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Luther was a drunk who violated all of his vows, altered Romans to make it better support Sola Fide, and tried to get the books of James and Hebrews removed from the Bible because of their emphasis on works. This after eliminating the Apocrapha (Sola Scriptura anyone?) He also foolishly encouraged the German Princes to violently put down the Peasant Revolt since he was upset at their interpretation of the Bible and salvation (accusing the leaders of the revolt of antinomianism), and then was shocked when 50,000 or so people were killed. He also explained away his own personal failures by denying free will - read his thesis on Doctrine of the Enslavement of the Will, which he considered to be as important as Sola Scriptura. Note specifically his allegory of Man as a Horse, which rides off to do good or ill, not of it's own volition but simply because of which rider (God or Satan) has mounted it.
But that is mostly beside the point of the topic at hand. The Catholic Church did not persecute scientists for teaching that the earth orbited the sun, whereas Luther did.

52 posted on 11/14/2005 8:39:36 AM MST by jscd3

This looks like Christian bashing!

This is not Christian bashing. It could very well be described as Luther bashing, which is not the same thing.

I happen to think that the Doctrine of the Enslavement of the Will (or as Flip Wilson would say "The Devil Made Me Do It") is at the heart of most of what is wrong with liberalism.

I think that denying free will - as Luther did with this doctrine - is a major step away from Christianity, whether you call yourself a Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox.

Besides, even Luthers contemporaries described him as a drunk, and he did strip books out of the Bible, and he did try to get rid of James and Hebrews (which he referred to as a Jewish Fraud). How is it Christian bashing to point this out?

Let me put it to you this way...if I posted an opinion that the Bible is innacurate and needs editing and that several of the books of Scripture were frauds should be removed, would you consider that supportive of Christianity or opposed to Christianity?