Does Martin Luther's incredible anti-semitism shed a bad light on Protestantism?

Martin Luther:

"Now let me commend these Jews sincerely to whoever feels the desire to shelter and feed them, to honor them, to be fleeced, robbed, plundered, defamed, vilified, and cursed by them, and to suffer every evil at their hands -- these venomous serpents and devil's children..."

Surely God wouldn't bless an anti Semite with a 'new' revelation for his 'new chosen people' would he?

He has the right to an opinion, regardless of what it may be.

Many trace the Holocaust back to Martin Luther's own antisemitism.

Luther was crazy. Seriously. He showed serious signs of OCD and possibly even schizophrenia. No, I am not kidding.

Anyone with anti-Semitic views just doesn't get what the Gospel teaches. Jesus was/is a Jew and salvation is of the Jews.

Christ died at the hands of all men, Jew and gentile alike. He had to in order that we would be saved through His death and resurrection.

Yeshua Ha'Meshiac

As I understand it, Martin thought that as soon as he made his position clear to the Jews, they would flock to his ranks. When they did not, he never forgave them.

It is a given that no body's perfect, but I do not think protestants have a monopoly of antisemitism. The catholics in many cases threw all Jews out of their towns, and did some pretty awful things to the Jews.

What makes you think that Protestantism cares to shed a light that contradicts these beliefs.

This viewpoint is one of few things that can redeem protestantism, as it is has already rebelled from the Church. At least Martin Luther got one thing right before the grand corruption.

It was part of his culture, part of Western culture. Duns Scotus had some pretty crazy ideas, but also took long steps toward furthering reasoned thought. The thinking of educated men in those days was very strange when compared to our own. . What Luther did in breaking up the monopoly of thought, held by Rome, changed the world, and much for the better. That each man should be the arbiter of his own truth was a noble idea, even if framed in the twisted rhetoric of Medieval religious doctrine.

Some times history moves in small steps. How could we expect this man to reinvent the his world view hole cloth? He pursued truth, and even if he was very limited in his range, it was a shatteringly bold thing he did, for which we are in his debt.

It terrifies me, and I mean terrify, that so many people are willing to find ways to downplay a cold-blooded call to annihilate an entire group of people -- simply for being different.

Yes, Catholics did it too. The clergy, the kings, and the common people did it too. That doesn't excuse anybody else in any way.

Luther called for violence and genocide. Hitler carried it out.

That is the truth. Don't varnish it for your own comfort.