Pope Francis is usually on the liberal and tolerant side of things, but he raised eyebrows last year when the Vatican with his approval issued a stern warning against Catholics joining the Masons, saying that “active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is prohibited, because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry.”
We Confessional Lutherans agree with the Catholics on this, at least, as do other Christians–though some see nothing wrong with the Masons and become active members and participants in their rituals.
“But aren’t Masons those old guys who wear fezes, drive those funny little cars in parades, and run free children’s hospitals?” many people wonder. “What’s so bad about them?” Well, those are Shriners, who constitute one of many orders within Freemasonry, but most people today see all Masons as nothing more than members of a social club. But in their heyday, Masonic Lodges and Temples, which are commonplace even in small town rural America, played a major role in American–indeed, world–history with important religious ramifications.
Baylor historian Philip Jenkins has been posting about the Masons on Anxious Bench, the Patheos blog run by Christian historians. See his posts American Empire: Take Up the White Mason’s Burden and Freemasons, Catholics, and American Religious Politics.
Freemasonry had its origins in the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries. Jenkins said that Catholics considered it a “deistic cult,” and that’s a good description. Whereas the “Age of Reason” version of Deism was a rationalistic purging of religion of its supernatural elements, leaving only belief in a deity who created the universe but then left it alone, Freemasonry added to that conviction the mystery, commitment, and ritual that every genuine religion needs.
Masonry is devoted to God as the “Grand Architect of the Universe.” Human beings, in turn, can be the “masons” who, like bricklayers, build the edifice according to the architect’s design. In line with this deistic theology, “Freemasonry” is open to all monotheists–to every variety of Christians but also to Jews and Muslims.
The mystery comes from elaborate rituals, a complicated mythology, and the organization’s rigorous code of secrecy. The commitment comes from oaths, which call down upon the oath breaker hair-raising threats of violence and mutilation, as well as pledges to pursue virtue, philanthropy, and–significantly–the Enlightened “liberal” ideals of liberty and equality. Another commitment was loyalty to one’s brother Masons.
Professionals of every stripe flocked to the Masons, Jenkins says, especially Protestant clergymen. I can see why. Masonry constituted a religion superimposed upon traditional religions. We have a need for mystery and ritual, elements driven out of many churches by rationalistic and anti-sacramental theologians. Of course, liturgy-starved Protestants would join the Masons, which promised that you could keep your religion intact on Sunday mornings, while also enjoying the ecumenical fellowship and clandestine mystique of the Lodge in its monthly meetings.
The Masons became a source of both social order and social revolution. The Lodge unified men–and, later women, with the founding of the Eastern Star in 1850–of different backgrounds and religions. Jenkins points out that it became a major factor in the integration of Jews. He also described its importance on the American frontier, with Western pioneers who were Masons finding ready support in the Lodges found in virtually every frontier settlement.
The Lodges also had a cross-cultural and international dimension. Jenkins tells about the Battle of Minisink during the Revolutionary War in which an alliance of Loyalists and Mohawks defeated a Patriot militia. As the Tories and Indians were slaughtering the captives, the Mohawk chief thought he saw one of them give the Masonic distress signal. The chief responded by giving the captive the Masonic handshake, which he thought was reciprocated. The chief was a Mason! He would not murder a brother Mason!
It turned out, the captive was not a Mason and was just making random gestures, but in light of his survival, he soon joined up! Jenkins tells a similar story about the Battle of San Jacinto, in which Texas general Sam Houston defeated the Mexican forces of Santa Anna in a surprise attack that secured the independence of Texas. I had always wondered why Houston spared the Butcher of the Alamo when he captured him. Jenkins says that Santa Anna flashed the distress signal, which Houston, as a brother Mason, felt obliged to honor!
Masons, pledged to support the ideals of Enlightenment liberalism, played important roles in the French Revolution, the European-wide liberal revolutions of 1848, the independence movements in Italy, Mexico, and other countries. That includes the American Revolution. Many of the American founders, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were Masons (but not Thomas Jefferson or Alexander Hamilton).
Masons became bastions of anti-Catholicism–what with the anti-clericalism of the French Revolution, the Italian republic’s battles against the papal states, and American anti-immigrant sentiment. As Jenkin shows, Masons were prime drivers of American anti-Catholic sentiment. They pushed for the Blaine Amendment, which forbids tax money from going to religious schools, and advocated a strict separation between church and state.
Some Masons became organizers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Originally, says Jenkins, “the KKK was at least as heavily devoted to anti-Catholic and anti-immigration causes as to anti-Black racism.” According to Jenkins,
The Klan found its local leadership in Masonic lodges, and especially among local Protestant clergy: “The Old Rugged Cross” was a main Klan anthem. In order to appeal to Masons and other fraternal organizations, the Klan offered a rich mythology and heraldry, with all the mystique implied by its hierarchy of “Hydras, Great Titans, Furies, Giants, Exalted Cyclops, Terrors,” its distinctive secret language, and an elaborate system of progressive initiations, of signs and countersigns.
The “mystique” of Masonic rituals, secrets, and initiations, influenced the practices of other organizations, including the Mormons.
From a Christian perspective, Masons are not only a cult, but with their dark oaths and idolatrous invocations, they partake of the occult. I just read an article about a researcher who claims to have identified Jack the Ripper by studying the DNA left on a scarf found on one of his victims. By comparing it to that of the descendants of the original suspects, the researcher found a match with one of them, a Jewish man known to have been a Mason. The researcher saw parallels with the way the Ripper mutilated his victims and the punishments called for in the bloody oaths of Masonic ritual.
Why do confessional Lutherans reject Freemasonry and forbid their members from joining a lodge? In short, in the words of the Rev. Dr. Richard P. Bucher,
Because the Masonic Lodge is held to be a deistic religious organization that requires belief (members must swear an oath) in a god that is not the triune God, and a god who is accessible apart from Jesus Christ through any religion that believes in god as Creator. In addition, they teach that entrance to the life to come is gained by following the precepts and morality of Freemasonry, that God will let them into heaven merely because they have been faithful Masons.
Bucher goes on to examine Freemasonry in detail, showing why it is incompatible with the Christian faith. See also the evaluation of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR ) of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
What I don’t understand is how any church can consider Masonry to be compatible with the Christian faith. And yet, some do. See this article for the various churches’ positions.
Photo: Shriners from Kena Temple riding miniature cars at Fairfax City 4th of July Parade (2015) by Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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