Against Catholicism What is more powerful than religion? There is no doubt that masses of nations are driven and manipulated by the Church. There are many opponents to these tendencies. Martin Luther King was the strongest opponent to religious oppression of masses. When we read the lines of Martin Luther King of 1535 we hear angry and hateful, indignant parishioner, who was cheated by the Catholic Church. What was so indignant for him in Catholicism? He heard that a pope boasted that he was a head of the Church. Mr. King thought, like every devoted religious person, that the head of Church was God and not a pope!
These words are indignant for every follower of religion. The Pope justified his words by the explanation that Jesus Christ was the Head of the Church in the Heaven, but the Pope was a Head of the Church on the Earth (Against Catholicism). Church’s authority is often undermined by this type of beasts turned into popes. Luther's break with the Catholic Church was triggered by the Church’s selling the indulgences. Churches during days of Luther King earned money by sending indulgences and even forgave sins for money.
These actions were rather absurd and Martin Luther King felt a great power to oppose to this religious terror. Pope Leo X had to collect money from people to finish a beautiful St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Luther was furious and he wanted to prevent turning Church into business. Church is a spiritual harbor and it is a wrong place for earning money. Repentance was discarded and indulgences substituted this integral part of the Christian doctrine. Martin Luther King claimed in 1516 C.E.: "To assert that the pope can deliver souls from purgatory is audacious.
If he can do so, then he is cruel not to release them all" (Against Catholicism). Martin Luther King went even further. He said that in case indulgences would be sold further, the Church would turn into “a monster with two heads, seeing that St. Paul says that Christ is her head. The pope may well be, and is, the head of the false Church. Where the linnet is, there is also the cuckoo, for he thinks his song a thousand times better than the linnet's” (Against Catholicism). With the help of these bright and emotional expressions, Martin Luther King explained to people that a doctrine of God cannot be substituted by false religious frauds of a pope.
Nowadays these claims are relevant too. Very often modern priests are not afraid of taking money from the parishioners, commit crimes or satisfy their perverted sexual desires. Thus, Martin Luther King can be considered as a great and a powerful clairvoyant of the modernity. Popedom of the sixteenth century was much focused on a creation of artificial entertainment for people. They did not teach a Word of God, but they were involved into scattering money of parishioners, “doing miracles” and cheating people with the help of a strong religious tool of faith.
The pure gospel and a word of God should be promoted by the church and nothing more. The papists avoided mentioning preaching and teaching of God's Word. False, wrong principles, promoted by the Church, are the worst means of religion, but are the most perfect way for masses manipulation. Obviously enough that Martin Luther King wanted to show dominance of a true religion over false and intricate trickery of papacy. Nowadays there is a lacking of such powerful, spiritual leaders, who can attract attention of parishioners to their Churches and take them out of dangerous wed of perverted religions.
Works cited Modern History Sourcebook: Martin Luther: Against Catholicism, 1535. Web. Retrieved July 15, 2012 from: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1535luther.asp
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