Adlibrand - re-read the links in this about Luther - may have found your source... -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 02:08:52 02/28/04 Sat
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject: Adlibrand - re-read the links in this about Luther - may have found your source...
In reply to: Adilbrand 's message, "Re: Source of Luther paraphrase, please..." on 22:14:11 08/07/03 Thu

I am loathe to dredge up old conversations, but...

Who am I kidding? When I read this I immediately thought of this and couldn't wait to dredge it up and screw up all continuity on this forum!

Your original quote in most of its relevant context:

"He writes, "Elton John says he can have sex with either male or female and thinks that people should be free with it." So? Why not? Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church said that if a husband is unable or unwilling to satisfy his wife, he should send her to his brother so that she is not unsatisfied. Should we now ban the Lutheran Church for his opinion?

Banning Rock because of Elton John's opinion is just as stupid."

OK - I'm reading a Luther biography and I think this is the situation to which you referred:

Philip of Hesse was one of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire (he was a big, big shot, in other words). He married a miserable shrew of a woman for political reasons at age 19. They had lived in seperate homes for several years and Philip found himself a mistress. Then, Philip became quite religious and felt that this was not appropriate so he dumped the mistress.

For several years he had no female companionship at all but then he met a lovely young noblewoman and fell in love. Her mother demanded that he either get a divorce or get permission from either Zwingli or Luther to have a second marriage before he could court her, much to Luther's dismay.

The Catholic church faced a similar problem with Henry VIII and they had nearly approved of him having multiple wives. Why? Because it never says in the Bible what the appropriate number would be - it just says to keep your hands off of another man's wife. European convention and general church teachings, however, stated that you only have one wife at a time so the Pope told Henry VIII that he could only have one at a time.

Luther, as you remember, was never much for church tradition being the overriding rule - he, instead, went on a thorough search of the scriptures. However, he did quote church tradition is noting that they always had allowed a man to take a second wife if his first wife contracted leprosy (!) or had become insane. He also stated, truthfully, that the Bible did not speak against it so, as far as he was concerned it would be fine, in this case. It was intended to be a secret wedding, but gossip always breaks out and Luther ended up looking a bit lewd.

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