Society of Secrets?
Masons refute portrayal in 'Da Vinci Code'
05/06/06
By Karen Owen
Messenger-Inquirer
Everything in the small, white building at Ensor symbolizes something.
The arrangement of the furniture. The compass and square on the altar.
The big framed "G" hanging on the wall. Even the
number of steps up to the dais.
Ensor Lodge No. 729 F&AM is not a church. Freemasonry is not a
religion, members say, but a fraternal organization. Members say
they don't even talk about religion or politics at the lodge because
the topics are too divisive.
But Masonry does teach religious principles. And for centuries it
has inspired animosity from the church.
In "The Da Vinci Code" novel, which is coming out as a movie May 19,
author Dan Brown links the Masons to a long line of shadowy
societies and conspiracy theories.
In 2004's "National Treasure," the Masons are depicted as heroes,
protecting a massive fortune from evil-doers.
There is no doubt they have played a big role in our nation's
history, scholars say.
"The beginning of democracy in the modern world can be traced back
to the Masonic lodge," said Guy L. Beck, visiting professor of
religion at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington
himself.
Masonic principles include religious freedom, tolerance and
separation of church and state, he said. George Washington was a
Mason. A picture of him in full Masonic regalia hangs on the wall at
the Ensor lodge.
Masons also claim 13 other presidents, eight vice presidents and 42
justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a Masonic Web site.
Yet the group or its spin-offs have been blamed for everything from
Abraham Lincoln's assassination to the Jack the Ripper murders to
hiding the truth about flying saucers.
Freemasons have secret handshakes and swear bloody oaths to protect
their group's secrets, although members say those threats of bodily
harm are strictly symbolic.
They don't recruit and they don't accept everyone who comes knocking
on their door.
Even so, there is nothing nefarious or sinister about their
organization, local Masons say.
"It's not really very secretive," said Anthony D. Fels, associate
professor of history at University of San Francisco and a non-Mason,
who points out how easy it is to find information on the society on
the Internet and in bookstores.
With so many members, he asks, "How can you have a secret?"
'Not a secret society; a society with a secret'
"There's nothing spooky, I promise you," said Jack Hodges of Bowling
Green as he visited recently with friends at the Ensor lodge.
Masons say their fellowship is fun but has a more serious side,
too. "We're not a social club," said Hodges, a former Owensboro
resident who was the state leader of the Masons several years
back. "We're a fraternity of brothers."
Daviess County has eight Masonic lodges and some other auxiliary
organizations.
"We like to think we are part of the ancient Freemasons that built
the cathedrals of Europe," said Richard Owen of Owensboro, a member
of the Ensor lodge. Masons say their brotherhood grew out of the
tradesmen guilds or early labor unions for stone masons.
The organization people are familiar with now can only be
definitively traced back to England and Scotland in the late 1600s,
Fels said.
In this country, Freemasonry influenced Joseph Smith, the founder of
Mormonism, and many early leaders in that church, Fels said.
Some have blamed the Masons for the French Revolution. For
centuries, popes have forbidden Catholics to join. In the 1990s, the
Southern Baptist Convention decided Freemasonry was incompatible
with the Christian faith as well.
Critics accuse Masons of dabbling in the occult and using occult
symbols. Some rituals in higher degrees in related organizations,
such as the Scottish Rite, do refer to Greek philosophy and the
teachings of non-Christian religions, Beck said.
But Christianity uses pagan symbols too, said the Rev. Larry
Fitzhugh, the pastor of Powderly Baptist Church and a Mason
himself. "They can say that about Christmas."
"Everything we have has a moral or spiritual lesson," Fitzhugh said.
"We teach by symbols," Hodges said. "We use it because it's worked
for 300 years."
"The central metaphor and ritual is based on Solomon's Temple," Fels
said. "They build their character today the same way the ancient
Israelites built King Solomon's temple."
The ceremonies are kept secret, Fitzhugh said, because "we don't
want to reveal them before a person experiences them because it
would take away the effect."
Image problems
The Masons were among the first groups to admit Jews as full
members, Beck said. Hitler persecuted the Masons for that reason in
Nazi Germany.
Lodges in this area put a Bible on their altar, but in other
regions, a Koran or the Hindu scriptures are used -- whatever a
majority of lodge members holds sacred.
Fundamentalist Muslims, Beck said, ban Freemasonry.
Masons are required to believe in a supreme being and the mmortality
of the soul, as well as moral principles. But they do not have to
believe in Jesus -- a major criticism by some Christian groups.
Ignoring Christ is not the same as rejecting him, Beck said. Masons
want to appeal to all people, he said.
Despite the popularity of Freemasonry among the nation's founders,
in the early 1800s, Masons experienced a major backlash in this
country. A New York Mason, William Morgan, was planning to publish a
book revealing Masonic secrets. The printer's shop handling the job
was torched and Morgan was murdered, some say. Others claim he
escaped to Canada. No body was ever found.
An anti-Masonry political party formed and even ran a candidate or
two for president.
"Americans didn't really like secret organizations,
Even so, in the mid-1800s, Whitesville Baptist Church and a local
Masonic lodge were sharing a building, and they weren't the only
such church-lodge partnership in the region, Masons and area
religious leaders say.
Protestants, particularly, liked Freemasonry because some yearned
for a more ritualistic _expression of faith than their churches
offered, Fels said. Rituals are a big part of Masonic membership.
As a result, for many Masons, "that's all the religion they need,"
he said.
That was the one thing that troubled the Rev. Dale Carden,
superintendent of the Owensboro District of the United Methodist
Church, when he was a Mason early in his ministry.
Other members, though, continue to be active in their churches too,
he and other Masons said. They are encouraged to, members said.
"You have to remember (the lodge) is not a soul-saving business,"
said Charles Durham, a Mason and a deacon at East Union Missionary
Baptist at Graham. "The church is in the business to save souls.
Masonry is a brotherhood of friends and members. I don't have a
conflict."
Local Masons point to all the good they and their affiliated groups
accomplish: Nearly $2 million a day donated to charity in this
country, including homes for the aged and Shrine hospitals,
according to the Masonic Service Association of North America.
In recent years, Masons have been trying to raise their public
profile to offset dropping membership. In 1959, the high point, the
group had more than 4.1 million members in the U.S. In 2004, the
number was down to 1.6 million.
Two-career couples, television and an anti-establishment attitude by
young people since the Vietnam era have contributed to the graying
of their lodges, members say.
But lately, they've been noticing an upswing.
Members of the Ensor, Greenville and Yellow Banks lodges all said
they have already gained three to four young men as members since
the first of the year.
"We were having a meeting here one night when a young guy knocked on
the door," wanting to know how to join, said Paul Holloway of
Owensboro, a member of the Ensor lodge.
The young men tell them their fathers weren't Masons, but their
grandfathers were.
The appeal of Freemasonry is still its element of mystery, Fels
said. "The idea is you are participating in a secret and carrying on
a secret."
In "National Treasure," the secret was a vast fortune, but "in
reality, in Masonry, the secret is belief in God," he said. "The
wealth Freemasonry teaches is purely spiritual and moral."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Col. Ian M. Donald (KY)
PM Hillcrest Ldg. # 594 GRC
Ensor Ldg # 729 GL KY
"A man's honour isn't measured by how tall he stands,
but by how often he bends to help, comfort and teach."
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