It is pretty much understood by most people that the Reformation was about banning stuff, burning stuff including human beings who made the Pope nervous. Luther’s writings were banned and burned and people were told not to purchase his books and if they had they were to turn them over the authorities. Luther was put into a position of being unable to speak in public. I heard something like that the other day. A Presidential candidate asked the TV networks to ban a certain person from interviews and the spokesperson for a former presidential candidate asked that a book by some reporter be banned. Interesting what freedom of speech means to aging hippies that used to run around screaming about their freedom of speech, but I digress. Luther was able to preach and speak in public by protection of his prince and other German nobles, but all his adult life he was under the cloud of being arrested and killed.
Luther was not above banning pamphlets that he believed damaged the Gospel and “poor peoples consciences” and was not above telling certain people that they could no longer teach or preach in his territory. He spent some time with printers telling them that certain folks on the other side should not have their works published. But there was one important book that had been banned and was under fire and that was the Koran or Quran. The Turks were attacking Europe and were being quite successful and the propaganda was hot and heavy. The banning of the Islamist holy book was considered absolutely essential to protect the Empire and yet Luther believed that it should not be banned, instead he worked to have it translated so the regular person on the street could read it. He believed that if people read it and saw how vulgar and weird it was they themselves would be that much more averse to Islamic intrusions.
Austere Muslim clerics might have appreciated the publicity, but they would have despised the spokesman as they despised his great love; the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
