This rejection of the Anabaptists was motivated partly by the Luther- ans’ desire not to have their teach- ings confused with the Anabaptists by the authorities who threatened them both. While some Lutheran leaders
argued against imposing the death penalty on Anabaptists, they were hardly lenient. In Eisenach, home to the Wartburg Castle where Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German, a farmer named Fritz Erbe was imprisoned for 16 years because he refused to have his infant baptized. The freedom of conscience that Lutherans claimed for themselves didn’t extend to other Christians. Luther’s attitude toward the Jews is another painful example of intolerance. Anti-Semitism was common in Europe long before the Reformation. The Town Church in Wittenberg where Luther frequently preached had an anti-Semitic sculp- ture carved into its exterior, dating back to 1305. The image, called a Judensau (Jewish sow), depicts Jews nursing from a sow alongside her piglets. It’s hard to imagine a more deliberately offensive image, given that Jewish law classifies pigs as unclean animals. Early in his career, Luther had
written positively about Jesus’ Jew- ish heritage. He believed that once Jewish people heard the gospel clearly, they would become Chris- tian. When 20 years of evangelical preaching had not led to Jewish con- version, Luther’s writings became hostile. He described the Judensau on the local church approvingly. In a book called On the Jews
and their Lies (1543), Luther rec- ommended destroying Jewish synagogues and homes, forbidding rabbis to preach (on pain of death) and even abolishing safe conduct for Jews traveling through Christian ter-
ritory. While Jews had already been expelled from Saxony several years before Luther wrote, that doesn’t excuse the harshness of his words. Adolph Hitler’s persecution of Jews in the early 20th century was based on race rather than religion, but the motive for persecution mat- ters little to the people who are being persecuted. German Christians used Luther’s anti-Jewish religious writ- ings to support the Nazi agenda of establishing a pure Aryan race. In November 1938, a German Lutheran bishop celebrated the fact that Kristallnacht (“the Night of Broken Glass” characterized by violence against Jewish people and property) coincided with the anni- versary of Luther’s birth. Going far beyond Luther him- self, some Protestant theologians in Hitler’s Germany argued that Jesus wasn’t Jewish but Aryan. In 1939 they established an Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life in Eisenach. The word “Hallelu- jah,” for example, was banned from Lutheran worship because it was of Hebrew origin.
Moving beyond failures As Lutherans, we confess our need for forgiveness, not only as individu- als but communally. In recent years we have not only learned from these failures in our history but have attempted to make amends for them.
In 1988, the 50th anni- versary of Kristallnacht, the congregation in Wit- tenberg asked if they should destroy the offen- sive Judensau carving on the side of the Town Church. In conversation
October 2013 23
with the Jewish community, they decided removing the image would make it too easy to forget the hatred and violence Christians had directed at Jews for centuries.
Instead, the church commissioned
another monument for the ground directly beneath the Judensau. The artist chose to create four square slabs, with cracks between them, “trying to cover up the Cross, which is refusing to be suppressed and is welling up between them as a sign of guilt and atonement.” This Holo- caust memorial is a vivid reminder that we can’t hide our sin, but also that the cross, not our sin, has the last word.
American Lutherans, too, have
Luther’s attitude toward the Jews is another painful example of intoler- ance. Anti-Semi- tism was common
in Europe long before the Reformation. The Town Church in Wittenberg where Luther frequently preached had an anti- Semitic sculpture carved into its exterior.
KATHRYN KLEINHANS
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