more light #335
Anti - Masonic Charges
by Ed Halpaus
Grand Lodge Education Officer
Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Minnesota
In the last issue of More Light I mentioned about some very negative comments
posted on the
U-Tube video received and how anti-Masonry is alive and well in the world
today. Anti-Masonry is not something that existed only in the past, nor is it
something we can, or should, ignore. The goal of the anti-Mason is to have
Speculative Freemasonry cease to exist.
To understand the tactics and falsities of the anti-Masons the best book I
can recommend on the subject is “Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry” by
Brothers Art De Hoyos and Brent Morris. (It’s available at Amazon.) Another is
“Workman Unashamed” by Brother Christopher ‘Kit’ Haffner. Another set of books I
highly recommend to Masonic Students is “10,000 Famous Freemasons” by Wm R.
Denslow; this set of books has been out of print for decades, but they can be
found on the used book market (although they are expensive) and also as an
e-book at Amazon. One of the better places to go to for used Masonic Books is
Brother Harold Davidson of the Billings Masonic Library.
Some time ago I noticed a signature on the cover of the books of my set of
the 10,000; it was “Mazzini,” so I looked him up in the book; his name is
Giuseppe Mazzini. Reading about him in the 10,000 did pique my interest in
learning more about him because he evidently was a very interesting Mason. He
was a Past Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy. He was also a Lawyer who
became a patriot and liberator of Italy. He lived from 1805 to 1882, and the
story of his life is well worth reading.
In order to read more about him I turned to the Internet and typed his name
into a search engine; One of the links that came up was truly an anti-Masonic
site linking Mazzini to Albert Pike, and both of them to the Illuminati, and
linking that to the ‘new world order’ the anti-Masons are so eager to say is
what we Masons are up to establishing. It was after I began reading on the
anti-Masonic site that I revisited “Is It True What They Say About
Freemasonry?”; after reading in that book I turned to “Enemies Within; The
Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America.” And the Short Talk Bulletin written by
the author of the book – I mentioned these in the last issue of More Light.
Please bear with me while I seem to digress a bit on this book, it does have
something to do with anti-Masonry, which complements the book by Brothers De
Hoyos and Morris: In ‘Enemies Within’ on pages 22 & 23 the author begins writing
about the “Red Scare of the 1950’s”[i] Robert Welch and the John Birch Society.
He tells the reader that Welch studied history for secret patterns and
intrigues, and he found what he could use “in a centuries-old master conspiracy
of ‘insiders,’ for whom Communism was but one means to world domination.
Evolving over decades, his work and that of like-minded counter subversives
broke their sub-cultural confines to raise mainstream consciousness of the real
menace – the conspiracy to create a New World Order.”
So from what I can tell the term New World Order, which the anti-Masons like
to link to Freemasonry, was popularized by the John Birch Society in the ‘50’s,
and came from a much older written work about communism. In 1961 Gallup Polls
showed that only 8% of those who had heard of the John Birch Society had a
favorable impression of them and that fully 59% of those polled had an
unfavorable impression.[ii] This caused the Society to concentrate on keeping
their members and planning for the future.
In 1964 Robert Welch told the members of the John Birch Society that “his
focus on communist intrigue we misplaced; communism was merely a subplot of the
master conspiracy.” Welch then focused on the writings of John Robison and the
Jesuit Augustin de Barruel whose writings were after the French Revolution. “The
revolution, they argued, was not rooted in poverty and despotism. Rather than a
rising of the masses it was the work of Adam Weishaupt’s Illuminati, a secret
society that plotted to destroy all civil and religious authority and abolish
marriage, the family, and private property.”[iii] Robison’s contention was that
“the fall of France had not satisfied Weishaupt, and he planned to use Masonic
Lodges to sow intrigue across national borders.” So it appears to me that it was
John Robison’s writings after the French Revolution that linked Freemasonry with
the Illuminati. From all appearances the John Birch Society did not propound
about the Masons being connected with the Illuminati, but in 1966 Welch claimed
– “The Insiders hands are everywhere, and loyalty to God nation, and family were
in rapid decline. America was in the Insiders grasp with ‘60 to 80 percent’
already lost. The conspirators had reached their endgame, with the United States
about to become a province of the ‘New World Order.”[iv]
Here is where the book “Is it True What They Say about Masonry?” comes in,
and where it is helpful. The anti-Masonic Web Site I mentioned is
Biblebelievers.org, and can be found at:
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/pike.htm and on that site are some interesting
images of Brother Albert Pike and Brother Mazzini: It gives Brother Pikes years
of life, 1809–1891, the article on Brother Pike begins by linking him to Brother
Mazzini like this: “He [Pike] was chosen by Mazzini to head the Illuminati
operations in America and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1852.” This is
interesting because in Denslow’s 10,000 Famous Freemasons it tells us that
Brother Pike, two years after his third degree of Masonry, was a charter member
and first Master of Magnolia Lodge #60, (November 04, 1852,)and it was March 20,
1853 when he received the degrees of the A.A.S.R.
What to me is also interesting is that according to Mackey’s Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry,[v] the elector of Bavaria issued an edict for the suppression of
the Illuminati on June 22, 1784, after which many if its members were fined or
imprisoned and Adam Weishaupt, who founded the Illuminati, fled the country. The
edict was repeated the next year and by the end of the 1700’s the Illuminati had
ceased to exist. Some important facts to keep in mind here is that Brother
Mazzini was born in 1805 and Brother Pike was born in 1809; at least 5 and 9
years after the Illuminati ceased to exist.
There are so many things that are interesting, such as; we know who founded
the Illuminati and when, and we know what happened to it. However when we think
about Freemasonry I think what M.W.B. Delmer David Darrah said: “No man
discovered law or can locate its beginnings; no man invented education, or can
name its birthplace; nor is it possible to state when religion took its place in
the moral sphere of men. These great forces spring from the needs of the human
soul, and are the result of growth and development. The same is true for
Freemasonry. It was not created, but grew out of the past.”
Brother Mackey says: “Weishaupt connected it [the illuminati] with the
Masonic institution after whose system of degrees, of esoteric instruction, and
of secret modes of recognition, it was organized. It has thus become confounded
by superficial writers with Freemasonry, although it never could be considered
as properly a Masonic Rite.”
“Adopting Freemasonry only as a means for its own more successful
propagation, and using it only as incidental to its own organization, it
exercised while in prosperity no favorable influence on the Masonic institution,
nor any unfavorable effect on it by its dissolution.”[vi]
Back to some information where the book “Is It True What They Say About
Freemasonry?” can help. On the anti-Masonic web page it continues with charges
by repeating false charges made by Leo Taxil by quoting from a book titled,
Occult Theocracy, written by Edith Starr, in the 1930’s, under the pen name of
Lady Queensborough. This book quotes and uses the hoax perpetrated by Gabriel
Jogand –Pagés, who wrote under the pen name of Leo Taxil. Taxil’s entire
confession about the Hoax’s he perpetrated concerning the Freemasons and the
Catholic Church can be read in its entirety in Brother’s De Hoyos and Morris’
book: This book is worth every penny of the cost.
Given the information on the web site of the Bible Believers and the fact
that they continually repeat incorrect, false, and documented hoaxes teaches the
Masonic Student that it doesn’t hurt to research the charges of the anti-Mason;
their charges and accusations about Freemasonry cannot stand up to even a
cursory investigation, and certainly not to a thorough investigation.
Freemasonry can stand up to investigation!
Something else we learn from the anti-Mason is how they use a very disturbing
method to propagate their falsities about Freemasonry: In a conversation with
the Minister of my church; the conversation touched on using only part of a
scripture in a talk or article to make a point, he and I are both against this
type of thing. When someone uses only part of something, or part of something
along with something of another thing to make some text say something it
doesn’t, this is called “Proof-Texting.”
In “Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry?” the authors spend some time
showing how the anti-Masons ‘proof-text’ the writings of Brother Albert Pike in
Morals and Dogma by actually leaving out portions of paragraphs to make Brother
Pike’s writings say something that they don’t. This is a very interesting part
of the book.
On the web site for Bible Believers the writer there does the same thing, but
the writer takes ‘proof texting’ a bit further by inserting words in parentheses
indicating that the author had the word in parentheses in order to explain his
thought, when in fact the anti-Masonic writer put them in. So he or she is
attempting to have the reader think Pike is saying something completely
different than what he is actually saying.
Regarding Morals and Dogma – the anti-Masonic writer gives us this example
In this massive volume he explained that the “blind Force of the people is a
Force that must be economized, and also managed. . . [Ed’s Comments - page 1-m
only part of the sentence is quoted] [Actually two complete sentences are needed
to put this in context.] it must be regulated by intellect. “To attack the
citadels (Institutions) built up on all sides against the human race by
superstitions (religion), despotisms, and prejudices, the force must have a
brain and a law (the Illuminati’s). Then its (Force) deeds of daring produce
permanent results, and there is real progress. Then there are sublime
conquests. . .[Pike’s words edited out - thought is a force, and philosophy
should be an energy, finding its aim and its effects in the amelioration of
mankind. The two great motors are truth and love.] When all forces combined, and
guided by the Intellect (Illuminati), and regulated by the Rule of Right, and
Justice, and of combined and systematic movement and effort, the great
revolution prepared for the ages will begin to march. . . [Pike’s words edited
out - The power of the Deity Himself is in equilibrium with his wisdom. Hence
the only results are Harmony.] It is because Force is ill regulated that
revolutions prove failures” Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry,[Ed’s Comments - this sentence is taken
from the beginning of the next paragraph, which has to do with a different
thought.][Here is the sentence that follows, as Pike wrote it – “Therefore it is
that so often insurrections, coming from those high mountains that domineer over
the moral horizon, Justice, Wisdom, Reason, Right, built of the purest snow of
the ideal after a long fall from rock to rock after having reflected the sky in
their transparency, and been swollen by a hundred affluents, in the magic path
of triumph, suddenly lose themselves in quagmires, like a California River in
the sands.” 1-2 (Rev. Ed. 1950). [Ed’s Comment - Actually page 1 L and continues
to the top of page 2
[When referring to items and text in Morals and Dogma it is common to use 1m
or 256L or 719u – meaning page # middle, page # lower, or page # upper. Knowing
the page number and what part of the page to look for information is helpful,
and that’s the way the book’s index is laid out.]
Suffice it to say that there are people out there who are anti-Masons who are
doing whatever they can to tell lies about Freemasonry and Freemasons. They tell
us we just don’t know what we’re involved with and that they do. And because
they know they are going to tell us and our loved ones what Freemasonry is all
about. Well if someone is going to tell your loved ones what Freemasonry is all
about – it should be you. Get the book “Is It True What They Say About
Freemasonry?” if you don’t have it already, also get a copy of Morals and Dogma
with a good index (also available as an e-book now) and look things up when you
hear about quoted portions of it, to see if it’s true. Read and learn about the
Craft!
Unlike the unsubstantiated charges of the anti-Masons, Freemasonry can stand
up to scrutiny and inspection.
In this day and age there is no reason for your loved ones to get false
information about Freemasonry from our enemies. Believe it or not, doing the
research into these false charges and lies the anti’s like to spread is
enjoyable, because you learn more about Freemasonry in the process, and then you
can share this knowledge with those you care about; your Brethren, your friends,
and your family.
———————————-
[i] Enemies Within by Robert Alan Goldberg pages 22 & 23
[ii] ibid Page 45
[iii] ibid
[iv] ibid page 47
[v] Clegg edition 1929 Volume 1
[vi] ibid
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