Throwback Thursday: What a Lutheran Isn't
This was published December 17, 2023 — Ed.
Whenever we Lutherans (so-called) enter a discussion on social media, we can count on people avoiding whatever issue we want to discuss, and instead pivoting to salacious accusations against Martin Luther.
I had a recent debate online that is a case in point.
In response to my contribution to the discussion, a Roman Catholic traditionalist dismissed me as a “heretic” and included a “quote” from Martin Luther - authoritatively presented by means of a meme, complete with a portrait of Luther, no less (who can argue with that?) - in which Luther is attributed with the following quote: “I am absolutely convinced that the handicapped are merely demonically possessed pieces of meat without souls which should be drowned.” Of course, the use of the word “handicapped” in the quote looks “sus,” as the kids say - not to mention the lack of any citation whatsoever, not even from a secondary source.
When pressed, my interlocutor admitted that he just googled it, and could not find any evidence that Luther ever actually said it. But he assured me that Luther was a bad guy, and he included a link to a screed against Luther called something like “the dark side of Martin Luther” or some such.