• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FairMormon

Read 2019 FairMormon Conference Transcripts!
Missed the conference? Streaming is still available.

  • Find Answers
  • Blog
  • Media & Apps
  • Conference
  • Bookstore
  • Archive
  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Search

Maine Masonic College

January 10, 2008 by Greg Kearney

The Maine Masonic College, an educational program of the Grand Lodge of Maine, is considering a number of interesting offerings including LDS & Freemasonry and Anti-Masonry Today.

Anti-Masonry and anti-Mormonism are often carried out by the same people and one can usually count on the fact that where you find one you will find the other.

-Greg Kearney

Filed Under: Masonry Tagged With: Freemasonry masons masonry mormons LDS

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nick Literski says

    January 10, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    Interesting, Greg. Since we know you’re a member of the Grand Lodge of Maine, are you the one who proposed the course on “LDS & Freemasonry?” If not, I wonder who it is that feels prepared to take on the subject? I hope they manage to do it according to sound research, and not some of the myths/assumptions we run into all the time.

    BTW, I’m still waiting for the source for that Abraham Jonas quote you claimed in John Dehlin’s podcast. Have you found that for me yet?

  2. gkearney says

    January 10, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    No I did not suggest it as a matter of fact. I have no idea who did. I offered to teach it if they wanted me to.

  3. Manuel says

    January 10, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    That is a wonderful idea! I have always wanted to know to what extent were/are Masons prosecuted because of LDS controversial practices (polygamy, etc); what is the view of outsiders regarding the two organizations; and, how Masons explain in a historical context the effects of how Joseph Smith used Freemasonry principles to shape, structure and implement controversial doctrines that would require the level of commitment that perhaps only Freemasonry can instill so effectively in people.

    I hope they take a Masonic side rather than an LDS side since there are plenty of LDS apologetics already that completely disregard the Masonic point of view. Let’s hear it from the Masons.

  4. gkearney says

    January 10, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    Generally the critics of Masonry focus on the conspiratorial aspects not on the LDS connection. Most Masons have no idea of the complex history and connections between the Church and the institutions of Freemasonry.

    I do not hold to the idea that there is a Masonic or LDS “side” to this issue. As a Latter-day Saint and a Freemason I do not feel that it needs to be told from one side or the other.

    Greg

  5. Manuel says

    January 10, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    I agree. I was thinking it may yield documentation for the benefit of average LDS audiences, who in my experience, do tend to strongly lean towards LDS being victims and everyone else being a perpetrator.

  6. Edwin Slack says

    January 10, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    Greg, I kinda think there is an LDS side, a Masonic side, as well as an anti-LDS/Anti-Masonic side. There was enough rhetoric in Masonry about Joseph’s use, and seen by some masons as abuse, of Masonry. There was plenty of rhetoric in the early Utah church that some masons were guilty of Joseph’s death. Yes, I too hope that some of those “sides” have healed and the rhetoric abandoned, but we can’t deny that it existed.

    Ed

  7. gkearney says

    January 10, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Ed;

    We should remember that this is given in Maine, a masonic jurisdiction with a long history of welcoming LDS men into Masonry. To Maine Masons the actions of the Utah Grand Lodge would have seemed odd indeed.

    Greg

  8. Edwin says

    January 11, 2008 at 8:15 am

    I’m sure I’ve read of other lodges besides the Utah grand lodge that have shared the view that Joseph abused the Masonic system, including raising men too fast and expanding the lodge too quickly. Admittedly, it was other Illinois lodges who were somewhat jealous of the quick success of the growth of the nauvoo lodge, but I’d be surprised if those statements hadn’t carried some weight over the years in the masonic community.

  9. Greg Kearney says

    January 11, 2008 at 8:34 am

    While it is true that some lodges, in Illinois in particular, did express concern about the speed with which the saints in Nauvoo grew their lodge. A concern which at that time would have been justified. It is also true that no other Masonic jurisdiction ever imposed the kind of restrictions on LDS membership that Utah did until 1984.

    -Greg

  10. Nick Literski says

    January 11, 2008 at 10:03 am

    That’s not completely accurate, Greg. Keep in mind that the Utah prohibition began with the Grand Lodge of Nevada imposing that condition when it granted a dispensation for a lodge in SLC. The masons in SLC subsequently returned their dispensation, and attempted to obtain one from another jurisdiction without such a restriction.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


RSS-Icon RSS Feed (all posts)

Subscribe to Podcast

Podcast icon
Subscribe to podcast in iTunes
Subscribe to podcast elsewhere
Listen with FairMormon app
Android app on Google Play

Pages

  • Blog Guidelines

FairMormon Latest

  • FairMormon Conference Podcast #49 – Angela Hallstrom, “Women’s Voices in Saints Volume 2”
  • FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: LDS Creation Accounts and the Composite Nature of Revelation”
  • FairMormon Conference Podcast #47 – Richard Terry, “The Dirt on the Ancient Inhabitants of Mesoamerica”
  • FairMormon Conference Podcast #46 – Daniel Peterson, “‘Idle Tales’? The Witness of Women”
  • A Guide to the First Century Apostasy

Blog Categories

Recent Comments

  • thechair on FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: LDS Creation Accounts and the Composite Nature of Revelation”
  • Dennis Horne on FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: LDS Creation Accounts and the Composite Nature of Revelation”
  • whizzbang on FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: LDS Creation Accounts and the Composite Nature of Revelation”
  • whizzbang on FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: LDS Creation Accounts and the Composite Nature of Revelation”
  • Dennis Horne on FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: LDS Creation Accounts and the Composite Nature of Revelation”

Archives

Footer

FairMormon Logo

FairMormon is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS doctrine, belief, and practice.

Quick Links

  • About FairMormon
  • Bookstore
  • Contact Us
  • Get Involved
  • Sign Up for Updates

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • iTunes
  • YouTube

Donate to FairMormon

We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.

Donate Now

Donate to us by shopping at Amazon at no extra cost to you. Learn how →

Site Footer

Copyright © 1997-2019 by The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written consent of The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.

Any opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the goods and services offered by FairMormon are solely those of FairMormon and not those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Logo

FairMormon™ is controlled and operated by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR)