I’ll go with bad, but not for the reasons Bro. James suggests.
This was a hot topic about a decade (or more?) ago within the SBC and I’ve read blog after blog. What I’ve determined is that those who view Freemasonry as paramount to worshipping a pagan god are just as delusional as those Freemasons who trace their fraternity to antiquity.
I say this for several reasons:
First, it is a fact that several of the charges against Freemasonry are nothing more than urban legend. This would include the myth that freemasons worship a pagan deity named Baphomet (a contribution to the myth by Leo Taxil, usually represented by Eliphas Levi’s imagery of a Sabbatic Goat ) or that they , as a fraternity, worship a god period. You can toss Albert Pike in the mix of false charges as well (although I think the guy was a nut).
Second, most freemasons gather and have a meaningless business meeting (which is secrete…i.e., confidential), eat sandwiches, and go home. They do provide a service through their charities, but this is something that I believe should be accomplished (for the Christian) through the church.
My experience
I had to write a paper as an undergrad majoring in business. I was taking a world religions course and had to choose a religion that was not my own. I chose Freemasonry and started to work. When I turned in the topic it was declined because the professor did not consider freemasonry a religion (I wrote on the Catholic church instead).
But I found the topic interesting and the more I read the more I realized that the anti-masons were using invented charges and the freemasons seemed to be inflating what they did. In a way, the freemasons were taking advantage of the “mystery” while claiming to be a greater organization than they were. Anyway, I joined a lodge to see.
I completed the three degrees (which are really the highest in ranking one can obtain as the York Rite and Scottish Rite are dependent on the “Blue Lodge” and they “meet on the level”… i.e., everyone is equal once they finish the 3rd degree).
I then went through the Scottish Rite and later the York rite (Royal Arch Masonry, Cryptic Masonry, Knights Templar). Later I presided over a lodge and conferred degrees (I’d be a “Past Master”).
My Conclusion
The problem with Freemasonry is not that it is a false religion (it is not, except perhaps as secular humanism is a religion and then only how it is taken individualistically). But it is gnostic in nature. It pretends to have a secret knowledge (which is really hidden only in false charges and rumors).
The fraternity plays with dark imagery. In just about any degree the candidate takes an oath not to reveal the “secrets” of the lodge on a severe penalty. The wording is one of death (specific ways of execution) but if one looks closer (as one should) the “blood oath” is really one of being expelled which is thought of as “no less a penalty” than such and such a death. In a York Rite degree the candidate is in a room looking at a skull, a candle, and an hour glass (contemplating mortality). In another the candidate drinks wine out of a replica of a skull.
The biggest problem is that freemasonry, at its core, is secular humanism. It seeks to unify man for the benefit of mankind not under God but under the humanity. The only reason belief in a supreme being is required is that man must have the belief that he is accountable to some higher power to be trusted. I’ve seen people substitute the fraternity for Christianity, and I’ve seen church members active in the fraternity but dead in church.
I'd caution people about joining the Masons, but I wouldn't consider them less a Christian if they did. I am not so sure that those who preach in the pulpit, but unknowingly preach falsely, against freemasonry do not do more damage to people's faith than the fraternity has ever done. I say this because there are always things people will substitute for discipleship, but there has always been one message the church is to proclaim to the world.
I have not been a member for quite some time, but if you have any questions please feel free to PM me. I don't get into this type of "discussion" in an open forum anymore because there really are books and books of conspiracy theories and "old wives tales" that people have bought into (on both sides of the issue). What I know is from experience, but it is not something I'll waste my time arguing.
....), I respect that type of church for taking the command to be a holy people seriously. For me, I think that this is ultimately a matter of Christian liberty.
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