Inside the Masonic Lodge

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the Portland, Oregon, Oregonian April, 2001, with a headline:  “Masons Give Outsiders Look into Secret World.”  Free Masons, known for their secret rituals and mystical symbols unveiled to the Oregon public Saturday, an elaborate initiation ceremony previously see by Mason eyes only.  Oregon Masons’ decision to bare their core beliefs and private ritual at a public event in downtown Portland was only the second time that has occurred in the country in three centuries of Free Masonry.  Leaders of the group, mostly grandfathers in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, said they are more than ready to trade the old sense of suspense that used to awake new initiates for an aggressively candid stance that might lure new blood to the fold.  Openness also will help set the record straight, they said, that Masons don’t ride goats, sacrifice chickens or plot against religions.  Their secret essence is to insist on charity, brotherhood, peacefulness and other moral stands among their members while raising millions for children’s hospitals, burn centers, college scholarships and other charitable causes.  “We want to tell what we do, who we are, and how we care for this great country of ours,” said John Livey of Salem, the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Oregon.  So, before a crowd of more than five hundred Masons and their non-Mason friends, a cast of older men, robed mainly in ankle-baring gowns and wearing make-up and fake beards acted out one of the association’s initiation rites.  They recited long philosophical lines laden with historical and Christian references laying out in allegorical terms the essence of Free Masonry.  Among the secrets revealed, a reverence for Jesus, John the Baptist and Socrates as great teachers, their strong dislike of war, intolerance, arrogance and selfishness.  The belief that it is suffering and service, not material wealth, or power that makes a Mason great and an insistence that any Mason be willing to die for those God given precepts if necessary.  Scott Parker, 30, of Salem, who is not a Mason, said it was pretty cool to witness the ceremony.  “I thought it was really interesting,” he said.  He was a little surprised by, but comfortable with the Christian element of it.  In the 1950’s about 40,000 Oregon men were Free Masons, including many mayors, merchants and the leaders and rank and file of many police departments.  What happened, Livey said, was we got complacent.  We did.  We just sat back on our laurels.  Now, membership stands at 15,000 state-wide with the average member in his 50’s.  Saturday’s session was part of the effort to change that.  The Masons aren’t actually a secretive society and haven’t been for decades or even centuries, its leaders say.  With the exception of a few secrets, such as a ritualistic handshake and a few terms and expressions that members use to identify fellow members, Masons are happy to speak for hours about what their symbols mean, what their beliefs and practices are and what goes on in the often windowless temples and lodges where they meet.  The group demonstrates just how eagerly it wants not to be a secret by the many informational pamphlets it distributes and websites it operates, including www.masonic-oregon.com.  “Masonry is supposed to be a big secret,” said Lynn Shyler, Chairman of the Portland Scottish Rite, “well, don’t you believe it.”

T. A. McMahon:

Well, this sounds like a little bit of a spin in there, some things that are a little hard to believe with the presentation, although many people would acknowledge that Shriners, certainly the Masons do some good works.  Dave, I just pick out my notes from an ex-Mason’s for Christ Conference at the place where I spoke and let me just go over the basics.  The Masonic Lodge teaches a system of salvation by works and good merits.  “The ultimate goal of every committed Mason is eternal residence in the ‘celestial lodge above abiding with the great architect of the universe.’  The Masonic Lodge teaches that it’s deity, the great architect of the universe is the god of all religions.  The Masonic Lodge teaches that the Bible has no more value than any other sacred book.  It is merely symbolic of the will of God.  And finally, the Masonic Lodge teaches another Jesus.”  Now, I lay that out for Christians out there who say, Well, I don’t see the problem.  There are major problems here.

Dave Hunt:

Well Tom, this gentleman is called, John Livey of Salem, the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Oregon.  You have to ask, “Worshipful” what does that mean?  It sounds like a religion.  Masonry is actually an anti-Christian religious cult and, as you said, their goal is to reach the celestial lodge in the sky presided over by the GAOU, the great architect of the universe, who is God as you conceive him to be.  Any god will do, it doesn’t matter.  Now, they talk about a reverence for Jesus, John the Baptist and Socrates as great teachers.  So, they are lowering Jesus Christ to the level of Socrates.  He’s just a great teacher, he’s not God, he didn’t die for our sins and they sing hymns and so forth about the good life they are going to live and how they are going to reach the celestial lodge in the sky because it’s a desire on the part of the Masons, and we can document that, you could read many books by Masons that Masonry would become the religion of the world.  That it would be suitable for anyone of any faith, in other words, you abandon whatever you believe and you join Masonry.  Now, it is a secret religion.  They talk about; they are willing to die for these principles.  How about the death penalty?  They take an oath, you can’t get inside the lodge door until you take an oath to have your throat slit from ear to ear, your heart torn out, your vitals torn out, be buried at low tide, if you tell anyone, your wife, or anyone what goes on behind the lodge doors.  So, this is a publicity stunt which is not honest and they are not really telling you the truth and I’m sorry, I resent that kind of false advertising.

T. A. McMahon:

Well, it’s presented as though it’s not even a religion.  How can you have a worshipful leader, how can you mandate that people have an idea of a supreme God in order to get in?  It sounds like religion to me, Dave.

Dave Hunt:

Well, but it’s any god, see, any god will do.

T. A. McMahon:

But it’s still god, whether it’s a little “g” or a big “G”.

Dave Hunt:

That’s right, but any god will do; that’s the point.  But there are false gods, there is only one true God, but you could not say that in Masonry.  So, it comes out of the occult.  Anyone wants to get the book, Morals and Dogma, by Albert Pike, that’s one of the Bibles of—or, if they would like information about Masonry, we would be happy to supply it for them because we’re giving them the facts.  I’ve sometimes been challenged, would you like to debate the Worshipful Master of my lodge?  I say, well, it would be a classic non-debate.  How can we debate when I say what really happens, because I happen to know, he has taken an oath ever to conceal, never to reveal.  So, he is not going to really tell the truth and they did not tell the truth in this piece that was in the newspaper.