Martin Luther and, therefore, Lutherans have a reputation for being quietists—for not wanting to “rock the boat” but instead accepting the existing political order.
While Thomas Muentzer, a radical Anabaptist leader, was promoting the Peasant Revolt of 1525, Luther called for obedience to the state.
In the view of many Lutherans even today, the American colonists committed a sin by declaring their independence from England in 1776.*
Such, however, is not the only Lutheran way of thinking, nor does this thinking necessarily reflect Luther’s own mature view of the duties of citizens and of Christian magistrates in the face of tyranny.
*“The American Revolution cannot be justified on the basis of the Word of God, no matter how many times God’s name is dragged into it.” Daniel M. Deutschlander, Civil Government: God’s Other Kingdom
(https://amzn.to/1XWXWqI) (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1998), 154
While Thomas Muentzer, a radical Anabaptist leader, was promoting the Peasant Revolt of 1525, Luther called for obedience to the state.
In the view of many Lutherans even today, the American colonists committed a sin by declaring their independence from England in 1776.*
Such, however, is not the only Lutheran way of thinking, nor does this thinking necessarily reflect Luther’s own mature view of the duties of citizens and of Christian magistrates in the face of tyranny.
*“The American Revolution cannot be justified on the basis of the Word of God, no matter how many times God’s name is dragged into it.” Daniel M. Deutschlander, Civil Government: God’s Other Kingdom
(https://amzn.to/1XWXWqI) (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1998), 154