Polish Adventists join other Protestants in denouncing posters attacking Luther

Adventist Press Service ^ | 11/8/2007

[Alex Murphy]

Protestant leaders in one of Poland's largest cities have condemned a poster campaign denouncing Martin Luther, the 16th century German Protestant leader, as a blasphemer and heretic, a November 7 news release by Ecumenical News International (ENI) reported.

"What would happen if someone hung placards outside a Roman Catholic church attacking the 'blasphemy and heresy of John Paul II,' or the 'blasphemy of Muhammad' at a mosque?" said Mariusz Maikowski, a pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Lublin in eastern Poland. "These actions are clearly illegal [in Poland], yet the local council has said and done nothing," Maikowski told ENI.

According to the release, the posters were captioned, "The blasphemy and heresy of Martin Luther," and pictured a devil whispering in the Protestant reformer's ear.

They were displayed throughout Lublin to advertise lectures by Ryszard Mozgol, an official with Poland's National Remembrance Institute, the body charged with handling the records of the country's communist-era secret police.

The lectures were held on October 15 and 31, the 490th anniversary of Luther's Protestant Reformation, and were planned by the Organization of Polish Monarchists. Founded in 1989, the group claims to have several thousand members and seeks to establish a "Catholic state" within Poland.

Of Poland's 38 million people, 95 percent are Roman Catholic.

"It's shocking and unbelievable that depictions of Luther as anti-Christ could still be appearing in the 21st Century," Maikowski told ENI. According to Maikowski the campaign had "caused deep offense" to Lublin's Protestant and Orthodox communities. He also said local prosecutors should mount an investigation.

The Rev. Dariusz Chwastek, a Lutheran pastor from Lublin, described the posters as "highly damaging." Chwastek, who overseas Lublin's Holy Trinity parish, said, "I think too much blood has flowed, and too many stakes been burned, to re-ignite these disputes again centuries later."

The monarchist organization's president, Lukasz Kluska, refused to apologize and was quoted by Poland's Dziennik Wschodni newspaper as saying that minority church representatives could have presented their opinions during the lecture. [Editor: Jonathan Luxmoore for Ecumenical News International (ENI) and ANN/APD Staff ]

[Secret Agent Man]

If someone can post an image of this or can point me to where an online copy is, I’d like it for my archives. thanks,

[Pyro7480]

[Augustinian monk]

Even the Catholic theologian Erasmus agreed with Luther that the Catholic church needed reform. The RRC should leave this period of history alone. The truth doesn’t favor them.

[Augustinian monk]

RCC

[Campion]

As you'll note, nobody in a position of authority in the church authorized or promoted these posters, so you're chiding the wrong group of people.

But it isn't as though Protestants are hesitant to accuse Catholics of all sorts of things, blasphemy among them.

[Campion]

It's shocking and unbelievable that depictions of Luther as anti-Christ could still be appearing in the 21st Century

It's shocking to me that two major American Lutheran denominations, the LCMS and the WELS, are still identifying the Papacy as "antiChrist" in their official confessions of faith in the 21st century.

[magisterium]

While I do not condone this type of baiting polemic (and, please note, this stuff doesn't appear to be coming from official Catholic sources), I find it mildly amusing that the Seventh-Day Adventists, of all people, are in such high dudgeon. Given the many well-known and vitriolic remarks of Ellen White directed at the Catholic Church, the SDAs are about the last people who should be complaining about such...uh..."ungraciousness."