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Dear Arthur and Sandra:

A professor brought up a book by Martin Luther called "On the Jews and their Lies" in class. I looked for it on the internet and I found several websites that claim Martin Luther was anti-Semitic and partially inspired the Nazi movement. I looked at the text of "On the Jews and their Lies" and found some surprising quotes. If you have time, could you take a look at the text and tell me why he would write this? I'm debating if this is believable and what I should make of it. Here are some websites I looked at:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/luther-jews.html

http://www.nobeliefs.com/luther.htm

http://www.luther.de/en/

Thanks for the email. My time is tight, so here's my reply for now:

1. I downloaded the book and will read it over the next few weeks. I'll let you know what my thoughts are.

2. From my preliminary overview of the book, I think the Walker person has taken much of Luther's writings out of context. When I read the critique of Luther and all the quotes of the book, I was puzzled too. When I read some of the quotes in context, I'm not so puzzled.

3. Walker (of nobeliefs.com) is not a Christian and would most certainly not be able to read the book through the proper lenses and understanding - and he doesn't. I don't blame him, though. He's not able to. So, I understand his point of view, coming from his background.

Much of what I've read so far was not intended for political purposes, nor were they intended to be cited the way they have been.

In fact, if I selected various quotes of Jesus and just put them side by side, like Walker did with Luther's quotes, I think people would say that Jesus was anti-Semitic and inflammatory toward Jews. In fact, Jesus and the Bible have been used and cited through the centuries as the reason terrible acts were committed, though, in fact that couldn't be farther from Jesus' heart or the Bible's message.

Well, we know better because we know the big picture and the context. I think the same applies.

4. I have visited the luther.de site before but have found it largely inaccurate and unsubstantiated, so I don't visit it anymore. The hosts of the site are not followers of Luther or Christianity in a spiritual sense (though you might think so from the name of the site); rather, they follow Luther from a historical sense (much like the infamous "Jesus Seminar" supposedly was formed to search out the real Christ - however, it really was formed to debunk the biblical Jesus)

5. Luther's personality was indeed boisterous and cantankerous at times. He was a very passionate person, to the point of rudeness on occasion. On a personality level, I'm not at all sure I would have gotten along with him on a social level. Also, there are some areas of theology that I would not agree with, though a vast majority I would.

I think some of the criticisms made toward him are due to his personality and his colorful language more than the substance of what he really was trying to say. When stripped to the substance, I think you'll find very thoughtful and reasonable arguments.

Anyway, I've got to go. Let me know anything that you're thinking.

We can get to more specifics later.

Blessings,

Arthur

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Total Devotion is the High School Fellowship at Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

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