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Ani_Ibi
Guest
Please state a source other than Scripture on which you rely.
I use humour because you persist in attempting (futilely) to dismantle teachings which you clearly do not understand. Moreover, your position has been one of browbeating us and our Church with what? Nothing more substantial than strawmen.
A rhetorical response with the substance of air. What you condemn as bitterness is insight into the plight of a man who was very very ill. And very very Alone.
A sweeping generalization supported neither by argumentation nor by authority and a rhetorical response with the substance of air. The responsibility for the Schism did not rightfully belong to the Church. The responsibility for some of the abuses of power among certain members of the Church lay with those members. Moreover, as Church Militant has explained, those errors were addressed and corrected.
The responsibility for the Schism lay squarely at Luther’s doorstep. If the Church had had the knowledge of things such as post-traumatic stress disorder (as only one example), then, She would have been in a far stronger position to help Luther. But She did not have that knowledge. She did the best She could to deal with Luther in a compassionate, understanding, and responsible manner, until Luther tied Her hands by exercising his free will to assert the supremacy of his own intellect – an intellect seriously impaired by cognitive distortions resulting from his response to childhood violence.
- No one forced Luther to let his work slide.
- **No one forced Luther to withdraw from the support and love of his fellow monks when he was in pain. **
- **No one forced Luther to disobey the concerned and worried directives of his superiors and seek instead his own counsel. **
- No one forced Luther to starve himself, deprive himself of sleep, and flog himself until he was delusional.
- No one forced Luther to be rude, aggressive, and arrogant.
- No one forced Luther to make agreements and then break them.
- No one forced Luther to seek defence mechanisms instead of the truth.
- No one forced Luther to ally with ruffians whose motives could in no way be considered charitable.
- No one forced Luther to persist in his error even in the face of enormous collateral damage.
May God rest this man’s soul – poor lonely, tormented man that he was. And may God rest all the souls of all people like Luther, who struggle daily to free themselves from the demons of childhood violence. May God grant them the gift of trust so that they might come home to us where we may embrace them and give them the comfort and the confidence necessary to finally experience peace and joy. FSHS Amen.
Perhaps, ultimately, one way of looking at the Schism is that (some) people did the best they could with what they knew and now that people know better, they do better. Some people, however, knew enough then to refrain from doing harm, but they did it anyway.
