Presenting actual words written by Martin Luther in itself is not “bashing”—because they were true. Note again that Martin Luther never recanted any of his words regarding what he said about Jews; although he did have his chances. Luther wrote “Jesus was born a Jew” in 1523; where he requested his followers to treat Jews “gently”, while calling the pope and catholic bishops “fools”. But 20 years later in 1543, Luther wrote “On the Jews and their lies”. This was where he replaced the gentle treatment toward the Jews with ferocious hatred and bigotry—hardly humane as you claimed. To be more specific, Luther wrote:
—to burn down Jewish synagogues and schools and warn people against them;
—to refuse to let Jews own houses among Christians;
for Jewish religious writings to be taken away;
for rabbis to be forbidden to preach;
—to offer no protection to Jews on highways;
for usury to be prohibited and for all silver and gold to be removed, put aside for safekeeping, and given back to Jews who truly convert; and
—to give young, strong Jews flail, axe, spade, and spindle, and let them earn.
Martin Luther was a Catholic priest and an established theologian. Of course, he had good points to say about theology. In fact, the Catholic Church agrees there are good things in Luther writing regarding justification. I refer you to the document “From conflict to communion” for further details.
As for other aspects of Catholic theology and the Catholic Church in general, Luther’s rejection of the papacy, the Holy Orders and validity of the Eucharist as the real presence of Christ can not be ignored. Further, at the beginning, Luther was absolutely correct in pointing out the abuses in the Church. But it was clear later that Luther wanted to leave the Catholic Church and established his own church. The resulted Protestant Reformation was a disaster for Christianity.
