How much has religion really changed since the days of Martin Luther? Is the church still stealing money? Are clergymen still sexually deviant? Is the church still exerting political influence? Yes to all these questions. So what went wrong with the reforms that Martin Luther tried to start hundreds of years ago? One must look no further than the works of Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes to find the answer. People are what went wrong with Luther's reforms. Humankind was simply neither good nor virtuous enough to carry out Luther's principals. In the end, it was not the church that needed reforming, it was human nature itself.

One must look no further than the evening news to see the proof that Martin Luther has failed. For example, take the case of televangelist Jim Baker, who was caught stealing money from donations that were to given him in the name of God. There are of course the numerous stories of priests molesting little boys. There's also the Christian Coalition, which is little more than a special interest group, founded in the name of God, which uses campaign contributions to control politicians on keynote issues. Luther identified all these kinds of corru

ptions hundreds of years ago, yet they still exist today. Even the evils that Luther managed to change are being abused today. A perfect example is Luther's assertion that people should have the right to interpret Scripture for themselves because the church slants the Scriptures in a way that is beneficial to itself.

and The Nature of the Clergy." Sources of Western Tradition. Ed. Marvin Perry. New York: 1999. 15-16.

To put it plainly, Martin Luther's charges against the church were largely misdirected. The church's shortcomings back in 1520 are the same that humankind has had since Adam and Eve to today.

Hobbes, Thomas. "Leviathan." Sources of Western Tradition. Ed. Marvin Perry. New

Now that people have the right to interpret Scriptures for themselves, take this passage from the KKK web site into consideration,

He writes, "They (the church) assume sole authority for themselves and would persuade us with insolent juggling of words that the Pope, whether he be bad or good, can not err in matters of faith..." (Luther 15)

"Jeremiah 13:23 stresses the fact that we cannot make white people out of Negroes in these words: 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' This could be interpre

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