April 18

On April 18, 1521, on the second day of the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther appeared before his accusers, who called him a heretic and ordered him to renounce his writings. Luther replied: 

Luther was able to leave Worms safely, but had to go into hiding at Wartburg Castle (in the photo above), where he went under the alias “Junker Jörg.” 

Today is also the birthday of James McCune Smith, a prominent abolitionist who worked with Frederick Douglass and the first African-American to earn a Medical Doctorate. Among other liberation work, he worked to dispel medical myths about differences between Black and white people. 

Today also marks the death, in 1587, of John Foxe, author of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. The book, in its abbreviated form, has come to have a reputation of morbid sensationalism, since it details the tortures of various martyrs through church history. It was also a work of polemic against the Roman Catholic Church. Foxe’s intention, though, was to decry religious violence and uplift people he considered saints — much as I’m doing here in this devotional.  

Reflection: 

Regarding Dr. Smith’s work, it seems incredible that nearly two hundred years after he earned his degree, physicians are still twice as likely to underestimate pain experienced by their Black patients. 

Regarding both Luther and Foxe, I want to share that I find inspirational anyone who stands up to the religious and political tyranny of their day. Catholics suffered persecution in Protestant parts of Europe, and vice versa. Protestants inflicted persecutions on other Protestants who dissented from either church governance or denominational theology. Both Christian groups oppressed Jews, Muslims, Quakers, and Anabaptists. Religious violence, and the theology that justified it, would also be used to justify slavery and the theft of land from Native Americans. 

Unlike Foxe, I borrow martyrs from other denominations and other religions, because Christianity does not have a monopoly on love of God, virtue, or justice work. But I gladly embrace the term “polemic” because as Foxe was doing, I’m fighting an oppressive religious system and encouraging others to do the same. I’m copying the rhetoric of the author of Hebrews 11: we stand on the shoulders of others who have worked toward justice and liberation because we are all involved in the same great work. 

Prayer: Holy Spirit, your people have been through many formations and reformations. Continue to inspire us to reject tyranny and oppression, whether that comes from church or state, and to work for the liberation of your whole creation. Amen.