I was watching a Rick Steves visit to Germany show last night on TV -- back to armchair traveling -- and now I've checked that country off my must see list. Thanks, Rick.
Anyway, he focused a bit on Martin Luther and his famous Reformation. Hub grew up in a family of Germany-descendents who were conservative Missouri Synod Lutheran teachers and preachers, so he's well-versed in all things Lutheran and, by marriage, so am I. Instead of dressing up for Halloween every year, Hub and his classmates at his Lutheran elementary school had to watch a grainy old film about Martin Luther and the Reformation, since Reformation Day is also on October 31. (Hub still harbors resentment about this and suffers from a bit of PTSD. His school was a stern place, apparently. And to think at that very same moment I was dressed as a witch gobbling down orange-frosted cupcakes! Heathen public school Methodist!)
Luther was a young monk who was troubled by the Catholic church's selling of indulgences (buying your way out of Purgatory) and other shady religion-focused business practices, so on October 31, 1517 he jotted down his thoughts on the matter and tacked them to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany hoping to stimulate discussion amongst his monk colleagues. Today he would have posted his thoughts online and been hailed a hero and/or inundated with trolls freaking out. Well, actually that's sort of what happened anyway. Luther got some good comments and felt emboldened. He decided that he'd write the Bible in German so everyone could read it, not just Latin-scholar priests. He teamed up with a new operating system, called the Gutenberg printing press, and got his German bibles widely distributed. The people read them and came to realize a bunch of stuff the Church had been telling them wasn't even in the Bible at all! No mention of the Pope or indulgences or any of that stuff. His 95 Theses went viral and pretty soon a whole new thing called "Protestantism" was born. The Catholics were not happy.
Which brings me to my recent trip to Great Britain. (The travelogue continues...)
Our Scottish tour guide joked that people often tire of the non-stop tours of cathedrals and castles. At the beginning of the trip I couldn't imagine this. That's what we came to see!!! By the end of the trip I totally got the point.
We saw some absolutely beautiful architecture and the artistic creativity was jaw-dropping. The ruins of old cathedrals was moving and inspiring. The art historian in me was in awe.
But the stories we heard over and over and over, were stories of Protestants and Catholics fighting over who was in charge. Kings and Queens were on the throne or killed off or married off in fits of rage and/or alliances mostly having to do with which religion they practiced. Places and artifacts of tremendous beauty were destroyed to wipe out any recollection of what had come before in waves of "my turn" changing of power between the religions. It became grotesque to hear these stories of war, murder, and punishment all carried out in the name of "religion". If I have to hear one more graphic description of what it means to be "drawn and quartered" I might scream.
So, it came to pass that as I entered a new cathedral or castle on the itinerary, I steeled myself for the stories of death and destruction and power-brokering that went along with the view. Both of us began to notice that all the lead roles were played by men, or by women who were used in the service of men to get the power they craved. The patriarchy upon which our historical and religious culture is based was on full display as tourists oohed and ahhed at each stop. I started to feel depressed that this is our heritage. I started to long for a different history.
Where were the peacemakers? The women? The artisans who saw their masterpieces turned to rubble? I have always known that history is written by the victor, but I felt that fact viscerally on our trip. We both sort of rolled our eyes eventually and tuned out the litany of war upon war and the ridiculous religious one-upmanship on display. We appreciated instead the amazing human ingenuity and creativity of these beautiful places and honored those who toiled to design, build, and decorate something they thought would last.
There has to be another story under the one that we have been taught, because humans seeking power through death and destruction don't really seem to win the day. We are still here. There must be a current of a life-affirming energy running through humanity too. Let's tap in to that. Let's learn from that. Let's honor that.
Oh wait....now we're getting to the heart of my religion, the one that celebrates compassion, inclusion, diversity, open-mindedness, hope, humility, laughter, generosity. I read somewhere that Jesus talked about that stuff but, not being a practicing Christian, I might have that wrong.
At least, that's the view from here...©
Photos:
Top -- Ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, St. Andrews Scotland
Bottom -- York Minster Cathedral, York England
What an interesting and thought-provoking post! I love how you compared what Luther did with today's social media world.
ReplyDeleteWhile all those castles and churches are beautiful from an architectural view they also remind me that the craftsmen and artisans who worked on them had no choice. They were virtual slaves to the churches---especially the Catholic churches---for years one end, living away from their families and for just room and board.
You are right. So much damage is done to people in the name of religion. We went to an Evensong service at York Minster and it was lovely, but hearing the message about serving the poor while sitting the opulence of the cathedral was quite a paradox and, one might say, a hypocritical message.
DeleteI had the same reaction when we went from Florida to Texas several years ago when my kids were elementary/middle school-ages. We had "passports" from the national park system, and they would stamp them when you visited a national park, so we were trying to get a lot of different stamps. Starting in Florida, we stopped at as many as we could. Most of the parks were Civil War battlefields and monuments, and by the time we got to Texas, we had heard so many awful stories, about ponds that turned red because of all the men washing their wounds, and the horrific numbers of dead and wounded on the battlefields and their cries, that we quit going to the parks. It was just overwhelming. I still avoid them.
ReplyDeleteI totally get that! It's hard to hear the stories of bloodshed and conquest. I have to believe that amongst those dark times there were also stories of kindness and compassion and those are overshadowed (if mentioned at all) by the glorification and horrification of the "war stories" that for some reason become the inevitable history we are to remember.
DeleteMy mind went to the emerging stories of white women who were kidnapped by Native groups...and who then refused to be repatriated because the valuing of women was more authentic than the practices that they experienced in their original communities.
ReplyDeleteAgain this may support whose story is retold and believed. Hence the bloodthirsty savage image.
So true!
DeleteThank you, Donna. It is lovely to read your intelligent writing about history and humanity. When you think about the past it is amazing to understand that we are now, actually, living in a world that is far more peaceful. Yes, I am not forgetting the Middle East or the NRA or South and Central America or...etc. But, basically, the word is less vicious than in the past. It is so easy to forget that.
ReplyDeleteYou're right as I think about my experience, as "bad" as I think things are, they have been worse. I do believe there is ongoing brutality in places unfamiliar to me or that we never hear about. I fear it is the nature of man.
Delete