Legend has it that in 1517, Martin Luther nailed a document to the door of a church and began the Protestant Reformation. Before then, there was really only one church — the Roman Catholic Church. The most revolutionary concept in Martin Luther’s document was the idea that all people have a direct connection to God through prayer. By pointing out the irrelevancy of the Catholic hierarchy in terms of salvation, Luther democratized access to God. He was a Christian anarchist. Every church in the world that isn’t a Catholic church owes its existence to this man and this simple, yet revolutionary truth.
If I were to choose one important idea to nail to an important building today, it would be that cultural narcissism has poisoned the west, and that our only way forward is to face this ugliness in ourselves and in each other. Anything else will mean our destruction. I think the document that would best embody this idea is this article by Umair Haque.
Umair Haque, January 3, 2021
If the truth can set us free, this is the truth we need to examine.