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Was Martin Luther gay?
Martin Luther, father of Protestantism, claimed that he decided to become a monk when lightning struck close to him in 1505. Archaeologists have now found new evidence (sorry, only in Danish) that it really may have been because his father was going to force him to marry the daughter of a hatter. One wonders why that would be so bad. Or indeed, how it is worse that spending the rest of your life as a monk. However, I'll speculate - at a very frivolous level - if that decision was perhaps based on the fact that Luther was gay, and that he had more interest in spending the rest of his life among men of similar alignment. Now wouldn't that just be a wonderful conclusion in these times?
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If this were so why would Luther have had this to say?
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther correctly identifies homosexuality with the sin of Sodom. Commenting on Genesis 19:4-5 he writes:
"I for my part do not enjoy dealing with this passage, because so far the ears of the Germans are innocent of and uncontaminated by this monstrous depravity; for even though disgrace, like other sins, has crept in through an ungodly soldier and a lewd merchant, still the rest of the people are unaware of what is being done in secret. The Carthusian monks deserve to be hated because they were the first to bring this terrible pollution into Germany from the monasteries of Italy." (Luther’s Works, Vol. 3, 251-252)
And then in the same section of the Genesis lectures, Luther refers to:
the heinous conduct of the people of Sodom ” as “extraordinary, inasmuch as they departed from the natural passion and longing of the male for the female, which is implanted into nature by God, and desired what is altogether contrary to nature. Whence comes this perversity? Undoubtedly from Satan, who after people have once turned away from the fear of God, so powerfully suppresses nature that he blots out the natural desire and stirs up a desire that is contrary to nature. (Luther’s Works, Vol. 3, 255)
Perhaps because he was a repressed individual who, like os many others, were afraid of their own homosexuality. Fred Phelps. Ted Haggard.
ReplyDeleteWhy do people flog themselves? Human psychology is indeed messed up.
Thank you for pointing out the ridiculous conclusion of the Anonymous comment that because Luther commented against homosexuality that he couldn't be gay. It never ceases to amaze me that most people, gay or straight, STILL don't understand that the vehement protest one makes against something is usually a silent personal indictment.
DeleteHe wasn't gay. He eventually married a run-away nun and had several children.
ReplyDeleteLOL -Getting married and having several children is *not* an indication that a man isn't gay. It wasn't so in ML's time, and it certainly is no indication today.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wonder just how many homosexuals lived in civil union in ML's time...
ReplyDelete