gotta love the Duke...!!!
Posted on 01/16/2009 9:54:17 AM PST by BGHater
President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in Tuesday will incorporate several elements out of America's Masonic past.
One-third of the signers of the Constitution, many of the Bill of Rights signers and America's first few presidents (except for Thomas Jefferson) were Freemasons, a fraternal organization that became public in early 18th-century England.
Although it became fabulously popular in America, at one time encompassing 10 percent of the population, Pope Clement XII condemned Freemasonry in 1738 as heretical. The latest pronouncement was issued in 1983 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - who called Masonic practices "irreconcilable" with Catholic doctrine.
Still, as the first president, George Washington had to come up with appropriate rituals for the new country. He borrowed many of them from Masonic rites he knew as "worshipful leader" of a lodge in Alexandria.
His Masonic gavel is on display at the Capitol Visitor Center. Until this inauguration, Washington's Masonic Bible - on which he swore his obligations as a Freemason - was used for the presidential oath of office. President-elect Barack Obama will use Abraham Lincoln's Bible.
The worshipful master administered the Masonic oaths. This was adapted to the president vowing to serve his country in an oath administered by the top justice of the Supreme Court.
I learned all this from Garrison Courtney, a 30-something government worker who gives Masonic tours of the District in his spare time. He is worshipful master at the Cincinnatus Lodge in Georgetown. Contrary to public perceptions of Masons being older white guys, current local membership is a racially and religiously mixed group of Gen-X men, he says.
They have, he adds, gotten a bad rap as a secretive organization.
"If people have questions, we will tell them," he says. "We're pretty open as an organization."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
gotta love the Duke...!!!
You are out of your mind!
You give us Christians a really bad name.
I see you got your brain dump from the Roman Catholic Church. The source of the Auto de fe.
Never argue with an idiot.
They will drag you down to their level... then beat you with experience.
Past Master bump for later...........
Are you implying that St. Jude’s Children Hospital is a masonic organisation?
I think you’re thinking of the various Shriner Hospitals; Danny Thomas was always proudly Catholic.
One cannot understand Mexican (or, one might add, Texan) political history without understanding the absolute centrality of Masonic infighting to it.
The coups and countercoups make absolutely no sense unless one understands to which Lodges the various players belonged.
To call Mexico Catholic from this point of view is like calling the Soviet Union Orthodox.
http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/
http://www.withoneaccord.org/store/SecretSins.html
There is a reason the lodge has all their windows covered, blacked out or no windows at all. The bible addresses deeds done in secret and secret oaths.
Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?
Masons must swear a number of secret oaths. In addition, many of the oaths members have sworn include consenting to have their throats cut, if they break their oath and reveal the secrets.
The Bible teaches we are not to have anything to do with deeds of darkness but expose them (Eph 5:11). Do not take oaths (Jms 5:12; Mt 5:34-37). If you take an oath promising to sin, confess your oath and break it, as Lev 5:4-8 shows. See also what Jesus said in Mt 10:26-27 and Jn 18:20.
Matthew 12
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
John 3:19-21 The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. People who do evil hate the light and won't come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.
The Catholic churches official stance on membership in the craft of Freemasonry is denial of communion and up to excommunication from the church.
Not a religion? Why is the lodge also known as “The Temple”,
Prayers are offered to GAOTU - Great Architect of the Universe, Rituals fill “The Craft”, as it is known. There is a Worshipful Master, a Masonic bible that sits on the Alter.
Masonry omits the name of Jesus Christ, when quoting from the New Testament Scriptures. For Example, lets compare what Thomas Smith Webb, Past Masonic General Master said in the Freemason's Monitor, better known as Webb's Monitor, with the King James Bible:
Bible (1Peter. 2:5)
Ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Webb's Monitor (Page 92)
Ye also, as living stones, be ye built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God.
Bible (Matthew 21:42)
Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Webb's Monitor (Page 94)
Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builder rejected, is become the head of the corner?
Bible (2Thesolonians 3:12)
Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
Webb's Monitor (Page 156)
Now them that are such, we command and exhort, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
These Subtle omissions cause the initiate to think of God only in the general sense, without the consideration of Christ. -Thomas Smith Webb (Past Grand Master), The Freemason's Monitor 1792
Sorry FM bro’s.......Jesus is the only way.
Fun fact: John Wayne died a Catholic.
I hope he had the chance to live as one for a while too.
I met on ancient fellow once. He was a Shriner. He had the spirit of a life well lived. If I remember, he totally dedicated his life to such causes once he retired. Quite a guy.
I am grateful for the good the Masons do. However, just as some are Masons, I am Catholic. And, my leader here on Earth says that the organization is anti-catholic. So for me, "never the twine shall meet".
Hate is a bit strong don’tcha think?
Accounts differ, but his son Patrick (Wayne’s wife and children were all lifelong Catholics) says that Wayne himself only formally converted two days before his death.
The only place I've ever come across that statement is from those who love to bash Freemasons.
It may be a nice story, but it's at best unconfirmed.
You want a debate on “The Inquisitions”, give me a week and do a separate thread start and ping me. My files are in PC 100 miles from here in repair.
The start from here will be what the Popes had to say on the various inquisitions. Suggest you as well look up a two part BBC documentary dome in late 90’s. Seems even the Limeys have somewhat realized much history distorted, and I’d add by guess who: The Freemasons.
This man did his share stateside here-tell me if he was a fellow of yours:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Prescott
LOL. OBTW, My son won State Champion in the 9:00 Ritual today, as MC.
I’m a little shocked at the intolerance for FreeMasons in the name of X religion seeing that one of the key tenets of FreeMasonry (religious tolerance and understanding) became a key tenet of our various federal and state constitutions.
Imagine a world without religous tolerance. Imagine a world with strictly enforced church dogma. Imagine a world without enlightenment.
Once there was a time when a person was tortured and murdered for a creed or scientific theory. And there once was a time when a youth was beaten for his mother’s lineage, or father’s faith. And there once was a time when a religious person was prohibited from work or government based on her faith in X religion. Whole empires spared no expense to rid themselves of “heretics and infidels” only to find their soul and sanity left them with the so-called undesirables.
We yell to the heavens that sharia will destroy this country yet we rejoice when a pet dogma tramples another’s freedoms. It’s senseless. I am proud of our nation’s and my family’s long and magnificent masonic heritage.
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