Was John Calvin a Murderer?
If you don’t already know, My friend Bill Kinnon keeps an excellent blog. He’s thought-provoking, smart, funny, sarcastic, and somehow humble all at the same time. Yesterday he had the audacity to smear John Calvin on the celebration of said Reformer’s 500th birthday:
Many hold Calvin up as one of the greatest Scriptural exegetes who ever lived. So, I ask, in all humility (yah, right) did Calvin simply skim over the Gospels? Did he miss Paul’s statement that one of the fruits of the Spirit was long-suffering?(Apparently Servetus was rather obnoxious in the way in interacted with Calvin.) Or is their a Secret Message of Jesus that the rest of us can’t find that allows theologians to put heretics to death.
See, there’s that sarcasm I was referring to. It’s definitely worth the read if you’re in to that sort of thing. I’ll have more to say on the matter myself this week, so stay tuned for that : )
If John Calvin was instrumental in the death sentences of any person or persons because of supposed ”heretic” ways (which apparently it sounds like he himself was no stranger to), then yes. He did commit murder or at very least assisted with their murder. Even though he seemed to be a good force in some ways – he was still human and like the rest of us continued to fall into the sins cursed on humanity.
Interestingly enough, although I grew up in a denomination hearing the term/name ”Calvinism” being thrown around, I really didn’t know ANYTHING about the movement nor the person behind the movement until a few years ago when I finally started skimming though websites and scratched the surface on both the man and the movement. I only did that because I entered into a conversation with a group of people and confused the daylights out of one guy who didn’t understand why *I* didn’t understand how to answer his question, ”Are you a Calvinist’?”. I informed him I was simply a Christian and was not very familiar with what a calvinist was. He asked me if I could explain further my beliefs and if I was a new Christian (which apparently would – in his mind – explain how and why I didn’t know about John Calvin). I told him I had been a believer for YEARS and went on to explain that I believe in the virgin birth, Jesus being the only Son of God, Jesus dying on for our sins to give us salvation through him, yada yada (can you ”yada” God). He then understood that I was indeed who I claimed to be. A child of the King.
I informed him that although putting labels on people may indeed help us to quickly understand the beliefs of someone, that it also is NOT necessary for our salvation (he agreed) which is why I don’t concern myself in whether or not I agree with Calvin or his movement (which I’ve read enough to know that some things I DO agree with – others I do not). It’s just not vital for my spiritual walk.