Here I Stand. I Can Do No Other

I hadn't quite looked at the situation today, with Leftist refusing to debate conservatives on the merits of the issues, as being comparable to the Catholic Church versus Martin Luther. But Scott Hogenson makes a strong case at Townhall.com in a piece entitled Our Message To the Left: Here I Stand.  I do not intend to say that the Catholic Church is evil, nor that the Lutheran Church is holy.  What I am sying is that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church at that time sought power over faith.  In truth, the faithful of whatever denomination have been the body of Christ in every age and place.  Those who follow Biblical Truth are Christ's body, the true Church.

Totalitarians loathe debate. They sometimes discuss a particular issue, but too often, the conversation devolves into fits of emotion, false premises, and outright lies. Most of us know people like this, and there are several reasons why calm, forensic debate with them is nearly impossible.

...snip...

Militant Leftists take a hard-line approach. They’re adept at tearing down whatever institutions underpin the subject matter. Sometimes, this is done rhetorically, but militants are not shy about engaging in violence, up to and including mass murder.

At the core of this hatred of debate, and the questions that shape it, is the Left’s innate knowledge, however slight, that their positions are entirely indefensible. There is no truth and little logic to support any policy they want to inflict on Americans. When their inability to defend their ideas occurs to them, things get ugly and civil debate ends.

Luther started the debate by publishing 95 theses where he felt that the Church's practices diverged from Biblical truth. In particular, he believed that the sale of indulgences was not within the power of the Church. Indulgences were pieces of paper that purported to get a sinner out of purgatory (another Catholic dogma that isn't in the Bible.) Luther intended to debate these ideas to bring Catholic practice back in line with Biblical truth. Alas, the Church hierarchy was having none of it. As a result, Luther was sentenced to death, saved by Frederick the Wise of Saxony, and ex-communicated.  Thus the founding of the Lutheran Church, though Luther himself wanted to call it Evangelical Catholic.

Civic debate in America today parallels the theocratic response to Luther, whose sin was seeking discussion and asking questions. Like medieval theocrats, the modern Left is keenly aware they cannot prevail in the civil debate. Hence, they slander, intimidate and seek to wreck whatever and whomever they must to prevent debate.

May each one of us stick to the truth as Luther did.