Freemasonry’s Beliefs and Their Struggle for Secrecy

The extended es offer project was d ane on the masonic root of wad who mystify been an influential map of account as a w hatful. In this essay I am expiry to explore the belief system of the group. As healthy as bear witness why in that respect is much hostility surrounding the group by expressing the opposing views. The Masons basic on the wholey argon a group of men that bugger off sh argond feelings about br other(a)hood, morals and community progress. These men drop dead to the human beingss sizeablest federation in the world. It spans all nations, races and religions. The group as a whole is rattling unavowed.For instance the origin and the time that this group was structured is still un real. umpteen actions and activities of the group ar also low key. This hires the group precise compromising for Anti-masonic groups. Many famous and important people in the world admit be colossaled to the Freemasons. When criminal acts or in respectableices in the comm unity take direct, the Anti-masonic groups place blessed on the masons. What was build out by the research is that the secrecy of the Masonic organization is to be kept at all multiplication. Some times extreme measures argon taken to insure its secrecy.Anti-Mason groups atomic number 18 detrimental to the survival of the group. They dampen their progress and lower their popularity rating with the public. It is an ongoing battle that doesnt front like it will cease any time soon. thither is a gild in which many people belong. Many people be your e rattlingday people people that run the country, people that own agate line to people that pass you on the street. You wouldnt nonice they belong to this night club because they argon e veryday people. This society has been around since the earliest of times. The members are dedicated to neighborly love, relief for the community and strong morals.More revealingly this group can be defined as a group of men, banded together in a n exclusive lodge to advance, first and foremost, their personal inte proportions and second, the interests of the community or other members of the group (Hoselton). If you know anyone that sounds like he fits this profile they might belong to Masonry also called Freemasonry. Masonry is touted as the worlds oldest and largest fraternity. Freemasonry and Masonry are interchangeable words for the said(prenominal) organization, which has its root in the gothic trade guilds of stonemasons.In Freemasonry the most widely utilize symbols are the tools of the stonemason, a square, compass and a level. The level for example is a symbol that are men are equal and on the same level. on that point are signs that point to the first congregation on this organization, which is O.K. in 926 AD, when the first lodge documents were found. There are writings and inference that date tail end to the late 17th century. There is no involve answer to when this society, lodge, group first originated . Even so Freemasonry was formally created in London in 1717.The ideas and beliefs quickly spread to the American colonies and across Europe. Today, at that place are probably four to six million men in the fraternity (Cambell). The Masons in the mid-seventeenth century were a secret society and since they were secret there was no historical document or writings. There are basically deuce-ace theories that surround their existence before it became public. The first opening is that freemasonry is as ancient as the Masonic ritual claims. It was indeed created as a result of happenings at the building of king Solomons temple and has been passed wad to us through mechanisms unknown.The second theory that scientists believe is that the development of medieval stonemans guilds, whereby Masonic skills with stone were translated into what masons call moral improvements. The third theory is that masons rituals in the first place amaze from the Order Of The Poor Fellow- soldiers of Ch rist and the temple of Solomon, now give way known as the Knights of Templar (Knight). adept thing you will learn is that there are no exact answers when it comes to the Masons. This society is held in high go out to its secrecy. The rules and regulations are very sacred and if one is non performed or is confounded than severe penalty will be placed in action.The penalties are from removal from the society to death, depending on the act. These rules and guidelines are what gave man his sense of certificate and sense of well- creation back in the times when the world was not as civilized as it was at once. When the world was not as static as it is today and lands were forever changing hands, masons were still united because it is widespread. Masonry is not confined to one race or nationality, creeds or faiths. This organization encompasses roughly everyone. In Masonry there is a meeting place for the members. This place is called a lodge. There is a set hierarchy of Lodges.Al l the states in the U. S have a Highest ruling lodge, The majestic Lodge. This Grand Lodge is utilize as the presiding lodge over all of the tenuous branches of lodges. The jurisdiction of a Lodge determines its exact beliefs and rules. There is no higher authority than the Grand Lodge of a state. Every month there is a proper(postnominal) meeting for the higher-up Masons. This once a month meeting is named a employment meeting (Virginia). In the lodge religion is encouraged, nothing in partingicular, that Christianity is the most popular in the United States. Religion though, on with politics is strictly forbidden inside the lodge.Both subjects are very controversial and would cause too much of a divide mingled with men. One of the beliefs that the Masons have is an interesting initiation ceremony. There are a few phases to complete this process but it is what is done to each stark naked member. It has been carried out since the creation of the fraternity so now it is j ust a belief. The first phase of the ceremony is when the initiate must swear his devotion to God and his fellow Masons. When that part of the ceremony is over the second part of the initiation begins. This way the initiate can become Master Mason.He is blindfolded and is asked to act out the part of Hiram Abiff. Hiram Abiff was the murdered master in a legend of the building of King Solomons temple. This would be the exciting contribution of the initiation, where all the action takes place. He must refuse to tell secrets of the Freemasons and wherefore he is hit and knocked to the floor. This is a reenactment of Hirams death. The third step to the process is a few more points and symbols are explained in detail to him (Cambell). The Masons are also known as a secret society. Many beliefs that they hold are absolutely forbidden from non-members and also not all Masons can know everything.This is what gives the Masons its secret society name, not because its chthonianground or a small gathering. The secrets started back in the earliest times when stonemasons had special trades that they kept from everyone else. There are many casefuls of secrets that are held in the Mason group, many types of sciences and astrology. When a Mason starts to understand the organization and probe his unconscious these secrets are revealed to him. One belief that the Masons have that come alongs as though it would be outdated by now but is still intact is the admittance of only males.The lodges of today are available to only males who are at least 19 years of age. To be more accommodative, a separate division of the Freemasons was developed. The easterly Star was founded in 1850 and is a group for Master Masons or people properly related to Master Masons, including women. The relation can be wife, widow, sister, daughter, mother, granddaughter, stepmother, stepdaughter, stepsister, one-half sister, and recently, nieces, daughters-in-law, and grandmothers (Virginia). Basically anyone who is not permitted into the lodge meetings but has relation to a Master Mason can be admitted.The lodges are divided into chapters and there are eighteen offices to be filled in each chapter. Men or women can fill these positions. The head of the chapter is deemed the title Worthy Matron. To gain the social status required, each member must agree to belief in a supreme being. Although, the new and Old Testaments are both part of the five dollar bill degrees. This makes the east Star a particularly Christian group (Virginia). Since, the Eastern Star is a sort of division of the Masons, this must make them a particularly Christian group (Mackey).Since the Freemasons group of extreme size, controversies are everlastingly surrounding them. There is also a great deal of animosity that stems from the secretive nature of the Freemasons. Many prominent figures including founding fathers and presidents have been Masons, and in some cases Freemasons have been accused of giving other Masons unfair advantages in job promotion, and also controlling decisions in government by being a sort of underground government themselves (Virginia). A large part of joining the masons is having that advantage of job promotion over non-mason co exploiters (Dumenil, 23).The biggest animosity concerning the Freemasons took place in the United States during the early 1800s. In 1826, one man indomitable he was going to publish a book that contained all of the secrets thats the Masonic society had hidden. This man was, master key William Morgan, a regular member of the Masonic society. The place that the book was being published was burned to the ground and the Captain suddenly disappeared. There are many different endings to this story that go around today, but it is said that he was captured by the Masons and killed.Most Masons today say that is not what happened, but Morgan really left the country and went to Canada. It was storied by a anti-Masonic group that a year lat er the embody was found in a harbor. Other accounts say that his body was never found. What the real truth may be is irrelevant. The fact that these stories set the Masons back a step in popularity is important part. There was even an anti-Masonic presidential candidate in the 1820s (Mackey and McClenachen, 508). Protecting secrets is not the only type of controversy that the Freemasons get into. Since they are so large they have contacts and members in all aspects of society.Masons are blamed and accused of all types of other functions and mishaps. During the presidential alternative of Quincy Adams and Jackson, Adams blamed the mason group when he was not chosen for the presidency. There are writings linking the Freemasons to President Lincolns assassination, beliefs of Nazi Germany, the murder of Pope ass Paul I, establishing the Ku Klux Klan, the Jack the Ripper Murders in England, the JFK assassination conspiracy, and many others (Virginia). All across the world different eve nts have been blamed on their members. These actions might mayhap be blamed on the Masons unrightfully.This might be due to their large size and underground secret society, which makes them an easy target to blame. Especially if there is no real suspect is unknown. Most of these accounts do not seem to have much well supported evidence. One thing that does twist one to believe a Mason might kill someone or cheat them out of a position in the work force is the type of penalties they enforce. The Masons preach that they are all about genial love and doing good deeds for their fellow members and the community around them but when you read the types of penalties that they will enforce you have to second-guess the purpose of the group.If one of the members happens to slip and tell the secrets of Freemasonry there are many penalties. The penalties include very vulgar acts which are tearing ones tongue out by the roots, plucking ones nervus from its breast, and having ones body cut in two with the entrails burned to ashes (Virginia). This type of language has caused much anti-Masonic sentiment. To be a part of the Mason society it is said that you need to believe in a higher powerfulness or god. It is not specified which one to believe in, it does not matter. This cut down has some people disturbed especially Catholics and Methodists who are historically contrary to Masonry.Roman Catholics ban masonry due to the types of oaths and its sincere secrecy. The Methodists have to condemned it as well for the same reasons. Christians have also been very disturbed by Masonrys admixture of beliefs. This would be both pagan and Christian beliefs together. Representing the Pagan solar gods are the Bible, the compass and the square. These are also the Three Great Lights of Masonry (Virginia). There are many other possible examples of mixing religions, which disturbs some members of Evangelical Christian churches (Cambell, 75-76). A recent controversy involves the history of the Freemasons.Some say that Freemasons didnt come from medieval stonemason unions. They have come to the presumption that it has emerged from the Knights of the Templar, a privileged class of soldier monks in Medieval Europe. The Knights were attacked by many governing for their knowledge of the Muslim and Jewish religions, and in 1307, King Philippe IV of France order their arrest and a raid of their preceptories. They supposedly escaped to Scotland with all of their treasures and these scholars say that Freemasonry evolved from the Knights Templar traditions (Virginia).These ideas are offered instead of the stonemason history that the Freemasons tell (Knight). There are Masons at all levels of work force especially in the government. It helps when you are trying to get elected and you are a Mason but even so there is also a drawback to being a Mason. There are always people who try to find the hole in the system and take what you have earned. For example in 1829, under pub lic pressure, the New York state senate investigated freemasonry and reported that wealthy and powerful masons were found at every level of government.Opponents of President Andrew Jackson, who was a freemason, took advantage of the poop to form the Anti-Masonic party, the first time a third party was created in the United States. Anti-Masonic candidates were successful in state and local elections but failed to unseat Jackson in 1832. By the late 1830s the Anti-Masonic party had turned to storm against slavery and the strictly anti Jackson members joined the Whigs. This was a honorable blow that took decades for the Masons to recover from (Dumenil). Most of these problems that the Freemasons have are due to the take of the Anti-Masonic society.Those who were not offered membership or could not obtain it had jealousy and avariciousness grow inside them. The rest just didnt know how to become a member. The figured it was a group of elites that belong to a secret society and it w as nothing but full of evil and conspiracies. This guessing game and non-members jealousy served as the fuel for igniting and inciting hatred for the unknown. The only thing left was for three groups to keep the fire burning. First of all, politicians used this to gain popularity, but make false accusations did this.Thurlow Weed was the most successful and most damaging in his use of the incident and to claim that he was the savior, riding in on a shiny white horse (MIT). William Seward of Auburn and Millard Fillmore of Moravia made hay of the fiasco and gained political clout by using the Morgan affair as an issue (MIT). Secondly, the clergy also lowered themselves to this level of demagoguery. Even former members of the fraternity truism in this an opportunity to claim that the Freemasons were evil and that only in the church could souls be saved.The clergy knew full well that Freemasonry was not in the business of saving souls. The third mechanism, which grabbed an opportunity to gain notoriety and to sell newspapers, was the press. New papers were born regularly with the one objective, to sell newsprint by leveling accusations at the Fraternity. Any dirt would do despite its veracity. The anti-Masonic driving in itself was a sort of lie, it was a conspiracy to promote certain(a) people or groups at the cost of freemasons. The press could make money. The clergy saw people converting.Lastly, the politicians had an opportunity to promote themselves (MIT). The times were ripe for suspicion and distrust. uncultivated egos led people to believe that only their church, their politics, their way of life was the tame one. Others were ignorant and in the dark. (Marrs, 17) The masons as a society are very secretive and extremely widespread. The society is formed on the basis that cordial love, belief in religion and helping the community are musts. These characteristics dont make the masons seem like they have any wrongdoing in their actions and so fourth.Eve n so there is is much criticism of the freemasons as a group. There have been numerous attacks against freemasons and what the supposedly have hidden from the rest of society. The most potentially damaging attacks of this century have come in the past two or three years. People have tried and true to convince society that freemasonry is rooted in heresy. Even in the facial gesture of extreme large amounts of criticism the masons have chosen to remain speechless and not release any secrets. Whatever the actions were, or the motives have been they have always allowed themselves to be easy targets.It seems that the masons have been deliberately accused of certain things therefore they will gain the reputation that will put them under. Whether other society has done this to them is unknown. Everything seems to denounce the Order of the Masons. It is probably not long before the masons come out and set the record straight, rather than just accept the blows of criticism. They rely on their acts of reconciliation and following the principles of brotherhood, relief and truth, which is not enough to keep the largest fraternity in the world operating.It is very frightful that a group of people could persevere through the trials and tribulations that they have been through. It was very hard to gather reliable and large amounts of information because of the secrecy. What was learned is that this group operates for nothing but the good of themselves and others. Many very important figures of the world were members of this organization. This is a reason why there is so much controversy surrounding this group. All in all, its been the most successful attempt at a unified group or secret society.