Comm455/History of Journalism

In my journalism class, we watched a documentary on Martin Luther, which was cool. It’s crazy how when you are in middle school, you don’t really pay attention to all of the historical figures that we learn about in history class, but when we watch a documentary on a specific person, it stays with you- at least for me it does. I remember learning about the 95 thesis in high school and about Martin Luther, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it nor did I understand why he was important or why the 95 thesis was important. After watching this video, the light bulb finally went off (better late than never).

Martin Luther was a very religious person who wanted to please his father. I think the things that struck me the most had to do with his religious journey and his journey with finding who he was in the eyes of God. Luther was the type of person who believed he could never please God and that everything he was doing was never enough. It wasn’t until he was appointed as a teacher for religious students that he really understood how to be saved. His devotion to God and being saved was amazing and touching to watch.

One of the things that was mentioned in the documentary was that during Black death, Luther and his family believed it to be a punishment from God for their sins. Its weird because I am person of Faith and I definitely don’t believe that. I don’t think a bad thing can come from a merciful God. Another shocking think was in learning about the Roman catholic church. Learning that they were greedy and interested in making new ways to make a profit was shocking because this was coming from a church. I had the same reaction that Luther had when he found out: shocked and disgusted.

Luther also became a monk. He decided to leave school and become a monk, which I thought was a very devotional act. His life as a monk was miserable, and it seemed to me that he was trying to punish himself and live his life miserably; A life full of torture and sadness.

Luther’s journey was rough, but in the end, he accomplished a lot and changed a lot of minds and I would say that he found some of the answers he was looking for.