A Dog Named "Luther"!

On Sunday evening, I discovered my pastor has named his German Shepherd "Luther" after the German reformer. Well known by many in our church, Martin Luther is one of my Christian role models or heroes of the faith. So, naturally, I have teased my pastor about naming his DOG after the good doctor! How dare he?!

Hopefully, he, and others, understand I am simply teasing on this matter. I could care less what he calls his pet. "Luther" is certainly to be preferred over "Arminius", "Pope anything", or "Hitler"! But, in reality, Doctor Luther would, likely, be honored to know a dog has been named for him.

Luther had a dog named Tolpol (with an umlaut over that first "o"). In English, the word means "fool". A German dictionary defines the word with the German word "dummkopf"! While that may not seem like a very nice name for a dog, the good doctor loved dogs. He wrote:

"The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common."

In his "Table Talk", Luther notes a time when, while he was eating some meat, his dog sat by the table, eyes fixed on his master, mouth open, waiting for a bite from the good doctor.  Luther saw a Biblical lesson in his pet's actions.

"Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on this piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope."

Naturally, not all dogs are created equal! Martin Luther often saw his enemies as wild or mad dogs. Concerning the Turks, Luther said, "The whole Turkish empire is nothing else but a crust cast by Heaven's great Housekeeper to His dogs."

Luther also viewed the Jews with a spirit that was anything but Christian. "We must drive them out like mad dogs...". 

When the peasants in the land revolted in the 1520s, Luther called for punishment, including death. He said killing them was "like killing a mad dog". 

Finally, he used the dog in his explanation for dealing with the heretics he saw all around him.

"Over against the devil and his missionaries, the authors of false doctrines and sects, we ought to be like the Apostle, impatient, and rigorously condemnatory, as parents are with the dog that bites their little one, but the weeping child itself they soothe."

Since I do not consider my pastor (or his dog!) to be a Turk, a Jew, a peasant, or a heretic, I have no problem with him naming his dog after my idol!

"Good dog, Luther."

May God be glorified in all of this.