Nothing drives this home like Morals and Dogma, the Masonic 'bible' written by Albert Pike, the Big Cheese of the Scottish Rite in the late 1800's. Pike was also the Chief Judicial Officer of the KKK.
Ralph Epperson wrote an outstanding review of Morals and Dogma in 1989 (Publius Press, 3110 S. Philamena Pl, Tucson AZ 85730). On page 26 he points out that "lying to the Mason initiate has been in keeping with the history of the Masons since even before their traditional founding date, reportedly in 1717."
Pike wrote in Morals and Dogma, "The Templars, like all other Secret Orders and Associations, had two doctrines, one concealed and reserved fro teh Masters, the other public."
Epperson identifies numerous passages where Pike instructs Masons to mislead initiates. Regarding the Masonic initiate and the Masonic meanings, Pike writes, "It is not intended that he (the initiate) shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them."
If you really want to understand Masonry's true motives, don't take the Catholic Church's word for it - get a copy of Morals and Dogma (Ebay or Amazon) and read it yourself. It's pretty tough sledding though, and I found Epperson's review very helpful.
Nice quote mine. The actual quote reads:
"The Templars, like all other Secret Orders and Associations, had two doctrines, one concealed and reserved for the Masters, which was Johannism; the other public, which was the Roman Catholic.
I see you have been reading "The Da Vinci Code" in bed, again. It is giving you paranoid nightmares.
"Nothing drives this home like Morals and Dogma, the Masonic 'bible' written by Albert Pike"
Um, Pike was one Scottish Rite Mason who was very full of himself.
His book was also a comparative religion book written for colleges. It is not theological.
The only Bible Masons accept is the Holy Bible, the lodge's preferred translation. (We happen to use the King James because it's the prettiest big Bible we could find.)
My neighbor loaned me his copy of Morals and Dogma. I didn't read it all the way through, boring. Just skimming through, I felt it was incompatible with Christianity in general in their philosophy, don't remember too much now, some numerology type things in it.
I had a couple relatives who were freemasons, as a child our landlady's husband was some grand poobah. He was the first dead person I ever saw and was dressed in that white apron. I was very young at the time. My grandfather was an Oddfellow. I threw that apron away :-). I went to DeMolay dances, was invited to be a Rainbow Girl, my mother belonged to Daughters of the Nile for awhile, the Masonic temple felt oppressive to me even as a child.
Nothing in it that ever appealed to me through my various phases of searching. A lot of them are nice, yes, and some are not so nice. Still, I don't feel like bashing them because I don't think it has much appeal to the present generation unless some relative pushes it on them. My grandmother on one side belonged to Eastern Star, great grandfather on another side, Knights of Pythias, wouldn't want a part of any of it.
I never was much of a joiner, so factor that in. I don't mean to bash Masons, just don't care one way or another about it, think it is mostly some club that does some good works.
Gnostics believe in "hidden knowledge."
"The real secret of freemasonry is that there are no secrets." (Ben Franklin quote)
I'm so glad that this has appeared in FR for me. My husband, (I'm Catholic and he's not--though he's been going to Mass with me now for over 20 years!)was asked recently by the mayor of our small town to join the Shriners. He also mentioned it to me, and I really like our Mayor. I told him that I was Catholic and that my husband goes to church with me (he even works up there part time). The Mayor told me that there were Catholics in the organization. My husband never seriously considered it, but the troubling thing is, is as you mention, it's so secretive, not even the members are aware of these things about it.
A great learning and teaching moment has come for me now, my son asked me the yesterday what "shriners" are (he's 19)because I commented on the fact that Prez Bush was with some shriners at some event he was speaking at. They had there funny little read hats on. I was a little dumbstruck, not knowing all I needed to say. But now I can and I really appreciate the poster of this article