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The Critics Of Freemasonry... |
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From Northern Ireland to Iran,
from the Middle East to United States, religious extremism is a growing
force throughout the world. Jarred by the rapid pace of social and
cultural change, especially the apparent disintegration of moral values
and the breakup of the family, some people within this movement have
sought refuge from the complexity of modern life by embracing absolute
views and rejecting tolerance of other beliefs. |
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Simple, east, seemingly stable
answers bring comfort in a rapidly changing world. For example,
some churches have responded to the personal anguish of their members by
circling the wagons; that is, by strictly defining theological concepts
and insisting their members "purify" their fellowship by renouncing any
other beliefs. |
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The next step, already taken
by various churches, is to yield degrees of control within their ranks
to vocal factions espousing extremist views. These splinter groups
focus the congregation's generalized anxieties on specific targets.
The proffered Cure-all is to destroy the supposed enemy.
Freemasonry has become one of those targets precisely because it
encourages members to form their own opinion on many important topics,
including religion. |
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Thus some churches have
expressed concerns, even condemnations, of Freemasonry. Generally,
these actions are based on misunderstandings. A case in point is
the June 1993 report to the Southern Baptist Convention by the
Convention's Home Mission Board. The report defined eight alleged
conflicts between the tenets and teachings of the Masonic Fraternity and
Southern Baptist theology. |
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Let's briefly look at those
areas as representative of the thinking of some well-meaning but
misinformed church members today, and see if the concerns are real or
simply a matter of misinformation or misunderstanding. |
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Most of the issues really deal
with language in one way or another. Almost every organization has
a special vocabulary of words which are understood by the group.
It's hardly appropriate for someone outside a group, and without the
special knowledge of the group, to object to the terms unless he or she
fully understands them and why they are used. |
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If someone wants to read the
Journal of the American Medical Association, for example, that is
his right - but he doesn't have a right to complain that the articles
use medical terms. A person reading a cookbook had better know
that terms like fold, cream the butter, or soft ball have special
meanings - or they'll make a mess instead of a cake. |
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The same is true of a
non-Mason reading Masonic materials. As to the critique of
Freemasonry by the Southern Baptist Convention (which, incidentally, had
several positive things to say about Masonry), here is a brief
explanatory discussion of each point. |
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