Sunday, March 20, 2011
Was Martin Luther Right?
Today, I read the first reading on Martin Luther and the beginning of the Protestant Church. The reading made me question the general concept of faith. Being a Catholic, I have learned over time to refrain from questions and to only believe. However, Luther points out so many flaws in the way the church was run in the 1500's that it upset me and caused me to question. How far can the church go before its appropriate to stop believing? When the church starts mixing with government or if the church changes the meaning of scripture, is it right to turn away? We believe in the church to move away from evil, but what do we do went he church is evil?
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I think that every person has morals instilled within them by society, religion, and personal experience. Some morals we have are as obvious as not to kill another person, but others come out of our opinions of what is right or wrong depending on whatever is important to us. In terms of recognizing corruption in something you believe in such as religion, I think it is important to remember that you should completely understand, explore, and interpret the original religion for yourself instead of being told what to believe and how to interpret religious texts by others. For example, children are many times born into the religious beliefs of their parents and grow up being told what the religion means, but rarely do they attempt to critically interpret and understand the religion for themselves.
ReplyDeleteMany students last semester, including myself, found themselves disagreeing with and questioning the teachings of the Bible. This also applies to politics and how some children will go to their fifth grade classes and promote an election candidate because their parents support them and they do not know the other side. What is worse, is that many others choose how to support a candidate of what others are arguing on CNN and news shows without ever watching a debate. The ability to have and express an opinion is what gives someone individual power, but promoting or acting on another's opinion without having a previous opinion yourself gives that person power and authority over you that they can manipulate. It is crucial for us to create our own beliefs on what we believe is right from what history, society, culture (including other cultures), and personal experience have taught us instead of naively believing the interpretations of secondary sources and teachers. We should agree with what priests and the Pope are saying from what we already believe instead of learning what to believe and do.