How do Christians and other groups view Freemasons today?

Question

Just curious?

Answer 1

This is a rather vague and loaded question, no one person speaks for all Christians. I cannot answer on behalf of Christianity and neither can anyone else that has posted, or will post.

That said, the vast majority of Christians I know have a neutral to positive view of Freemasonry as a social fraternity that teaches morality and provides an incredible amount of charitable contributions around the world; and over $3 million per day in the USA.

To respond to some posts above:
* Skalite did NOT say all Freemasons are Christians, merely that in his opionion most are; and that might be accurate
* Freemasonry is not a cult, they do not denounce Christ; they are accepting of many religious beliefs (Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist) etc... in that there are certain moral truths contained in all these traditions that are not the sole property of Christianity
* Freemasonry is not evil; it does more good than almost any other organization on the planet; including the Roman Catholic church
* Freemasonry is a-religious; that is, it is NOT a religious organization, they do require their membership to have a theistic religious conviction though (i.e. a belief in a supreme being)
* The opinions above are typical of the anti-Mason sentiment and show a tendency of people to criticize what they do not know or understand or have no experience with
* They are not a Christian organization, although modern Freemasonry certainly grew out of a Christian environment and I know many Freemasons who hold only monotheists can become Freemasons
* While the average age of a Freemason is rather high (in the 60's; 70 in Illinois) they do not "get drunk" at least no in the Lodge as their are rules against doing that
* Only one degree (Knight Templar) requires you to be Christian (however there are Jewish Knights Templar so I'm not sure how they interpret that :) )
* There is no consipiracy within Freemasonry that most Freemasons are unaware of; there is no witchcraft, spell-work or anything else like that in Freemasonry
* Freemasonry's teachings are absolutely NOT against the basic Christian teaching; I have a BA and and MA in the History of Religions and I am a Freemason, I assure you they are VERY similar
* Freemasons do not worship Satan, in fact, if you worship Satan you cannot be a Freemason
* Freemasons did build most of the churches around the world
* Not sure who would visit someone's house at night on an "unscheduled" basis... Freemasonry certanly wouldn't and I don't know of any Christian's that would (save for a few period in history such as the Spanish Inquisition, the Nazis, etc)
* Freemasons do not control the world, and do not make decisions or policy to that effect; the conspiracy theories are only good for novels and hollywood
* Freemasonry is not a secret society; the oaths may seem gruesome to the uninitiated but they are to be interpreted symbolically not literally; what is this hidden agenda and what is the prophecy given to use in the scriptures that it directly opposes?
* All Freemasons are male although there are appendant bodies that accept women
* Benjamin Franklin went to France to solicit the aid of the French Freemasons, without whose help the Colonies would likely would still be British Citizens
* Eastern Order is actually Order of the Eastern Star
* The part of Morals and Dogma that anti-Masons take completely out of context to show that Freemasons worship Lucifer is one sentence out of an 861 page book. Lucifer comes from the Latin lucis (light) and ferre "to bear" and was the name used for the planet Venus. There is also a very successful hoax played on Freemasonry by Leo Taxil (who admitted to the hoax) and anti-Masons have locked on to that today as it was the truth and not a hoax

Answer 2

For those of you who think Freemasons are a cult/religion are wrong. All they are, are men who go through degrees/rituals and learn about masonry. They do have rituals etc. , but many organizations have rituals and oaths, for example the Boy Scouts, and even a Christian Baptism is a ritual. Look up ritual/oath in the dictionary. They do not worship anything. You must believe in a GOD to become a mason. This can be any God. Religion and Politics are not allowed to be talked about in the lodge, this is so that all members are meeting on equal ground. All the rituals and degree work can be found on the internet, therefore most of the secrets people talk about are no longer secret, since you can find this information.

Answer 3

Freemasons are typically demonized by "fundie" types. Look up Freemasonry on the internet and you're bound to be confronted with dozens of lunatic websites that go on and on in truly neurotic detail about how Freemasonry is a Satanic sect dedicated to subverting Christian morality and popularizing devil-worship, etc etc.

Of course, the vast majority of Freemasons today are simply old men - "pillar of the community" sorts, mostly - who like to get drunk and socialize, and incidentally legitimize their drinking by contributing to charitable causes. Practically all of them are Christian, and in fact, many Masonic degrees actually require their members to be Christian. But when those fundie scamps get together, they're worse than a sewing circle.

Answer 4

As all other have answered, they view it as a different sect of religion... The christian church have adifferent opinion on freemasonry, they view it as a form of religion based on the book of one of the well known freemason - Albert Pike - Morals and Dogma, although this has been refuted by most of the mason to be different for what freemasonry is all about. Other religion also view freemasonry as another sect that refuses to believe in God.
But the fact is that one cannot join freemasonry if you are an atheist... for it is your obligation to the brotherhood that you swear by the Supreme Being one believes in...
Freemasonry is just a brotherhood of man to make a better world based on their belief... without the hindrance of religion, creed or race.

Answer 5

Some misinformed Christians regard Freemasons as a cult, conveniently forgetting that many of the churches they attend were physically built by Freemason church members donating their time, labor, resources, and money.

This has recently occurred as a result of the interest in cults, and a lack of accurate research.

Answer 6

That's a difficult question. I know some Christians, including some of my relatives who claim to be Christian, who belong to Freemason lodges. There are some "on-fire," jump around, throw your hands up, JESUS JESUS JESUS Christians at my aunt and uncle's church who I have heard are members of the Freemasons. I haven't researched them all that much, but my aunt and uncle (previously mentioned) have, and they say that there are some very non-Christian practices associated with the higher levels of the Freemason hierarchical structure. Here's a website that may help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasons

Answer 7

The same as they always have. Some Christians approve, some Christians disapprove. But the comments above do a good job of demonstrating opinions against Freemasonry.

Answer 8

All freemasons believe in god. Freemasons are form different religions, but they all share the belief in a god. They are not a sect or a religion because they do not tell you how to believe in god. A religion will ask you to believe in certain things, freemasons do not ask you to believe at all.
In my experience, some cristians are more tolerant than others, but in my experience there are some that really get upset when you refuse to believe in the way they believe.

Answer 9

Hey... don't you realize that asking such questions could prompt unscheduled visitors to knock on your door at midnight?

Freemasons, huh? As in the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminatti, the Skull-and-Bones Society, the Knights Templar, the G-8 Summit... you know, those few who make all the decisions to effect and control the entire human population.

Keep asking those kind-of questions... gator-bait... and that will be your answer.

Answer 10

Freemasons worship Lucifer as far as I know. Not cool.