Inquisition in Luther's time and today
June 4, 2025
I have just read the fascinating biography of Luther by Eric Metaxas, which I highly recommend. Of course, there are also other interesting documentaries about Luther and the Reformation, e.g. in Will Durant's books Story of Civilisation, which is one of the best history books ever.
The parallels between Luther's time and the present day are striking, in which freedom of expression is once again being restricted by various authorities and dogmas are being declared unchallengeable. Fortunately, a new age of enlightenment is dawning, this time in the USA and social media, especially X since Musk bought it, is playing the same role as the printing press did after 1500. Just like back then, the new enlighteners also have opponents who threaten them with sometimes severe sanctions. However, they do not represent any religion (except political Islam), but are profiteers and power-hungry politicians whose theories even serve as a substitute for religion.
Around 1500, the Catholic Church in Europe was the authority to which everything had to be subordinated and whose dogmas were considered infallible. Luther resisted this and declared the Bible and of course Jesus to be a higher authority than the Church. Naturally, the church representatives did not like this at all and threatened Luther with death at the stake. Fortunately, Luther was supported by Elector Frederick the Wise, who had him abducted to Wartburg Castle. Luther, however, did not turn against the political authorities such as the emperor, king and electors. He referred to the biblical saying: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.”
Today, it is no longer so clear who all belongs to the opponents of the new enlightenment. In 2016, Donald Trump summarily referred to them as “the establishment” in the following speech and made it clear that they were concerned with the global domination of corporations. At the time, they tried to achieve this with the TTIP and TISA agreements (under which water, education and other goods were to be privatized), against which the millions of protesters in Europe were of no avail. Trump kept his promise and stopped TIPP as one of the first official acts, and also TISA could no longer be implemented.
Trumps speech against the establishment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHsZxJlxHYw
Read more:
https://www.europa-konzept.eu/aktuelle-texte/the-establishment/
Of course, although this establishment has lost power as a result of Trump's re-election and Musk's Platform X, it has by no means given up on its goals. They tried, for example, with the pandemic agreement, which is now available in a watered-down form.
In addition to the WHO, the establishment includes the IPCC with its climate business, various rich entrepreneurs and, above all, the EU, which plays a nasty role when it comes to freedom of expression. Then there is so-called science, above all the universities, some of which are now strongholds of the modern inquisition, regardless of the fact that real research and science are not possible without open debate.
Examples in the following article:
https://www.europa-konzept.eu/geben-sie-gedankenfreiheit-schiller/new-age-of-enlightenment/
Sanctions
Of course, there are also differences between the period after 1500 and today. There is no longer the threat of the stake and purgatory or hell as punishment in the afterlife should no longer frighten modern Enlightenment thinkers.
But there is a risk of sanctions for deviant thinking, sometimes massive ones such as the blocking of bank accounts, professional obstacles, political exclusion, e.g. of the 20 percent AfD voters or their MPs, and even criminal charges and prison.
Even today, dissidents and government critics can still risk their lives, and violence is repeatedly used against them - often by left-wing fascists - including serious bodily harm resulting in death.
Indulgences
Another similarity between the period after 1500 and today is the sale of indulgences.
At that time, indulgences could be used to shorten the time in purgatory for oneself and one's loved ones - they related to the afterlife. But for the church and the Renaissance popes, they were a lucrative business.
Today, global warming can supposedly be prevented with indulgences (climate certificates and CO2 taxes) (parallel to purgatory). Although there are many climate theories and no scientific consensus, the CO2 thesis of the IPCC - which was a business model from the beginning - has prevailed in politics and the media and the IPCC is an important organization of the establishment.
The CO2 thesis has become as much a dogma as the infallibility of the church in the 1500s and anyone who doubts it has been discriminated for years. But there are many climate theories and never a consensus among scientists.
Read more:
https://www.europa-konzept.eu/umweltmanagement-statt-co2-abzockerei/c02-thesis-and-critics/
The dogmas were even more extreme during the coronavirus era, with some representatives of the establishment declaring any opposition to be undesirable and illegal. Things got worst after the vaccination came onto the market. This, too, was a kind of indulgence, a piece of so-called “freedom” was acquired and for the vaccination companies it was a billion-dollar business. Anyone who refused was punished with imprisonment and may even lose their job. Government statistics on vaccine damage had been available since 2021 and were already alarming at the time.
Read more:
https://www.europa-konzept.eu/corona/against-force-to-vaccination/
Despite this, neither the politicians nor the media, which were financed by coercion, provided sufficient information. The critics ended up in prison. Examples: Michael Ballweg spent 9 months in Stammheim, Bhakdi was charged in Germany with “incitement of the people” under the chewing gum law. Fuellmich has been in prison since November 2023 for alleged embezzlement and was sentenced to a harsh prison term - while murderers and rapists walk free in Germany.
Another dogma is queer ideology, which is even being forced on children. Let's be clear: my generation did not fight for sexual freedom - even for queer people! - so that they could turn it into an ideology.
Absurdly, criticism of the opposite - Islam - is also frowned upon. I'm not referring to the believers who adapt to our laws and for whom religious freedom naturally applies, but to those who even use violence to try to impose Islam on others.
Legitimate criticism is defamed as a conspiracy theory or disinformation.
The words used to describe critics of the establishment are also interesting. Around 1500, they were called heretics or heretics. Today, there are different terms and insults depending on the situation, e.g. lateral thinker - that's still polite - corona or climate denier and so on.
Protests of the farmers
As in 1524, massive popular protests formed during the Corona period, not least from farmers and craftsmen. At least they were peaceful and the protest against the modern inquisition should remain so. We have good arguments and no need for violence.
1524 and 25: Luther repeatedly called for non-violent protest. But fanatics who could truly be described as rabble-rousers, such as Thomas Müntzer, caused a wave of terror that had nothing to do with reformation or justified protest. Exasperated, Luther then wrote his infamous letter to the peasants, in which he called on the princes to put down the peasant protests, which they did.
EU against freedom of information
The EU is a particularly virulent opponent of freedom of expression today.
In 1522, the reformers Johann von Esch and Heinrich Voes were executed at the stake in Brussels because they refused to recant their theses.
Exactly 500 years later, the EU drafted the Digital Service Act.
Article 2(h) defines illegal content as any information, which does not comply with Union law or the law of a Member State. It is therefore difficult to criticize abusive Union law. We have seen how necessary this is during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Code of conduct+ will strengthen the way online platforms deal with content that EU and national laws define as illegal hate speech. The integrated Code of conduct will facilitate compliance with and the effective enforcement of the DSA when it comes to risks of dissemination of illegal content on their services.
EU politicians naturaly want to determine what is hate speech.
Following this integration, online platforms who are designated under the DSA can adhere to the Code of conduct+ to demonstrate their compliance with the DSA obligation to mitigate the risk of the dissemination of illegal content on their services. The compliance with the Code of conduct+ commitments will be part of the annual independent audit which these platforms are subject to under the DSA and which contributes to reenforcing the platforms transparency and accountability.
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/code-conduct-countering-illegal-hate-speech-online
The Digital Service Act is a threat to Musk and his platform X, among others. As this is an American company, the power of the EU is limited. However, this is still enough to have accounts arbitrarily deleted and to restrict ranges or mute unwanted comments, which corresponds to the medieval and later book burnings.
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