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Steve
Farrell's
Liberty
Jabs
Best
of the Liberty Letters Blog - #2 - May 25,
2005
Dissidence
of Dissent: Protestantism's Liberating
Hand
Martin
Luther's Role in Liberating Mankind
There was a time when thinking men were
permitted to see, and discuss, and write, and teach
the obvious -- before the secular state stepped in
and silenced the obvious, that is.
One of those front and center facts that every
adult, every school child knew, was the vital role
Protestantism played in unlocking the minds of men
in favor of spiritual, intellectual and political
independence, preparing the way, and literally
opening the door for free and limited
governments.
In 1834, U.S. historian George Bancroft wrote of
the function of one of these faith's founders,
Martin Luther, in this unraveling wonder. Said
he:
- In Germany, the reformation, which aimed at
the regeneration of the world in doctrine and in
morals, sprung from the son of a miner of the
peasant class -- from Martin Luther -- of whom
Leibnitz says: "This is he who, in later times,
taught the human race hope and free thought."
Trained in the school of Paul of Tarsus through
the African Augustine, Luther insisted that no
man can impersonate or transmit the authority of
God; that power over souls belongs to no order;
that clergy and laity are of one condition; that
"any Christian can remit sins just as well as a
priest;" that "ordination by a bishop is no
better than an election;" that "the priest is
but the holder of an office," "the pope but our
school-fellow;" and, collecting all in one great
formulary, he declared: "Justification is by
faith, by faith alone." Every man must work out
his own salvation; no other, "not priest, nor
bishop, nor pope -- no, nor all the prophets "
-- can serve for the direct connection of the
reason of the individual with the infinite and
eternal intelligence.
-
- The principle of justification by faith
alone brought with it the freedom of individual
thought and conscience against authority. "If
fire;" said Luther, "is the right cure for
heresy, then the fagot-burners are the most
learned doctors on earth; nor need we study any
more; he that has brute force on his side may
burn his adversary at the stake." "I will
preach, speak, write the truth, but will force
it on no one, for faith must be accepted
willingly, and without compulsion."
-
- To the question whether the people may judge
for themselves what to believe, Luther answers:
"All bishops that take the right of judgment of
doctrine from the sheep are certainly to be held
as wolves; Christ gives the right of judgment to
the scholars and to the sheep; St. Paul will
have no proposition accepted till it has been
proved and recognized as good by the
congregation that hears it."
-
- And should "the pastor," "the minister of
the word," be called, inducted, and deposed by
the congregation? "Princes and lords," said
Luther, "Cannot with any color refuse them the
right." This he enforced on "the emperor and
Christian nobles of the German nation." This he
upheld when it was put forward by the peasants
of Suabia.
Now, not every faith will agree with every
precept Luther taught. But that's not the point.
Movement toward restoring man's free agency, and
his equality before God and the state,
is.
Burke
on the War for Independence
Edmund Burke, the famous British statesmen, took
the point farther. He believed American
Protestantism picked up where European
Protestantism left off, finished the job, and
changed the political world forever.
In a speech, Bancroft would have fully concurred
with, Burke declared:
- [Protestantism] sprung up in direct
opposition to all the ordinary powers of the
world, and could justify that opposition only on
a strong claim to natural liberty. [This was
a great advancement, Protestantism gave rise to
unalienable rights]… All Protestantism,
even the most cold and passive, is a sort of
dissent. [Thus, all Protestantism
contributed to the advancement of man's liberty
in this respect.] But the religion most
prevalent in our northern colonies is a
refinement on the principle of resistance: it is
the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism
of the Protestant religion.
The
'Scum' of the Reformation
Meanwhile, each faith filled a valuable niche in
the rising tide of resistance against centralized
power, and in the rising tide of persistence in
favor of freedom. The hated Baptists were no
exception. Bancroft explains:
- The meaner and more ignoble the party, the
more general and comprehensive are its
principles; for none but principles of universal
freedom can reach the meanest condition. The
serf defends the widest philanthropy; for that
alone can break his bondage. The plebeian sect
of Anabaptists, "the scum of the reformation,"
with greater consistency than Luther, applied
the doctrine of the reformation to the social
relations of life, and threatened an end to
kingcraft, spiritual dominion, tithes, and
vassalage. The party was trodden under foot,
with foul reproaches and most arrogant scorn;
and its history is written in the blood of
myriads of the German peasantry; but its
principles, safe in their immortality, escaped
with Roger Williams to Providence; and his
colony is the witness that, naturally, the paths
of the Baptists were paths of freedom,
pleasantness, and peace.
Finding
Our Niche
But what of we Christians today, each of us in
our individual faiths, capacities, and uniqueness?
Will we, like our forefathers, find our niche, find
our way to formidably and bravely dissent from the
bully, the tyrant, the centrist of our day -- the
Secular State?
If we hope to move the Cause of Liberty along,
and stand, at that great last day, before our
forefathers and our Forefather's God with a clear
conscience, we had better.
Bibliography:
Bancroft, George. History of the United
States, Vol.1, p.178.
Grant, James. John Adams: Party of One,
pgs. 152-153.
Bancroft, George. History of the United
States, Vol. 1, p. 608. Protestantism, said
Burke, specifically American Protestantism (or what
he also called "dissenting Protestantism") "sprung
up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers
of the world, and could justify that opposition
only on a strong claim to natural liberty." He
continued:
- All Protestantism, even the most cold and
passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion
most prevalent in our northern colonies is a
refinement on the principle of resistance: it is
the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism
of the Protestant religion. (from James Grant,
John Adams: Party of One, pgs.
152-153.)
Farrell
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