Dispelling Myths About Masons

Jay Kinney discusses The Masonic Myth.

September 15, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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Are there any notable politicians today who are Masons?

There have been, particularly, a number of conservative Republicans, like Trent Lott [former senator from Mississippi], who are Masons. But in general, it's less of an attractive thing for a politician to join now than it was, say, 50 or 100 years ago. Partly because the public's gotten very sensitive about organizations that politicians may join, whereas at one time, in mid-America, being a Mason had a certain cachet. Also, at its peak, there were 4 million Masons in the United States. That was a fairly large constituency. That's less of the case now. The number of Masons is down in the vicinity of around 1.5 million. The last president who was a Mason was Gerald Ford; the last before him was Harry Truman.

Since you're a Mason yourself, why should skeptical readers believe any of this?

If they can read the whole book and weigh the evidence and the obvious research that's gone into it—it's heavily footnoted—and just use a bit of common sense, they'll see that what I'm putting out there is quite reasonable. Believe me, I'm not trying to cover up anything. If I had happened upon secret circles of power in Masonry, one, I probably wouldn't have even bothered to write the book. Two, I would have been flabbergasted, and if I had still written the book, I would have brought that up.

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Regarding Ron Smith's comment, above:
Richard Bushman's "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling" (Knopf, 2005), as a biography of Joseph Smith, is overall far superior to the wildly speculative book that Brodie wrote.
Specifically in relation to the relationship of Mormonism to Freemasonry: Fawn Brodie had a poor grasp of Masonry. As an historian, Brodie was given to psychologizing without having the professional credentials to carry that off. As it happens, I am a Freemason, a Latter-day Saint, a holder of a doctorate in psychology, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. From this perspective, I am on firm ground in saying that that Masonry did _not_ have an "extensive" influence on Mormonism through Joseph Smith. Until my book on the subject is published, let me just mention the following:
(1) It is well established that, in several crucial instances, after looking at some sacred text, Joseph Smith experienced a major revelation that had an important influence on LDS doctrine. (For example: the First Vision, and the Vision of the 3 Degrees of Glory.) His exposure to Masonic ritual was such an instance, resulting in the revelation of the LDS temple ceremonies. However, as those who have experienced both sets of initiation can testify, the LDS temple ceremonies have only a tenuous and superficial connection to the Masonic rituals.
(2) Joseph Smith did not become a Mason until about just two years before his own assassination. It's hard to see how Freemasonry could have had the "extensive" influence on Mormonism that Ron Smith claims Masonry had.
(3) People love to play reductionistic games with Joseph Smith, claiming that his religious innovations can be attributed to, say, a hypothetical epileptic disorder, or to Freemasonry, or to hypothetical religious scholars feeding Smith material behind the scenes, etc. etc. ad nauseam. The far simpler and more direct explanation is that Joseph Smith was an American original, a religious innovator. You can attribute that to some sort of inner muse, as some Jungian depth psychologists do; you can attribute that to authentic divine revelation, as 14 million Latter-Day Saints do. Either way, the "American original" approach is a more intellectually honest approach than the reductionistic one.
--Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, Ph.D.

Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, Ph.D. of NY 9:53PM November 05, 2009

MASONS and Masonry...
I am glad that the subject or Masonry has been brought up.
I became a Mason back about 35 years ago
when I was in my 30s.
I will have to say that I saw nothing in
the activities that bothered me. To some
extent it reminded me of the college fraternity I was in when I was in college.
The thing I really noticed was that most
of the men were older than me. Over the years fewer and fewer men have joined the Masons to the extent that the organization hardly exists anymore. Most of the lodges have long since been coverted to other functions. Many people don't even know about Masonery.

Dibrell DuVal of OK 4:11PM September 18, 2009

I haven't read Jay Kinney's book but in reading the interview was reminded of the pretty extensive influence Masonry had on Joseph Smith and, therefore, on Mormon rituals and practices. For a brief overview, see Fawn M. Brodie's No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (1982), the last several pages of Chapter XIX. Some Mormons have been uncomfortable with any attempt to link the Masons and Mormonism and prefer, instead, divine revelation as the source of their church's rituals and practices.

Ron W. Smith of UT 3:49PM September 16, 2009

Dispelling Myths About Masons

Jay Kinney discusses The Masonic Myth.

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