Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993 TAG: 9404130005
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: George W. Cornell Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Although it was four centuries ago, and many people remain unaware of some of Luther's anti-Jewish tirades, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is firmly and formally renouncing those attacks.
It has directed its ecumenical affairs department to prepare a declaration to Jews ``repudiating the anti-Judaic rhetoric and violent recommendations'' of Luther and grieving at ``the tragic effects of such words on subsequent generations.''
The denomination bears the name of that blunt reformer who sparked the general Protestant break from Rome. His diatribes against Jews often have been discounted as an aberration of old age.
Also, they have been rarely mentioned except among scholars.
However, the church must openly and strongly disavow these ``ugly, poisonous Lutheran words, which spread seeds for a deadly harvest,'' said the Rev. John Stendahl of Amherst, Mass.
If they aren't frankly rejected in ``faith and love,'' he said, ``our children may wonder what other dirty little secrets we may not have told them about our heritage.''
The little reported action, initiated by Stendahl at the church's governing assembly in Kansas City Aug. 25-Sept. 1, was approved overwhelmingly.
It specified that the declaration affirm ``our desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ in love and respect for the Jewish people by pledging to oppose the deadly workings of anti-Semitism in church and society.''
Bishop Robert Isaksen of Worcester, Mass., said he feared that many Lutherans had not actually heard the ``hateful'' words written by the elderly Luther in a 1543 tract titled, ``On the Jews and their lies.''
He termed Jews ``alien murderers and bloodthirsty enemies'' who ``practiced all sorts of vices.'' He urged burning of synagogues, destroying of Jewish homes and prayer books and confiscating of Jewish property.
Isaksen said such vituperation fed into anti-Semitism in contemporary times, including the Nazi holocaust.
Bishop Mark Herbener of Dallas said not all German church leaders in World War II were like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who resisted Nazism and was executed for it, but ``some were Nazi to the core.''
The bishop said that in public interreligious ceremonies he often ``apologized and repented'' for Luther's denunciation of Jews.
Luther's blasts at Jews came in the last three years before his death in 1546. He suffered various infirmities - headaches, insomnia and kidney stones. He was nearly blind in one eye, hard of hearing and had angina attacks.
However, throughout his turbulent career, he regularly admitted he was too vehement, sharp-tongued and stubborn.
Just as harsh as anything he later said about Jews were his denunciations of pope and cardinals as ``idolatrous blasphemers'' who should be nailed to the gallows and their tongues torn out.
As time went by, frustrated by Jewish refusal to convert to Christianity, Luther's attitude hardened. He called rabbinic teaching blind madness and spurned ``any fellowship'' with ``obstinate (Jewish) blasphemers'' who ``defame this dear Savior.''
Friends begged the aging Luther to stop such outbursts, but he kept them up, calling for various repressive measures against Jews - burning of their schools, confiscating their literature, prohibiting rabbis from teaching on pain of death, confiscating their wealth and assigning them to manual labor.
``We are at fault for not slaying them,'' he fumed shortly before his death.
Lutheran leaders and scholars, usually in academic settings, have voiced regret at Luther's invective against Jews and disavowed it. Now the 5.2 million-member denomination is officially abrogating those slurs, promising ``love and respect'' for Jewish people.
by CNB