Thursday, February 3, 2011

Rough Draft

Martin Luther and Emperor Kangxi both criticize other religions through government.  Martin Luther criticizes the Christians that combine their faith with government while Emperor Kangxi criticizes the Catholic faith.

In Martin Luther's protestant reformation he criticizes law and religion. He believes that Christian beliefs are a problem to people in society. Martin says " We must reject those who so highly boast of Moses Laws, as to temporal affairs, for we have our written imperial and country laws, under which we live, and unto which we are sworn." Martin Luther is trying to say those that put God before the law are wrong and that they should be rejected. The Law is the Law and that is why they have separation of church and state because of different religions. Martin try's to explain that Christians need to learn how to separate these two matter. He says, " All Christians should learn rightly to discern the law and grace in their hearts, and know how to keep one from the other in deed and in truth, not merely in words, as the pope and other luceties do, who mingle them together, and, as it were, make a cake not fit to eat." Again Martin Luther is trying to explain to the Christians you should not intertwine religion and government. The two just don't mix. Everyone has to follow the law, but not everyone has the same religious beliefs as the Christians. He wants the Christians to be able to follow the law of the country, but they can also worship their God. He just doesn't want faith to mix with government.

In the next primary source Emperor Kangxi talks about religion as well. Emperor Kangxi is the emperor of China, therefore runs the government of China. Westerners have come to China to spread the Catholic faith. He starts to mistrust the missionaries because some of them are there just to make money. Emperor Kangxi says, "Besides these meddlers there are also those out for profit, greedy traders, who would not be allowed to live here." He is getting up set with the immigrants coming from Europe either trying to make money or spread the Catholic Faith. He has to stricken the law so he can keep an eye on all the immigrants, " The Chinese stricken the rules on Christians and Christians were required to have a certificate to preach". Emperor Kangxi is trying to get a hold of all the immigrants. He does that by putting them all in one are and making sure the missionaries have certificates so they know that they are real. Emperor Kangxi has a little bit of tolerance for the religion but just can't understand it. The Emperor tries to understand the Catholic religion but they cannot explain their miracles or Jesus's death to him so he has no reason to believe it. He doesn't get too upset with the missionaries who are trying to spread the catholic faith but, is more upset at the greedy men who pretend to be missionaries to make money.

Emperor Kangxi and Martin Luther both criticize religion in their primary sources. Martin Luther didn't want religion and government to mix. While Emperor Kangxi, head of the government, gives his view on another religion. Emperor Kangxi does not agree with the other religion but has a little more tolerance for it than Martin Luther does. Martin Luther just thinks mixing religion with government is plain dumb and that Christians need a  find a way to do both. Martin Luther and Emperor Kangxi both talk about a similar religion that came from the same roots. The Catholic and Christian faith are almost identical, with very few differences. They both don't agree with the religious teachings of those faith and talk about how they are wrong. The main difference is the tolerance Emperor Kangzxi has compared to Martin Luther.

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