Hey, Leo! It’s Me, Martin!

Four hundred and ninety-three years ago today, an unknown monk in an obscure German village tacked a list of grievances on the community bulletin board — which happened to be the church door. In so doing, he started a movement that’s still visible today.

There are moments in life when you just have to speak up. There are moments when so much is at stake, something so egregiously wrong is taking place, that the option of keeping your mouth closed and your opinion to yourself is impossible to rationalize. In these specific moments, you think, “I know someone is going to be upset, but I just have to say something!” So you muster the courage and say, “Hey, you! Are you there? It’s me. We need to talk.”

Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever taken this kind of action? And then, just as you feared, once you open your big mouth, your words spark a much bigger deal than you’d ever intended. Those moments are fun, aren’t they?

If you can relate, then you know exactly how a little-known pastor and college professor in the modest town of Wittenberg, Germany, felt after tacking his 95 Theses to the main doors of the local Catholic church.

The man was Martin Luther. The day was All Hallow’s Eve, the precursor to what we celebrate today as...