Pastor Spomer,

I don’t want to make it sound like it is—or ever was (I went to grade school in the 1950s)—a part of a Catholic education that Luther reconciled with the Catholic Church on his deathbed, but I think there was a belief among certain Catholic circles—which may have been passed on in comments by certain Catholic teachers in the “old days”—that Luther regretted his actions, and some even attribute to the dying Luther this quote: “”It is easier to live as a Protestant, but better to die as a Catholic.” Some further speculate (or claim) that he repented on his deathbed.

I can’t endorse this web site, because I stumbled upon it today and have read only part of this page, but it seems to explain rather well how some Catholics made the case that Luther regretted his actions (which I take to be false).

It’s good to remember that grade school nuns of the 1950s were from another era. I remember my sixth-grade teacher, Sister Giulietta, whom some of my classmates claim had taught their parents and was old even then, insisted that no one who wore boots to school on a rainy day could leave them on in class because, you see, it was bad for your eyes. I believe the theory, clearly an old wives’ tale, was that boots would cause your feet to sweat and draw moisture away from your eyes.

I remember my sister telling about one of her teachers in high school, a very elderly nun, who would get angry because none of her students could name all of the Twelve Commandments.

The fact that Hitchens is able to write an essay dispensing with one of Nietzsche’s more famous aphorisms (and one that was possibly intended ironically by Nietzsche himself) doesn’t seem to carry any wider significance about a change in worldview.

I wouldn’t say Judge’s essay is in poor taste — it’s just ignorant.

I never heard this one. What did your grade school nuns tell you?

Besides what Raymond said. I don’t think we should be motivated by “whether this would cause a bad reaction in Hitchens” very much, if our motives are otherwise good and our actions wise, but more as a Golden Rule thing — who among us would want to be the subject of a conversation like this????

Bit dishonest to pretend that there’s no difference between selling a product for profit vs. doing something because you genuinely believe it’s helpful and beneficial to the person receiving it.

Christians do not get commissions.