The Protestant Reformation was about money, power, and sex. Can you prove otherwise?

Question

Okay I'll start the proof....Luther married a Nun.

Another proof against the protestants...All tithes were withheld from Rome, but still collected.

Answer 1

Pastor Billy says: I give you 5 stars for making the question. Many Protestants mention the Reformation like a cheap cliche. With it they assume much and study little. For example you cannot reform something by leaving it also the idea of indulgences being wrong wasn't the issue Luther had (as one of your answers explains) it was the abuse of indulgences that was the issue. Catholics can receive an indulgence by simply spending time reading the holy bible hows that for an eye opener!

Yes the Protestant Reformation was very much about money and power and sex. Take the English Reformation with Henry Tudor and the those Lords who gave up the faith at the time. They saw the Christian Church in England as a large land owner and wanted to increase their own wealth such like the Princes of Germany. So what happened? They robbed the Church during this time and basically closed the only social welfare system. The Catholic Church was the one taking care of the poor, feeding the hungry, helping the sick. During the reformation the Churches were closed, monasteries looted and destroyed and Church farm land being tilled by free men was turned over to the elite following Henry as spoils of the reformation so as to make serfs out of the little people no more the free man. This was the beginning of huge estates in Britain where the new landowner charged extreme rents to those living off the land.

Of course sex played a part as Henry wanted a male heir and needed a divorce from his first wife, his dead brothers widow. Sadly for Henry he didn't have the knowledge to understand the problem was a male one as his sperm decides the sex of the child.

I think you've forgotten one thing however, persecution. The Protestant reformation was as much about persecution of Catholics as Protestants like to claim about the Catholic Inquisition.

Many Catholics were murdered by Protestants during the reformation and persecuted for holding unto their faith.
goto http://newadvent.org and type in English martyrs or reformation. More women died during the Protestant witch hunts than all persons sentenced to death by the Spanish civil Inqusition.

Answer 2

Not all of them were. The Anabaptists were persecuted by everyone. They had no political power (though when they did get it in Munster, they went nuts), and I have a hard time imagining someone in those kinds of conditions hanging on for no reason but money, power, and sex.

When we move beyond that to men like Luther and Calvin, then we're discussing a different class of people. Yes, they were all over money, power, and sex. Luther was a pervert (by his own admission). He supported bigamy in a letter we have and instructed the man to keep quiet about it, but just do what he wanted. When it started to come out, Luther told him to lie, but the man had more integrity than Luther and wouldn't lie, so Luther left him hanging in the cold. When the rulers wanted to squelch a peasant uprising Luther had helped start, he told switched sides called the peasants inhuman and told the princes that despite their lack of virtue, they can get into heaven by killing peasants. This led to a Holocaust-like slaughter. He'd change his mind at the drop of a hat, doing whatever was expedient at the time.

Luther was an evil man. Calvin wasn't much different, then we have the founder of the English Reformation who created a church so he could have a quick and easy divorce. The Reformers were at least as bloody as their Roman Catholic counterparts, and in a number of places more bloody. They succeeded only because they made a successful grab for wealth and power.

So, yes, the Reformation (or Rebellion) was, indeed, more about money, power, and sex than it was anything else.

Answer 3

Money and power were definitely aspects to the reformation.
In the end however, it was ultimately about how a person's soul was justified.

Money just happened to be the way in which the catholic church of western Europe said that a person could go to heaven. In fact, Luther's main point wasn't about even indulgences (money given so that a person could go to heaven). It was on how salvation was already paid for by Christ and no amount of "indulgences" or good works could earn entry into heaven. In a way you could say that the reformers were trying to focus on how is WASN'T about the money.

In terms of power, Luther was definitely criticizing how the Bible had played a "back seat" role in the church. Things like the practice of selling indulgences, worshiping of Mary, the idea of purgatory, authority of the pope, etc. were all ideals and items that were non-Biblical but were taking precedent over Biblical ideals and motifs. Luther and his predecessors were trying to say that authority did not ultimately lay in the physical church, but rather in the Bible.

In short, they coined 5 Latin phrases during that time to summarize their struggle and desires.

Sola Gratia - by grace alone
Sola fide - by faith alone
Sola Scriptura - by scripture alone
Sola Christus - by Christ alone
Soli Deo Gloria - glory to God alone

the sex thing....mm...honestly I couldn't prove it because I've never read anything by Luther or anybody else talking about how they were pissed because they thought the church needed more sex. haha

Answer 4

Yes, Martin Luther was sick of the teaching and practices of the catholic church and the power the pope claimed to have.

Martin Luther help us get access to the message that was in the Bible since the church that was in power would not allow the common person to know of this.

He married an ex nun who walked away from the catholic church as did many during that time; which if you questioned any thing would lead you to be burned at the stake.

Answer 5

Hell, you could say that about pretty much any political movement in the history of the world.

Ambitious people want more money, power and/or sex. They create big plans to acquire these things, then dupe a lot of other people into going along with it. In the end, either the ambitious ones are taken down by other ambitious people, or they survive to have a lot of money, power and/or sex.

The rest of the people either are happy stemming from positive externalities, or get screwed over by those at the top (i.e. what usually happens)

Answer 6

The protestant reformation was once approximately discovering yet another course to comply with rather then that of the Catholic church, which was once totally corrupted on the time. Google Martin Luther's "ninety five thesis"

Answer 7

Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel.

And at the heart of the gospel, in Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith--the teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God.

Take some time and read his writings and the literature of the time.

Answer 8

Just the word Protestant and Reformation prove otherwise

Answer 9

There are actually some people who believe that Henry VIII created the Anglican church for religious reasons. Can you imagine that? All of those people believing devoutly in their god because Henry VIII was a sexual pervert.

Answer 10

Why should you not have to prove your statement?

On whom really does the burden of proof lie?