The church and freemasonry

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Part of The Cabletow

Title: The church and freemasonry
Language: English
Year: 1957
Rights
Fulltext: ty pretense where they expected and hoped for help in fellowship and true brotherhood. It may be felt such things should not be said publicly; that if any evil of this kind exists it should be hushed and hidden. That view is fallacious and itself bears the mark of insincerity. Evil doing may be hushed within the Lodge but it cannot be hidden there. Any attempt to do so only brings the Craft under public contempt. When gentle warnings do no good the Lodge itself should be the first to expose wrong doing and the wrong doer. Corruption loves dark silence and thrives in it. An unworthy villain feels very safe in the belief he will not be publicly denounced and his deeds uncovered. To such a one, step in insincerity, brotherly admonition means nothing and expulsion is rarely ordered for less than outright criminal acts. Such odious things as, under some thin shelter of law. stealing from widows and orphans, using power of position to filch, cunning stirring up discord and dissension to promote personal ambitions, by crafty maneuvers robbing a brother of credit and honor justly his due. these things are winked at and frequently the guilty ones are honored with special preferment or high rewards. We have condoned, even nurtured, this insincerity so long that some of us begin to look like the ancient Pharisee wfco stood in the Temple offering thanks he was not as other men are when, in truth, we should be standing with the publican asking mercy for our sins. To those Pharisees it was said: “Ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you for ye make clean the outside of the cup and extortion and excess ... even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Any man who, professing Masonic principles, practices insincerity inside or outside of the Lodge is a blind guide and a discredit to the Fraternity. Tolerance of such men and their superficial resemblances is weakening the dikes of Masonry. Editorial in The Masonic Chronicler ---------0O0--------The Church And Freemasonry The following paragraphs are excerpts taken from an address delivered at the Grand Master's Breakfast, St. Louis, Missouri, May 6, 1956 by Bro. and Judge Fred L. Wham: Between the Church and Free- 1 am sure that none of us would masonry, thinking of their relative hesitate to put the Church fiibi importance to humankind and to an immeasurable margin. W ithout the civilization we seek to improve, the Church and its influence upon THE CABLETOW Page 146 the thinking of mankind Freemawjin-y as we now know 11 would never have come into existence. Freemasonry is rooted in religion as fostered by Church and Synagogue. When I use the word ’•Church” it includes the Synagogue within its meaning. If the Church and its teachings should cease, Freemasonry, as we know it, would pass out of existence with the generation now living. Freemasonry is not a religion but it is religious. Its one real dogma is belief in one God. Masonic philosophy associates with a belief in God a belief in immortality. Both beliefs are among the landmarks of Freemasonry. Without the Church to foster and teach those beliefs with their normal fruits of love, morality and brotherhood, the very foundations of Freemasonry would soon melt away and the source of new members would fail. As you well know, a candidate for Masonic membership cannot be accepted unless he is clothed with a belief in one God and in the immortality of the soul. Such beliefs do not naturally possess the minds of adults unless they have been taught. Where then has the petitioner for Masonic membership received 1 he teaching that has brought him from infancy to maturity with a I:'.'lief in God and in immortality and with a known reputation for trothworthincss and sound mortality? Directly, he received it all through the Church. The Masonic Lodge, as such, does nothing to train children toward the day when they will be old enough for membership. On the other hand, the Church seeks 'to bring within its influence and spiritual care children who are still in their -infancy. It pursues them with unflagging zeal and interest through the years until they reach the age of comprehension. It teaches them about God and the Bible, teaches them to read the Bible, and teaches them to the meaning of brotherhood through the teaching that all are children of one God. It teaches them to pray and the need for prayer, how to worship and the need for regular worshi”'. Their normal course is to continue in the Church under its constructive influence in association with other like-minded young people and eventually mature into moral, trustworthy and upright citizens who believe in God and strive to serve their country in the best way possible. From this source,' come the majority of applicants for Masonic degrees; come our upright young men seeking membership in Masonry because they have known and admired upright men who are Masons and they want to count themselves as companions, associates and brothers with the God-fearing, moral, upright men who so generally make up the membership in our Masonic Cdcbsr, 1957 Page 147 Lodges. So it is that the Church brings our young people from childhood to maturity fully prepared, should they desire, to become suitable applicants for the Masonic degrees and to live truly Masonic lives. When we consider the almost complete dependence of Freemasonry upon the Church for desirable and qualified petitioners for membership surely every Mason will feel a sense of obligation to serve the Church in some effective way. Though Freemasonry is deeply religious it is in no sense a religion and cannot replace the need of every man for the ministrations of the Church. Freemasonry is the finest and most enduring moral life and char , acter-building organization outside of the Church. I am sure, Masonry has greatly influenced the Church. I say this because so many of the leaders of the Church have been outstanding Masons. The two organizations can never really separate—they belong in many ways together. True Masons ought to be an integral part of the Church or they have not caught the true meaning of Masonic teaching.” 1 have talked with many ministers who are Masons and each stated that he had found his Masonic membership helpful in his ministry. From all this inquiry 1 feel more strongly than I did before that any minister or rabbi who may become a member of a Masonic Lodge will find there a source of spiritual strength and encouragement, as well as a means of ex - tending the outreach of his ministry among men. Membership in a Masonic Lodge may be helpful to a minister as well as to a lay church member by broadening his thinking beyond which neither the Church nor Freemasonry will long be permitted by its enemies to function the narrow confines of the particular creeds of his own denomination and may create in him an increase of the spirit of tolerance to ward the faiths of others. It may even enlarge his conception of God. You may be sure that any government which controls the freedom of worship in the churches will destroy, as far as possible, all Masonic Lodges and Grand Lodges. That is true, as wc know, whether it be a government in the eastern or the western hemisphere. Hero without question, Freemasonry and the churches have a common cause in which they must strive together. For many years it has been my strong conviction that in the free Church lies' this people’s strongest hope, perhaps, their sole hope, for permanent enjoyment of individual freedom and self-government. Our hope for the continued righteousness of our people lies in the Church. Strongly supportPage 146 THE CABLETOW ing the Church is the Masonic fraternity—a strong bulwark of freedom through belief in a righteous God whose rule of life for all is love, brotherhood and unselfish service. Then let the Church and Freemasonry strive better to understand each other. Let them be allies in doing God’s work. Let them be allies in their strong and untiring support and advocacy of freedom and self-government without as God intends that it should function. —Freemason of Missouri MOSES By RABBI H. GEFFEN, 32 F. P. S. When Moses was born, a cruel law existed that every male child should be put to death. The poor mother was obliged to separate herself from her beloved babe, but the daughter of the tyrannical king who made that cruel law, became the child’s benefactress. That great man who became the deliverer of his nation was trained and brought up in the house of Israel’s most inveterate enemy. As Moses grew up he did not remain a passive spectator as regards the wrongs of oppression, with which his people were afflicted; and on one occasion in his anger he slew a man who had brutally assaulted one of his brethren. As the result of this hasty act he had to leave his country, going to Midian, where he entered the service of Jethro, the priest. While he was brought up amidst the dazzling splendors and gay luxuries of a royal court; while he saw before his eyes the ever-flowing sources of abundance and wealth; he hardly thought that a time would come when he would, by hard labor, have to seek for himself an honest jiving. The adopted son of a princess, moving in an atmosphere of. sunshine and prosperity, must have felt wretched when suddenly overtaken by the changes of fortune; having to leave all cherished remembrances of his youth, and bending his steps to a foreign country, had to offer his services as a shepherd to Jethro. Imagine a man like Moses, accustomed to polished manners practiced in royal courts; instructed in all branches of science and learning in which Egypt at that time excelled; well acquainted with the history of his suffering nation; and then having to stoop down from his exalted position and content himself with a mere shepherd’s staff. What a decline, what a constrast; a royal favorite and a humble shepherd. October, 1957 Page 149