Calling Masons Satanic is Folly
I found this post on a site called "On the Level" and it is a great article on what fundamentalists and anti-masonic hacks claim is a connection between Freemasonry and Satanism. The author of this post puts it together more eloquently than I could ever hope for. Many thanks to the Bro. Ken for allowing us to post this and you might want to click over to his site for many other articles of insight and "Light". Many thanks! Darren _____________________________
Calling Masons Satanic is Folly
by Paul Harasim
If Dr. James Holly of Beaumont is right, George Washington, the father of our country, was a devil worshiper. Marvin Zindler has to be one, too. Ditto for Sam Houston and Presidents James Monroe, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford. To take Holly's argument to its logical conclusion, Irvin Berling was under the influence of Satan when he wrote "White Christmas." So was John Wayne when he played in TRUE GRIT on the silver screen. And astronaut Buzz Aldrin did devil's work when he flew to the moon. What makes these people satanic?
Well Holly says, its because they're Masons, members of the most widely known fraternity in the world--a fraternal group that spends $250 million each year in the United States on charities, including free treatment of children at its network of 22 Shriners hospitals. Now if we start thinking Holly's way -- that Masonry "springs from the pits of hell and from the father of lies, Lucifer" because the fraternity accepts people from different religious groups as brothers -- chances are our friends would suggest we get our heads examined. But when Holly the Baptist wrote a tract arguing that Masonry is satanic, the Southern Baptist Convention decided a study should be undertaken to determine whether membership in a Masonic Lodge conflicts with its beliefs.
It was not called Holly's Folly. It should have been. Too many people had too much time on their hands. If they had become Masons, like one million other Baptists, they could have found people to help. In Saturday's POST you probably read that Masons are breaking their tradition of keeping silent when criticized. They've realized ignorance isn't bliss. They worry that a negative finding against their 4 million member organization by the 15.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention when it meets in June could cost membership.
That should worry all of us who care about children. The Shriners hospitals alone have helped more than 500,000 children at no cost. It's a shame that the Rev. Ed Young, the brilliant preacher at Second Baptist Church and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention hasn't used his position as a bully pulpit against this nonsense. With Americas charities hurting badly, as has been evidence by United Way's problems, this isn't the time for him to utilize a "don't make waves" leadership style. Something tells me he understands the five-pointed star sometimes used as a Masonic symbol is not a symbol of witchcraft by the oldest symbol of man--the five points refer to the head, the hands and the feet.
Holly tries to argue Masonry is a religion. The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, himself a Mason, says no way. " Freemasonry has no dogma or theology," he says. "It teaches that it is important for every man to have a religion of his choice and to be faithful to it...A good Mason is made even more faithful to the tenets of his faith by membership. " Toleration, according to Holly, is Masonry's blackest sin -- a definite link to the devil. Masonic leader Allan D. Large has a memorable response to the charge. "When you consider," he says, "what intolerance has produced -- the Inquisition, the massacre of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, the burning of Protestants at the stake, the horrors of Hitler, the mass murders of Stalin, the killing fields of Cambodia -- it is hard to believe that toleration springs from the devil.
Oh, by the way, I'm not a Mason.
Calling Masons Satanic is Folly
by Paul Harasim
If Dr. James Holly of Beaumont is right, George Washington, the father of our country, was a devil worshiper. Marvin Zindler has to be one, too. Ditto for Sam Houston and Presidents James Monroe, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford. To take Holly's argument to its logical conclusion, Irvin Berling was under the influence of Satan when he wrote "White Christmas." So was John Wayne when he played in TRUE GRIT on the silver screen. And astronaut Buzz Aldrin did devil's work when he flew to the moon. What makes these people satanic?
Well Holly says, its because they're Masons, members of the most widely known fraternity in the world--a fraternal group that spends $250 million each year in the United States on charities, including free treatment of children at its network of 22 Shriners hospitals. Now if we start thinking Holly's way -- that Masonry "springs from the pits of hell and from the father of lies, Lucifer" because the fraternity accepts people from different religious groups as brothers -- chances are our friends would suggest we get our heads examined. But when Holly the Baptist wrote a tract arguing that Masonry is satanic, the Southern Baptist Convention decided a study should be undertaken to determine whether membership in a Masonic Lodge conflicts with its beliefs.
It was not called Holly's Folly. It should have been. Too many people had too much time on their hands. If they had become Masons, like one million other Baptists, they could have found people to help. In Saturday's POST you probably read that Masons are breaking their tradition of keeping silent when criticized. They've realized ignorance isn't bliss. They worry that a negative finding against their 4 million member organization by the 15.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention when it meets in June could cost membership.
That should worry all of us who care about children. The Shriners hospitals alone have helped more than 500,000 children at no cost. It's a shame that the Rev. Ed Young, the brilliant preacher at Second Baptist Church and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention hasn't used his position as a bully pulpit against this nonsense. With Americas charities hurting badly, as has been evidence by United Way's problems, this isn't the time for him to utilize a "don't make waves" leadership style. Something tells me he understands the five-pointed star sometimes used as a Masonic symbol is not a symbol of witchcraft by the oldest symbol of man--the five points refer to the head, the hands and the feet.
Holly tries to argue Masonry is a religion. The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, himself a Mason, says no way. " Freemasonry has no dogma or theology," he says. "It teaches that it is important for every man to have a religion of his choice and to be faithful to it...A good Mason is made even more faithful to the tenets of his faith by membership. " Toleration, according to Holly, is Masonry's blackest sin -- a definite link to the devil. Masonic leader Allan D. Large has a memorable response to the charge. "When you consider," he says, "what intolerance has produced -- the Inquisition, the massacre of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, the burning of Protestants at the stake, the horrors of Hitler, the mass murders of Stalin, the killing fields of Cambodia -- it is hard to believe that toleration springs from the devil.
Oh, by the way, I'm not a Mason.
posted by Darren Simpson @ 10:19 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
There was a group of Masons that attempted to blow up St. Peters in Rome hundreds of years ago. Since that time, it has been cause for excommunication from the Catholic Church. Active membership is considered reason enough to refuse Communion and Marriage. If one admits to membership during the vetting process to get married, one has to show proof of resigning from the Masons before the marriage can be performed.
It goes back further than that, my liberal friend. The Catholic Church has been suspicious of Freemasonry all the way back to the "guild" days when the cathedrals of Europe were being built. It was at that time that masonry was tolerated out of necessity for skilled artificers in stone. Now...the Church has become more "dogmatic" in it's approach.
By the way...I am Orthodox Christian and a Freemason.
God Bless
Darren
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