MARTIN LUTHER’S OPPOSITION TO THE SALE OF INDULGENCES

Most people in America know Martin Luther King Jr. Not everybody knows his illustrious namesake “Martin Luther,” a German priest. Most people heard about “Lutheran” churches. But, not everybody knows its origin “Luther.”

Martin Luther started the “Protestants” movement which spread to France and England. He translated the Bible from Latin to German. The Pope wasn’t happy about it. They wanted a “monopoly,” even in religious language. His opposition to the already wealthy RC Church amassing more and more wealth under various guises and rituals on the back of the poor serfs in Germany landed him in trouble with the powerful Church and its equally formidable ally Emperor Charles V.

They put him on trial, condemned him, and cast him out as an outlaw.

LESSON FOR L A PEOPLE: With a substantial $ 50,000 to $ 100,000, why is a local L A area Temple monk doing a Food Fair/Nibban Zay AGAIN?

Post Dhamma Hall completion, there is no need to pay monthly mortgage payments or to pay property taxes. Past directors had already paid off ALL loans, big or small and had obtained FULL exemption for huge property taxes.

For post Hall completion years, why no publishing of Nibban Zay Income and Expenditure statements? Something to hide?

Now, the flyer for coming Nibban Zay mentions a couple of projects. They seem quite small to really call for a Nibban Zay. No specific amounts were detailed.

Sounds like the RC Church’s Sale of Indulgences during Martin Luther’s time, see below: Already wealthy, but still amassing great wealth on the backs of poor Myanmar community during a Great Recession in America. Quite a few are out of work. No reports, no accountability at all.

Per prior Nibban Zay flyer, “Buy one dollar Food Fair ticket, go to Nibban/Heaven, even several times.”

LOL! Did Buddha preach that? No need to study, understand, or practice?

Anyway, more merit in helping other local noble Myanmar monks and Temples struggling to survive with their monthly mortgage payments.

Moreover, more merit in helping the poor and deserving monks and people in Burma. Imagine 2 or 3 hours of electricity past midnight wee hours and for just a few days a week. Little or no water, or just dirty brackish water. Scorching heat of up to 120 degrees for many days continuously. Lakes running dry or low. To top it off, raging fires. Firemen couldn’t extinguish them because of scarce water supply.

Don’t just enjoy yourselves, my friends. Don’t fall for the hype. Have some pity on your own brethren over there, in the old country.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

Martin Luther (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest and professor of theology who initiated the Protestant Reformation.[1]

Strongly disputing the claim that freedom from God’s punishment of sin could be purchased with money, he confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.

His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the emperor….

In 1516-17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.[26]

Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man;[27] and that only such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man.[28] The benefits of good works could be obtained by donating money to the church.

On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” which came to be known as The 95 Theses.

Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly “searching, rather than doctrinaire.”[29]

Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks:

“Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?”[29]

(Evidently, greedy and heartless people don’t see the truth. No Metta!)