Freemasonry: Good, Bad, Indifferent

I have no clue as to what you mean here, brother. I've only seen two funerals where they had the masons do their thing. Both times the dead guys wore suits (so did the masons but they had aprons on).

 

I can help you here. Regarding what goes on, every degree has books so that you can read your way through a degree (if the one conferring the degree hasn't memorized it or stumbles). All of these can be found easy enough (I tossed mine when I left the fraternity, but they are not hard to get). Each state has a book of bylaws. That's it (just degrees and one business meeting a month). But non-masons want more (so do many new masons....they quit once they discover there are no "real" secrets). When questioned they pretend masons are hard to nail down. Well....I was a mason and I offered to answer whatever questions you have (if I can)....sometimes people asking questions are like trying to nail down jello (just kidding).

The biggest problem is that it can't be "nailed down". It is subjective. In Freemasonry EVERYTHING is symbolic. The meaning of the symbols are subjective to the individual mason. This is why the "Architect of the Universe" can be understood as God or as Allah, or as Ahura Mazda...or whatever. The whole point is the idea that if a man is religious he has a common goal because all religious share a common sense of right and wrong as it pertains to the human race. They can all work together for the benefit of man even as they pray to different gods.

But people want to find a spokesman. They want Albert Pike's writing to be what masons believe (it's not). Or they want Duncan's idea of what it was to him to be what it is to all masons (it is not). It is philosophical and can be adopted (even if it shouldn't) by any religion because it is not a religion itself.

 

What makes you think that?

 

A neighboring lodge (in a very small town) had a Primitive Baptist (don't know about "Old Line") pastor as Chaplain and our tiler was of that denomination. On another note, a friend of mine was over a lodge in Nashville. He was Hispanic and Catholic.

 

I land between Christian liberty (which should be given up if people object to the fraternity) and a flat out "it's bad". I wouldn't recommend to anyone they join, but knowing what it is (and isn't) I also wouldn't deny fellowship to anyone based on their membership. I understand some people believe it is a religion and my knowing it isn't will never change their minds. And it can be...as anything can be...a religion if one was to make it such.

But forming such a view based on internet sources and a few books (and, BTW, choosing which ones you are going to believe) seems foreign to the purpose of the local church. A problem here is that too many churches have taken their eyes off of Christ and instead are involving themselves in such silliness.

The reason primary reason I think it is bad is that Christians are to function within a church. I don't believe that it is proper for a believer to link himself with organizations such as the Freemasons, the FOP (I'm a little iffy on this one....but their oath is very similar), the Elks, ect. in order to show the love of man for the world (charity). I believe Christians are to function within the church to show the love of God instead.

The reason I believe this is that we are called to do good works so that the world will see and glorify God. This cannot happen with a secular organization.

 

I’ve never really supported people joining the organization (even as I was over the thing). I just never got the reason people joined fraternities in the first place except perhaps people just needing a place to belong (I joined just to learn what they were about).

But there are several things I don’t understand. I don’t understand the appeal of sports (except baseball, of course). I don’t understand lima beans and people who eat them. And I'm not sure I understand the stance some churches take, given the credibility of their sources, on the Masons.

There are far better ways for a Christian to spend his time than joining the Masons. And there are far better things a church should be doing than involving itself with anti-mason propaganda. People are dying every day without the gospel. The fields are white and ready for harvest, yet so often we are bogged down with distraction.

 

Yea...I haven't thought of the topic for some time either. I really thought the topic had died out as Calvinism became the "bad guy".

 

It depends on what you mean by a “straight answer”. As I said, everything is symbolic and subjective (kinda like truth in postmodernism) with the only things not subjective being explained in the degrees (e.g., “meeting on the level” for meeting as equals regardless of social position). So you could ask two masons what something means and get two different answers (and some get real detailed and philosophical in their views). This only seems shifty when you mistake it for a religion rather than a secular and humanistic philosophy.

The Fellowcraft was my favorite (I was very good at presenting the staircase lecture). It's also how I learned a process to memorize long script.

You do take it literally at first. The person going through the degree never really gets the full picture because he is repeating what is said (in the oath) and not really paying attention to what the other characters in the play are saying. I never got the “no less than” part of the penalty until I was conferring the degrees.

I had a friend who is black. When I mentioned I was joining he told me he was a mason and suggested I would like it. I wanted to join his lodge, but he informed me that he was a member of a Prince Hall lodge and I needed to join a regular mason lodge. I almost didn’t join because of this segregation but he said it “is not like that”. Personally, I don’t see how it isn’t “like that”. That said, some lodges recognize both Prince Hall and regular masons (and many do not restrict membership). Like I said, a friend I served with in the Army is Hispanic and was over a lodge in Nashville. I don’t’ think this would have happened in a smaller town, though.

I doubt there is a connection here.

I have seen this sort of favoritism (not first hand, but when I was discussing this thread with a coworker, not a mason, he told me his cousin got hired because he was a mason).

There is no such thing as “Masonic theology” as views on God are not discussed (the whole point is for men to gather in what they have in common and apart from religious division). Your conclusion here is the same as saying “American theology IS NOT Christ alone, which is also antithetical to Christianity", and the same as saying Americanism is a religion because their currency says "In God We Trust", has an "all seeing eye", and opens congress with prayer.

That said, Christians should not (IMHO) yoke themselves with secular organizations. The danger of Freemasonry is much more subtle than the "witch hunters" seem to realize.

 

Yes, this is what it means to them. And it can change. An irregular lodge is one that was not formed by charter from a grand lodge. Sometimes states stop recognizing one another (there was an instance where some states did not recognize other states for a time for recognizing Prince Hall masons as regular).

So to add to the confusion, in the United States there are 51 different Freemason Grand Lodges (51 different fraternities) which are bound only by volunteer recognition of one another. None of them are exactly the same.

Come to think of it, I don't know why the SBC was so up in arms. They sound alike.