An irate reader responds to my comment on Protestantism:
What was your comment about Protestantism all about? Protestantism was *born* by confronting a Catholic Emperor. Why is Protestantism the ‘twin’ of the modern nation-state? What could possibly justify such a claim? You realize that you’re generalizing about many different groups with many different claims, right?
Instead of just insulting people on the LRC blog, many of whom are Protestants (Laurence Vance, Stephen Carson), why don’t you try to explain yourself?
It might be noble of you to apologize for your comment as well, given how brutish it was.
Well, given that I am a Lutheran (the ELCA, to be specific), have been accepted to an MDiv program at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (and had my ministry candidacy approved by the local synod), I’m not entirely sure what exactly I need to apologize for. Yes, the Reformation began as a movement of conscience against both the Roman Catholic Church and (soon after) the Holy Roman Empire. But the Reformation also gave birth to that process of state-building that came to fruition at Wesphalia in 1648. You know, the whole “monopoly of force” thing? And the major protestant churches became national churches, all too often unable and unwilling to figure out where or how Caesar stops and the church starts.
Of course this is not true of all Protestant denominations then or now. But it is true of enough of them.
2:47 pm on January 25, 2006
