[Vision2020] Martin Luther King Jr. Day

[David Douglas]

Joan Responds:

"  I'm ignoring question #2 because it doesn't interest me, but in
considering
#1 and #3, I wonder -- would David have advised the original Martin Luther
to address his 95 theses directly to the College of Cardinals rather than
posting them publicly?  Or would that not have gone "to the heart of the
matter"? "


Joan also ignores questions 1 and 3 as posed.  But, she joins two ideas from
two questions
with separate points to ask her own question, the gist of the point being (I
think) "Is there
an inconsistency between mentioning Luther's posting on the church door and
commenting
negatively on the research methods seen on V2020."  To which I would answer
"no".


My point in mentioning Luther's behavior question 3 is not germane to point
I was making in question 1.  Even if it were, by
Joan's reasoning, no one could disapprove of anything unless everyone you
think highly of is blameless in the discussion at hand.  Luther is only
a convenient foil, having been mentioned in proximity to V2020 research.  If
he isn't mentioned, Joan could still reference him--or anyone else.
So the argument boils down to:  people you agree with do it, too.  I would
not disagree, but that is hardly a refutation.

To answer Joan's "wondering", directly:  I don't' know what I would counsel
Martin Luther.  I don't have the facts.
It's possible, without knowing the facts, that if the facts lay a certain
way,
Martin Luther should have done things differently.  If that is the case, and
it was brought to
his attention, he should have repented.

On the other hand this may have been the appropriate thing, other avenues
been tried and found
wanting.  However, Luther as a determined schismatic from day one, seems a
stretch.  Commenting
without any research, and subject to correction, my understanding was that
he was not out to cause a
schism,  but as things fell out, reform was not happening
internally and he would not budge from the truths as revealed in scripture.

Finally, in  comparing the Wittenberg door postings to Vision2020 postings,
I suggest we might need to consider the scale of the issues.
 Luther was dealing with egregious abuses in the Roman Church. If Luther
used the Wittenberg door as the first place to
post Theses 96, 97, and 98, wherein he asks after a rumor about local bar
keep vis a vis his customers, requests a citation that could easily
be provided by a local author, or wonders how a local church entity plans to
deal with a secular holiday I'd say, in those points at least,
he was not getting "to the heart of the matter".  And if any of the first 95
theses qualify in that way, I'd include them in the criticism.
.
Now, the so unless more obvious methods--say a phone call or Google
search--meet with rebuff or failure, the Vision 2020 research methods
certainly cannot be called getting "to the heart of the matter".

Cheers,

David Douglas