a few comments on the anniversary of the day Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg. Five hundred years ago today, Martin Luther stood to defend himself before the Diet of Worms (a regrettably memorable name) against charges of heresy stemming from that early form of Twitter post. He had asked for and received the prior day to consider the charges, prepare a defense and possibly to discuss options with mediators. History records that he answered the charges by saying, “Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” With that, if not three years earlier, the Reformation was born.
Most now acknowledge that the Catholic Church in those times was corrupt, even selling indulgences for sins in advance of their commission in order to finance construction projects in Rome to the detriment of local church funding needs, a practice not fully abandoned until the 20th Century. Luther, for his part, was stridently uncompromising in his reliance on an individual’s faith, which sparked one of Christianity’s largest schisms.
In reading Karen Armstrong’s, The Lost Art of Scripture, she remarks that many, if not most, religions begin with a focus on the poor and downtrodden. In time they tend to be coopted by and for a ruling class. She notes that Judaism began as a faith in the God of a tribal people, only to eventually embrace a priestly caste and even a king like neighboring empires.
One can argue that the Catholic Church of five hundred years ago had followed such a path, prompting Luther’s reformation-minded focus on the individual. Looking around today at wealthy churches that maintain only a nominal budget item for “charity,” leads me to wonder if we as a people have lost sight of something as well. It’s not my place to preach, but perhaps it is fair to ask.
