On the defensive, I see.
And Luther lived 400 years before Hitler and Hitler’s socialism, didn’t he.
So, who is more culpable?
A man who faithfully took vows as a youth 400 years ago to follow Christ as a priest, or a man who faithfully joined Hitler’s Youth Movement at the time it was happening?
I would prefer to argue the case of the man who never heard the name Hitler and never knew of his anti-Christian hatred of Christ’s own kin.
Luther, the man who wrote this:
Set fire to their synagogues and schools; and what will not burn, heap earth over it so that no man may see a stone or relic of them forever.
Pull down and destroy their houses since they perpetrate the same nefarious things in them as in their schools. Pack them all under one roof or stable, like the gypsies, that they may know that they are not lords and masters in our land as they boast.
Deprive them of all their prayer-books.
Forbid their rabbis henceforth to teach.
Deprive them of the right to move about the country.
Forbid them the business of usury, and take from them all their belongings.
Hand the strong young Jews of both sexes flail, axe, mattock, spade, distaff, and spindle; and make them work for their bread in the sweat of their brow, like all the children of Adam. Confiscate their property and drive them out of the country. (W53, 525 abridged).
You wrote:
“So, who is more culpable? A man who faithfully took vows as a youth 400 years ago to follow Christ as a priest, or a man who faithfully joined Hitler’s Youth Movement at the time it was happening?”
Luther.
Luther was an adult and acted in complete freedom.
Benedict XVI was a boy who was COMPELLED BY LAW TO JOIN THE HITLER YOUTH. It was the law and he was 14 years old at the time.
Yes, Luther was more culpable.
“who is more culpable?
A man who faithfully took vows as a youth 400 years ago to follow Christ as a priest, or a man who ... joined Hitler’s Youth Movement at the time it was happening?”
...And in the same line...Who represents Christ’s Church more fully...Peter, the Apostles and the succession of His Church and His proclamation to protect it....or one German man’s obviously flawed personal interpretation of Christ’s Church many many many hundreds of years later?
Amen and amen, Pastor. For those with eyes to see.