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I am interested in mormon history, I’d like to learn more about Brigham Young and his thoughts and experience with polygamy. Just try to get in his mind a little. If I would to go back to school, I think I would study religion, history and philosophy. Maybe even with a focus on religion in the United States in the 1800’s. I don’t know how that would help my career, unless I started writing books or became a professor. But I am interested in these things so maybe it would just be a hobby. The masonic lodge near my house was founded in 1850, so during Brigham Young’s era. I understand that he was also a freemason as were many leaders during the early years in church history. I know there were tensions between the church and the masons and at one time church members could not be masons or vice versa. I’m interested to find out why. Also, the relationship between the church and the masons has basically been severed, as far as I know. Do you think any of the current church leaders are freemasons? I know some members are and it doesn’t jeopardize their standing in the church, though not everyone knows that is the case today. I have mentioned that you can be a mormon and a mason to some long standing members in positions of authority and they didn’t believe me.
I wonder if there is any opportunity to build bridges between the church and the masons again. Is it still a problem that the temple endowment borrowed elements from the masonic rituals? Is the freemason organization thriving or is it starting to die out? It’s interesting because it seems like membership with the freemasons was important to a lot of important men in history. It was an enriching support and a beautiful addition to one’s religion. Everyone was encouraged to live their own religion and not discuss it at masonic meetings. My problem is, how closely do they expect you to live your religion. Does a muslim have to live by every precept of Islam to be a good mason? Or can he be questioning his faith and think maybe he doesn’t want to read the Quran everyday and say his prayers 5 times a day. Or when freemasons say that we should live our own religion, do they mean to say we should worship God according to our own conscience? Which was actually a teaching Joseph shared with the church.
I wonder how much masonry has changed since that time period. I know the temple endowment has changed, but I’m interested to see what elements of masonry have survived in the church to this day. It would also be interesting to compare to the original endowment and to track all the changes throughout history and discuss why each change occurred. It will likely change again in the future. Such a study is a bit taboo still I think. The endowment is not published by the church, though one could find access to it on the internet. So it becomes a personal endeavor then. If I am interested in these things, the only way I can learn about them is to either talk to an older member who is comfortable talking about his temple experience (I could probably find a lot of those guys at the temple and we could talk about it there), or looking for information outside of the official church publications.
Turns out to be the same with the learning about the masons. Either I join the masons and learn from the old timers, or I search the internet for information that they have promised to only share with other masons. I think doing both sounds interesting.
I have seen things on the internet about the temple and the people publishing it have absolutely no regard to their promise to not make it public. When I saw it, it felt like pornography. I felt guilty for seeing what someone else had published on the internet. But now, I don’t think I did anything wrong, they did, or didn’t I guess, depends on your perspective. Perhaps they feel no obligation to keep those promises because they have severed their ties to the church anyway.
I think there is a difference between learning about the endowment and experiencing it. I imagine it would be the same with masonry or any religions rituals.
I’d like to take a peak in to other religion’s rituals as well, but I guess I would I have to infiltrate all these religions to get an appreciation of the beauty of their practices. I kinda feel like I’m on the same path as the plot in the Life of Pi. Not everyone understands that though.
2 Random thoughts on Masons: 1) In Nauvoo I toured the masonic Lodge. I was shown a large room that was used for “dances” and “plays”. I asked the LDS tour guide if this would be the same room where early Mormons might have held Masonic ceremonies. She abruptly got very defensive and said that she didn’t know anything about that. I didn’t think the question was offensive … I am taking a tour of the Masonic Lodge after all.
2) I went to a blood drive at the masonic lodge in my town. I picked up some pamphlets. From a cursory glance the modern masons seem similar to the elk’s lodge or rotary club. Not particularly secretive or mysterious.
There are also some podcasts that cover this and have actually gone in depth enough where I am not too interested in learning much more (at least now). Roy wrote:From a cursory glance the modern masons seem similar to the elk’s lodge or rotary club. Not particularly secretive or mysterious.
But they do still practice the rituals that they did before and it seems there is still some secrecy to them, seeing how the tour guide got uncomfortable talking about it. Those rituals still attempt to teach mysterious things, they just don’t have any dogma.
My experience with friends who are Masons are that they don’t focus so much on mysterious teachings or strange practice with so much deep secret society stuff…as much as focus on doing good and doing service in the community. It is pretty heavily about being involved in good things, and whatever the religious beliefs are, there is good work to be done to take care of women and children in the community. The secrets are there and protected…but that isn’t what it is about. That’s what my talks with friends have revealed. Heber13 wrote:My experience with friends who are Masons are that they don’t focus so much on mysterious teachings or strange practice with so much deep secret society stuff…as much as focus on doing good and doing service in the community. It is pretty heavily about being involved in good things, and whatever the religious beliefs are, there is good work to be done to take care of women and children in the community. The secrets are there and protected…but that isn’t what it is about. That’s what my talks with friends have revealed.
Sounds like a good organization to be a part of. I have been trying to figure out how I can better serve others and do good things. Perhaps I could get some ideas and opportunities working with them. It’s actually kind of a joke now that I think about it. It seems that the answer to these mysterious questions is, “Just get to work and do good for others. Don’t worry so much about the mysteries of life, caring for others is the mystery of life.”
Here’s a link to a Mormon Matters podcast in 2005 with Greg Kearney who is a member and a master mason. He has an interesting take on why JS adopted freemasonry.
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