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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
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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?
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.