Pastor May:That is an appropriate question in our day when many of the Christian clergy are apparently guilty of sexual abuse. In 1537 Martin Luther wrote
"[The Roman church] had neither the authority nor the right to forbid
marriage and burden the divine estate of priests with perpetual celibacy.
Instead, they acted like anti-Christian, tyrannical, wicked scoundrels and
thereby gave occasion for all kinds of horrible, abominable, and countless
sins of unchastity, in which they are still mired. Now, as little as the
power has been given to them or to us to make a female out of a male or a
male out of a female - or to abolish sexual distinctions altogether - so
little did they have the power to separate such creatures of God or to
forbid them from living together honestly in marriage. Therefore we are
unwilling to consent to their miserable celibacy, nor will we tolerate it.
We want marriage to be free, as God ordered and instituted it. We do not
want to disrupt or inhibit God's work, for St. Paul says that would be "a
teaching of demons." [a reference to 1 Timothy 4:1-3,]
"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical
liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot
iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to
abstain from certain foods, which God created to be
received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who
know the truth."
This statement of Luther was part of what is called the Smalcald Articles and is included in the Book of Concord, which is still, today, the official position of Lutheran Churches in the United States. This is the Lutheran position because it is what the Bible teaches. The Apostle Paul's words to the Corinthians should be followed by all Christians today, "Since there is so much immorality [fornication], each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband" (1 Corinthians 7:2).