[continued from previous message]   
      
   [345] This may seem to be an oversimplification of the causes of   
   anti-Semitism, and the Christian opposition to Islam, but in fact the   
   Christians normally embraced Jews and Moslems who sincerely converted to   
   Christianity. The Nazi Holocaust was the first    
   and only notable occasion when even non-practicing Jews and Christian converts   
   were slaughtered on the basis of their ancestral links to Judaism.   
      
   [346] With the sale of indulgences, the Church had discovered a fantastic way   
   to raise money with minimum effort. Church propaganda promoted indulgences by   
   assuring the public that those who secured indulgences for relatives in   
   purgatory need not be    
   contrite themselves for the sins of their departed family members. All they   
   had to do was to pay the appropriate fee, and “as soon as the coin in the   
   coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”.   
      
   [347] After Constantine lost Rome to the Germans, he established his capital   
   at Constantinople, and declared that city to be the new Rome. At least   
   partially in consequence, a power struggle broke out between the Roman Church   
   and the Byzantine Church (   
   which claimed equality with the Roman Church on the grounds that it was   
   allegedly founded by Andrew, the first-called apostle of Jesus, who not only   
   came before Peter, but even brought Peter to Jesus). The Roman Church refused   
   to recognize Constantinople    
   as the New Rome or, for that matter, Moscow when it later became known as the   
   New Byzantium or Third Rome. Instead, the Roman Church, secure in its sacro   
   sancta civitas (sacrosanct city), merely anointed a new Germanic Emperor.   
   Tensions grew between the    
   two Churches until, in 1054 the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of   
   Constantinople excommunicated each other. This mutual excommunication   
   continued for over 900 years, until 1965 when it was finally lifted.   
      
   [348] It is hardly surprising to note that the symbol of Catholicism is a   
   cross with a bloody Jesus nailed to it, whereas the Protestant symbol is the   
   cross with no nails and no Jesus.   
      
   It may also be mentioned here that it is not a confirmed fact that Martin   
   Luther actually did nail his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of any Church, but   
   there is no harm in maintaining this popular legend.   
      
   [349] Martin Luther was ultimately much more than an ordinary troublemaker –   
   he was an astute, political man who knew very well on which side his own bread   
   was buttered. Luther's stand on the subject of Church-State separation is a   
   perfect study in the    
   art of metamorphosed sentimental strategy. At first, Luther strongly upheld   
   the ideal of a separate and autonomous Church. But, in the end, he changed   
   colors and vigorously rejected that notion. This metamorphosis in his position   
   occurred after the    
   Peasant's War of 1524-1525, in which Luther finally supported the Civil Powers   
   in their ruthless efforts to suppress the peasants. The revolt broke out   
   mainly as a result of the long-standing oppression and exploitation of the   
   peasants. Ironically it was,   
    to a great extent, Luther's own preaching about religious independence that   
   inspired some of the main leaders of this revolt, such as Thomas Muentzer, now   
   revered by many Marxists as one of the first revolutionaries to fight for   
   establishment of a    
   classless society. Initially Luther tried to mediate between the nobility and   
   the peasants – criticizing the German princes for their oppression of the   
   past, and exhorting the peasants to observe Paul's injunction that all persons   
   must be in subjection    
   to the civil authorities (Romans 13:1). When his arbitration failed, then   
   Luther stood firmly behind the Princes, urging them, in little less than   
   hysterical language, to stamp out the revolt and “stab, smite and throttle”   
   whomever they could (“Wider die    
   räuberischen und mörderischen Rotten der Bauern” – “Against the Murdering,   
   Thieving Hordes of Peasants” – 1525). Not surprisingly, the Peasants War was   
   suppressed with great loss of life. Later, when the pacifist Anabaptists   
   arose, Luther branded them as    
   seditious. Their refusal to take up weapons, he claimed, would undermine   
   authority and destroy the state. According to Luther, such forms of sedition   
   may be punished by death. Thus, having firmly allied himself with the German st   
   te, in much the same way as the early Catholic Church had associated with the   
   Roman Empire, Luther radically changed his position on the question of   
   separation of power between Church and State. Luther now preferred to place   
   the Church under the direct    
   control of the State, which alone had sufficient power to put down any sects   
   or movements that might diverge from Luther's own interpretation of the   
   Gospels.   
      
   While we're still on the subject of Luther's metamorphosed sentimental   
   strategy, it would be appropriate to note one more instance in which Luther's   
   baser qualities rose to the surface. At the start of his career, Luther   
   criticized the Church for its    
   anti-Semitic policies on the grounds that those very policies often prevented   
   Jews from converting to Christianity. Later, when Luther realized that his   
   soft approach was no more effective in converting Jews than the Church’s   
   traditional hard-line    
   approach, Luther went to the other extreme with a vengeance. One of his later   
   writings, Concerning the Jews and Their Lies, suggested eight actions to be   
   taken against the Jews, including the burning of all synagogues, forced labor   
   for all Jews, and the    
   expulsion of all Jews from any Christian neighborhood. Thus, we could expect   
   that the Protestant Reformation in no way ameliorated the anti-Jewish   
   sentiment within the Church. If anything, Protestantism, or at least   
   Lutheranism, exacerbated the situation.   
    Four hundred years after Luther's death, the worst anti-Semitic outbreak in   
   history took place in Germany, a country having an almost equal number of   
   Catholics and Protestants, but where Martin Luther is widely revered as the   
   father of German    
   nationalism. After World War II, at the trials in Nuremberg, Julius Streicher,   
   Hitler's foremost anti-Semitic propagandist, sought to justify his actions on   
   the grounds that he never said anything about the Jews which had not been said   
   before him by    
   Martin Luther.   
      
   [350] The concept of election is more closely associated with the writings of   
   Calvin than with those of Luther and Zwingli. Calvin certainly gave more   
   stress on this point, and took pains to elaborate the subject. However, the   
   teachings of Luther and    
   Zwingli also deal with this topic; and all three – Luther, Calvin and Zwingli   
   – considered themselves and their followers to be among the fortunate elect of   
   God.   
      
   [351] As a consequence of their arrogant self-righteousness, the Calvinists in   
   England came to be called Puritans. Later, as everyone knows, it was those   
   Puritans who emigrated and founded the United States of America. Still later,   
   it is those Americans    
   who have come to imagine themselves as the policemen of the world.   
      
   [352] See Chapter 7 “Consider the Lilies of the Field”.   
      
   [353] Catholicism: Italy, Philippines, Spain, Portugal, South America, etc.   
   Protestantism: England, Scandinavia, U.S.A., Australia, etc.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)