Lutheran Ping!
Posted on 06/22/2009 7:49:08 PM PDT by aussiemom
WITTENBERG, Germany -- Martin Luther, a renegade monk, triggered the Reformation here five centuries ago . . .
Today, fewer than one in five people identify themselves as Christian . . .
" . . . east Germany is perhaps the most atheistic region in the world" . . .
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States, has bought a building next to the old Town Church, where Luther used to preach . . . plans to start a congregation . . .
"In east Germany, you actually have to go up to people and tell them who Jesus was . . . They say, 'Oh yes, Christ. Didn't he have something to do with Luther?' " . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ping!
Aye, her Presiding Bishop and the President of the Lutheran World Federation are one and the same.
Wow!
Bringing the Word back to where some of my people came from.
Ping to read later
Was in Wittenberg in 1983, Was in the Wartburg Castle, also the Schloskirche where the 95 theses were posted and
where he is buried.
Was in the house in Eisleben where Luther was born.
Eisenach, was in Erfurt where he was ordained a priest
and where the Augustinian monastery is that he entered
and other interesting areas in East Germany.
Excet for a few historical churches including St. Thomas in Leipzig where Bach was orgaiist and choir master and where he is buried. Was able to see this.
almost all Lutheran Churches when I was there were locked shut by the Communists.
Communism and secularism created an atheistic country second only to Hungary in suicides and alcoholism. Welcome to the most atheistic country in Europe. This is a prime example of the affects of atheism, secularism, and communism. They only make people’s lives wretched. Wake up America! This could very easily happen to us if the National Socialist Party (aka Democratic Party) continues to rule. We are not that far from going down the very same road as Saxony.
What’s odd is that next door, in Poland, the Communist period saw the flourishing of underground Christianity and the emergence of one of the most influential Popes of the century.
My theory would be that the Poles have a long history of taking comfort in the Church when their independence is taken away, whereas East Germans (Saxons, Prussians,Pomeranians, Thuingians) have a long history of obeying the State more or less blindly.
I spent the summers of '04, '05, & '06 in Lutherstadt Wittenberg (the official name), as part of seminary study on the Reformation.
I've also been to all the places you mentioned, as well as a few more. The good news is the churches are NOT all locked up any more. The bad news is that communism did its work, and a majority of people in the East are atheists still--hence the churches tend to be empty.
The article hits the nail on the head though as to what Wittenberg is like. Unlike most American tourist types, my stays were all over 3 weeks....and you get to know a place a bit for that period of time.
Tonight for example....a Monday, you'll find the bars in Wittenberg full up to Midnight and beyond--and not for tourists--typically packed a lot of high school age types--as the drinking age is 16 (and not strictly enforced...). Now that the nitrogen plant is closed (so no more polution--a very good thing) unemployment is something over 20%. Wittenberg's people today are a sad and very lost group.
All of Germany today is a huge mission field--full of people with empty lives....wide open to the Gospel.
“Bringing the Word back to where some of my people came from.”
I had lunch with an American protestant missionary that has spent most of his time in India for the last 30 years. He said that people in India are so receptive of the Gospel that in 25 years Indian Christian missionaries will be here, re-evangelizing America.
That’s impressive. There are already people from foreign countries that early missionaries evangelized that are coming here now to evangelize US.
It is already happening.
There are Korean missionaries here in my area.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.