Freemasonry & Religion

by Sean

I'm a little iffy about the Freemasons due to the fact that most people say they're a satanic group along with the Illuminati. But I'm a big Christian and was wondering does religion matter in the Masons?

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Dec 28, 2014
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by: Fred

MOST people? Those saying that Freemasonry is anything other than a fraternity really don't know what they are talking about. Masons do not worship the devil. We refer to God, as the Great Archetect Of The Universe. A purely non religious term. Since we are not a religious group it makes sense.
Jan 03, 2015
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by: Lant

The rumoured link between Freemasonry and Satanism goes back a long time. Much of it came from a Frenchman by the name of Leo Taxil, writing in the late 1800s. (BTW, please take the time to verify this.) Taxil wrote a series of extremely popular 'exposes' on Masonry. He made specific claims anout Masonic devil-worship, ones that still linger and (like many present-day anti-Masons) he made a pretty decent living doing so, lecturing, traveling, selling books. Taxil then publicly announced one night, in front of a paying audience of hundreds of people, that it was all a fraud, intended to embarrass the Catholic church. The cops had to hustle him out the back door. Current newspapers covered it; it is a matter of history. A total fraud, yet his claims still feature loudly in anti-Masonic writings.

One of the more famous Taxil claims is a purported citation by a famed Masonic writer named Albert Pike acknowledging Satanism as central to Masonry. That, too, was a lie (the entire text is on-line and a word-search is easy proof), yet it's still dragged out as 'evidence'.

Bottom line - simply is no truth to the claim. None. There is no-devil-worship in Masonry. Period.

Now, religion *is* important to Freemasonry, but only in the sense that all applicants must believe in a supreme being. Prayers are said (much as they are at the opening of town council meetings) at lodge meetings.

Yet Freemasonry is not - not - a religion. We do not promise salvation nor tell people how to achieve it. We do not offer sacraments. There is no special Masonic deity and we do not tell our members how to pray or worship. We encourage each member to worship in his own way, in his own church, but a man's relationsh wth God is between the he and the Almighty; it is certainly not our place to get between them.

We do not blend multiple religions nor expect our members to accept the beliefs of others'. Again, a man's beliefs are his own business. It would be possible, I guess, for Christians at a lodge meeting to pray to Jesus at the same time as Muslims addressed their prayers to Allah, Jews to Yaweh and so forth, but that would be confusing, so when a prayer is said, we use a non-denominational title such as 'Great Architect of the Universe'. When a Mason hears that term, to him it refers to God as he sees Him.

Freemasonry attempts to stay away from the differences between different faiths (what days are holy, what foods can and cannot be eaten, etc) and focus instead on those things all religions agree on, things like the requirements to treat all men fairly and justly, to practice benevolence, to behave honorably, etc.

As a Christian, I would personally not hesitate to walk away from Masonry if I saw any conflict, but in 30+ years in the Craft, my Christian faith has if anything grown stronger.

As to the Illuminati, they've been dead and gone for over 200 years. Don't eat that, Billy. Such rumours, like those of Masonic Satanism, are spread by the greedy to the foolish and fearful.

Again, thank you for asking with an open mind. If you have any specific questions, I would be happy to try to answer them.

God bless.

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