Time moves fast. Perspective is vital. Columbus discovered America the same year German theologian Martin Luther turned nine (1492). We remember Columbus, and should remember Luther. Columbus fathered America. Luther fathered the Protestant Reformation.
Why should this matter in 2026, 500 years after Luther spurred “The Peasants’ War,” pressured the Catholic Church to stop “selling indulgences” (money for forgiveness), got himself excommunicated, and began translating and printing the Bible for all to read?
Four reasons bring Luther to mind, although I am not Lutheran – at this 501st anniversary of the largest uprising in Europe before the American Revolution in 1776.
First, Martin Luther was deep, a thinker, filled with passion for truth. His life is a testament. Following his father’s wishes, he started at law, then learned philosophy, finally traded all that “reason” for “faith.”
He became a monk in 1505, was ordained a Catholic priest in 1507, but then started thinking again, courageously challenged the Pope’s money raising, which got him excommunicated.
His passion, in a phrase, was for understanding the Bible and helping others to do so, first with lectures on the Psalms, Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians, later publications like his famous “Ninety-five Theses.” He made the Bible readable and accessible.
While he later married, setting a precedent for Protestants (predated by Orthodox clergy), he urged focus on the Ten Commandments, spoke of “grace” and being “born again.”
Second, while Luther’s theology was complex – and not without prejudice – he stood at the crossroads of Catholicism and Protestantism, which in turn created a cascading effect, with more people learning about the Bible. He was a born missionary.
Just 250 years later, the same distance we are from our Revolution, the Founders took strength from their various faiths, mostly Protestant – Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Deists, Unitarians, Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and several Catholics.
Third, beyond being a passionate and courageous seeker of truth and believer, he was a teacher who conveyed complex concepts to the people and did so with resolve.
He had phrases that stuck and apply now. He used them to bring people around, make them think when thinking was out of style – as it is again.
His simple adages, metaphors, and distilled lessons caused pause. His nuggets included: “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess” and “The devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God…” He wrote many hymns, some still used today.
Elsewhere, he wrote: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing” and “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
He was instructive, but self-deprecating, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times. I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my Guide.”
He was self-critical, but confident. “The Gospel cannot be truly preached without offense and tumult,” and “True humility does not know that it is humble; if it did, it would be proud from the contemplation of so fine a virtue,” and “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”
Finally, he was funny. Like many leaders, he felt humor lifted the heart and brought it closer to faith, as it reflects the joy in faith. He wrote “You have as much laughter as you have faith” and “If the earth is fit for laughter, then surely heaven is filled with it; Heaven is the birthplace of laughter.”
Unusual for his time, he wrote: “If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there” and “The Gospel is nothing less than laughter and joy,” adding “The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God; in this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy…You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.”
If this is a lot at the 250th anniversary of our Founders’ faith, and 500th of Martin Luther’s influence, ill winds blow. We are best when seeking truth, showing courage, acting on faith, teaching, and laughing. Time moves fast. Perspective…is vital.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
