The organization known as the Freemasons claims for itself a heritage and history that can only be taken seriously by its strongest supporters and members. In fact, some of freemasonry's more interesting postulations show its roots being traced as far back as Solomon (at least figuratively). More predominantly, we see Solomon, for obvious constructive reasons, as the "father" of modern freemasons. It is important to note that the various rites through which a member must pass intertwine some vague truths with much fiction and mythology.
The main point on which I will concentrate will be the Mason's denial of any form of organized religion in favor of their moral relativism and naturalism. Although many will claim that the Masons have "nothing against" any one religion - being very quick to add that one of their "Lights", normally a Bible in the United States, may be any "scripture" which suit the needs of the predominant religion, e.g. the Koran, the Rig Veda, etc. The supposition is that by adding this flexibility in their Lodges, they are proving their universality and openness to Religion. But, as we will see by some of their most noted authors, there is much less to this claim and much more to their agenda than appears on the surface.
"The Masons, by the very nature of their art, came into contact with all classes of men, and they had opportunities to know the defects of the Church. Far ahead of the masses and most of the clergy in education, in their travels to and fro, not only in Europe, but often extending to the far East, they became familiar with widely differing religious views. They had learned to practice toleration, and their Lodges became a sure refuge for those who were persecuted for the sake of opinion by bigoted fanaticism." (The Builders: A Story and Study of Freemasonry, by Joseph Fort Newton, Litt.D., p. 94)
From this simple paragraph, we can read volumes of the attitude felt by Masons toward the Church - which, it must be pointed out - is never stated specifically as the Catholic Church, although there was no other Church with universal sway during the time periods discussed. It is obvious that the Catholic Church is the Church being mentioned. It is also interesting to note the organizations and belief systems which receive the favorable adjectives and mentions in the works of the Masons which I have at hand. The polytheistic religions of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans always receive mention as outstanding examples of open-mindedness and toleration. While the Church inevitably is referred to as bigoted, close-minded, conformist, and destructive to the well being of all men.
"White with the worship of ages, ineffably beautiful and pathetic, is the old light-religion of humanity - a sublime nature-mysticism in which Light was love and life, and Darkness evil and death." (Builders, p. 13)
"No poet of our day, not even Shelley, has written lovelier lyrics in praise of the Light than those hymns of Ikhnaton in the morning of the world. [A footnote goes on to state that] Ikhnaton, indeed, was a grand, solitary, shining figure..." (Builders, p.13)
When discussing the origin of Faith, Mr. Newton relies heavily upon sources outside of Christianity to back up his beliefs, even going so far as to claim that the concept and basis of Faith is founded upon the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: "In the ancient Book of the Dead - which is, indeed, a Book of Resurrection - occur the words: 'The soul to heaven; the body to earth'; and that first faith is our faith today." (Builders, p. 35-36)
Mr. Newton waxes for pages of the greatness of the Mystery Religions and those specifically of ancient Egypt. Then, as he nears the Christian era, he speaks of faith dying and of the early Christians using the Mysteries for their benefit. Clearly, he is disturbed by the Church Fathers who rightly condemned the pagan mysteries as demonic, stating "...Tertullian denounces the pagan mysteries as counterfeit imitations by Satan of the Christian secret rites and teachings: 'He also baptizes those who believe in him, and promises that they shall come forth cleansed of their sins.' Other Christian writers were more tolerant, finding in Christ the answer to the aspiration uttered in the Mysteries; and therein, it may be, they were right." (Builders, p. 45-46) The only assumption I can make from this is that Mr. Newton perceives the Sacrament of Baptism as a secret rite.
In one of the very first instances of the Church in The Builders, Mr. Newton introduces it in the following: "Toward the end of their power, the Mysteries fell into the mire and became corrupt, as all things human are apt to do: even the Church itself being no exception." (Builders, p. 46)
Perhaps the most telling reason that Masonry clings to its secretive nature can be borne by a statement made by Mr. Newton relating to the Mystery Religions: "Mystery and secrecy added impressiveness, and fable and enigma disguised in imposing spectacle the laws of justice, piety, and the hope of immortality." (Builders, p. 47) Perhaps, in some strange way, the Masons hold to the notion that the ancient lords and rulers did, that ignorance (for the sake and benefit of those in power who are not ignorant) is bliss.
Mr. Newton introduces the teachings of Christ in a way which conveniently fits the Masonic notion of secrecy and deception, although even superficially, the ruse is revealed: He begins earlier in the paragraph with the forthright statement of "Everything must not be told to everybody." Then continues later with: "Even Jesus had His 'little flock' to whom He confided much which He kept from the world, or else taught it in parables cryptic and veiled." And for example, Matthew 13:10, 11 is footnoted "And the disciples came up and said to Him, 'Why dost thou speak to them in parables?' And He answered and said, 'To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.'" (Builders, p.51) Interestingly enough, a proper reading of this entire chapter shows that what was being taught by Christ was not that He has kept something from the people which they should know, rather, He has given them everything that they should know, only it is needed for their hearts to be open to it. He states that the disciples hearts are open to it, though the crowd's may not be.
Mr. Newton betrays his antagonism toward the Church by introducing what he claims to be an indication of the strength and influence of Masons during the building of the great cathedrals in Europe. He states that "High upon the cathedrals they left cartoons in stone, of which Findel gives a list, portraying with searching satire abuses current in the Church. Such figures and devices would not have been tolerated but for the strength of the order, and not even then had the Church known what they meant to the adepts." In a footnote, he adds from a book History of Freemasonry: In the St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg, is a carving in stone showing a nun in the embrace of a monk. In Strassburg a hog and a goat may be seen carrying a sleeping fox as a sacred relic, in advance a bear with a cross and a wolf with a taper. An ass is reading mass at an altar...These were bold strokes which even heretics hardly dared to indulge in." In my opinion heretics did, and do in the relish or repetition. (Builders, p. 93)
On the following page, Mr. Newton once again falls into the position of flowering the references to heretical sects in the hope of inculcating in the reader some sort of positive tie to the deviance of these sects with the open-mindedness of rejecting religions. "There were, indeed, many secret societies in the Middle Ages, such as the Catharists, Albigenses, Waldenses, and others, whose initiates and adherents traveled through all Europe, forming new communities and making proselytes not only among the masses, but also among nobles, and even among the monks, abbots, and bishops. Occultists, Alchemists, Kabbalists, all wrought in secrecy, keeping their flame aglow under the crust of conformity." (Builders, p. 94 - from History of Masonry, by Steinbrenner, chap. iv.) I don't think that there is any attempt here on Mr. Newton's part to veil his obvious desire to relate his craft with that of Satanists and heretics through history.
Interestingly, page 95 of Builders suggests that the decline of the construction of cathedrals by the Catholic Church was an attempt to minimize the influence of Masonry. The next section on the following page quickly mentions that there are no documents to support much of the history of Masonry that Mr. Newton develops for almost 100 pages.
The irony of the following may only be understood by a person knowledgeable in the history of the Church and Masonry. Mr. Newton writes about the earliest documents of the craft: "Turning to these Old Charges and Constitutions, as they are called, we find a body of quaint and curious writing, both in poetry and prose, describing the Masonry of the late cathedral-building period, with glimpses at least of greater days of old...Naturally they have suffered at the hands of unskilled or unlearned copyists, as is evident from errors, embellishments, and interpolations." (Builders, p. 96) The irony is the fact that through 2000 years, the Catholic Church has managed to retain, almost verbatim, the integrity of a work as complex and intricate as the Bible. We know that it is the divine nature and protection of the Holy Spirit which guarantees this. But in a little more than one-quarter that time, works by and about Masons fall prey to unscrupulous transcribers. We know, because they are not protected by the same Hand.
A very profound statement made in the footnote to the following excerpt makes clear the feeling of Masons to religion, and its obvious antithesis to the Catholic belief of God, Jesus and the Church. "...[T]he Atholl Masons had insisted that Masonry erase such distinctively Christian color as had crept into it, and return to its first platform." (Builders, p. 210) The footnote reads, in part "But Christianity in those days - as, alas, too often now - was another name for a petty and bigoted sectarianism; and Masonry by its very genius was, and is, unsectarian. (Emphasis in original) This footnote can be best understood by using an excerpt from Builders, page 242:
"Masonry is not a religion, but it is Religion, a worship in which all good men may unite, that each may share the faith of all." Keep in mind that they supplant religion which, for the most part, accept anyone into their ranks, for their concept of religion that is male-only and normally racist. "Often it has been objected that some men leave the Church and enter the Masonic Lodge, finding there a religious home. Even so, but that may be the fault, not of Masonry, but of the Church so long defamed by bigotry and distracted by sectarian feud, and which has too often made acceptance of abstract dogmas a test of its fellowship."
A lengthy footnote to the above quotation states in part:
"All this confusion results from a misunderstanding of what religion is. Religions are many; religion is one - perhaps we may say one thing, but that one thing includes everything - the life of God in the soul of man, which finds expression in all the forms which life and love and duty take...The church has no monopoly of religion, nor did the Bible create it. Instead it was religion - the natural and simple trust of the soul in a Power above and within it, and its quest of a right relation to that Power - that created the Bible and the Church, and indeed, all our higher human life. The soul of man is greater than all books, deeper than all dogmas, and more enduring than all institutions. Masonry seeks to free men from a limiting conception of religion, and thus to remove one of the chief causes of sectarianism."
More than any other, this quotation sets forth the truth and direction of Masonry - that its goal should be to remove any thought of a higher Power other than Masonry, and to pull from its moorings any attachment a man has to his faith in God and His Church. I could easily quote from the following pages with numerous attempts at theological reasoning, but they all come across to the educated reader as sophomoric justifications for having no moral standard to turn to on this earth other than the meandering of your own soul and the disparate teachings of the Lodge you happen to find yourself a member of.
The only quotation I shall take from The Lodge and Craft, actually defends, in a backhanded way, the importance of the Church and the Eucharist as the center of worship:
"When the Reformation occurred in Europe and the separation occurred between the Protestants and Roman Catholics, belief in the actual presence of the living God in the Eucharist, so called transubstantiation, ceased over a considerable part of the continent and Great Britain. This was the death-blow to operative Masonry. The moment that belief lost its foothold a cathedral or a church became, instead of the dwelling place of the living God, a mere meeting house." (Lodge and Craft, p. 60)
Also, from Lodge and Craft, we see the real belief of the author:
"It would seem that the followers of Jesus employed every argument to show wherein His career exhibited all the qualifications of a god, in that it resembled the career of Osiris so closely. They pointed out, and even invented the virgin birth, the infant peril, His appellation of 'Lamb of God', His twelve disciples or followers." (Lodge and Craft, p. 161)
The following and final quotation is from page 250 in Lodge and Craft. As you read the quotation, keep in mind how devoutly the Mason adheres to the belief (although sometimes simply figuratively) of King Solomon's being the "First Mason". Unless I am mistaken, it seems that the author gladly associates himself through Masonry, to the beast of Revelation:
"One other sign is worth mentioning. We frequently read of the beast with ten horns and the beast with six horns. These horns are seen represented in the headgear of nearly all the portraits of the Deities. They are arranged on the turban, with the points of the horns turning slightly upward in front. It must be remembered that a large part of the movable wealth of those nations consisted of cattle. The greater the king, the more cattle he possessed and the more horns he was entitled to wear in the ornaments of his turban. In this connection we might mention a verse in Revelations 13th, 18th: 'Here is Wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred, three score and six.' Compare this with II Chronicles 9th, 13th: 'Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one Year was six hundred, three score and six talents of gold.'"