ARTICLE NO. 48



        CAN A CHRISTIAN BE A MASON?


    "Can a Mason also be a Christian?  To Rev. Walter Bauer,
pastor of the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Lake Erie
village of Fisherville, the answer is no."

    This quotation is taken from a report in Time Magazine of
an ultimatum delivered by Pastor Bauer to three Masons to whom he
refused communion, demanding either that they give up their lodge
affiliation or leave the church.  The congregation refused to
support their pastor and reinstated the Masons.

    Opposition to Masonry is not new.  In such countries as
Spain, antagonism has been bitter.  In their early history in the
United States, after the fraternity had been established by men
like Benjamin Franklin, a provincial grand master, the Masons met
with serious hostility in New York and Philadelphia.

    About 1826 in an outburst of public hysteria, churches
expelled Masonic clergymen and parishioners.  Rhode Island required
all lodges to publish their proceedings in annual reports. 
Candidates in civic elections ran on anti-Masonry tickets.  One
curious charge was that Masonry was "subversive of good morals" but
the chief resentment came from their secrecy and especially their
exclusiveness which was exciting jealousy.

    Opposition to Masonry is usually caused by ignorance. 
The only exclusiveness practised today is that of character.  As
for secrecy, libraries contain detailed descriptions of Masonic
practices.  One very common misconception is that Masonry is anti-
Roman Catholic.  To the contrary, not one word in Masonry opposes
the Roman Catholic faith, while Roman Catholics have been members
and even masters of lodges.

    It is true that all members of lodges and service clubs
are not Christians.  That is part of their genius.  It is
regrettable that some members do find in such institutions complete
expression for their religious life.  It is said that some members
give their lodge or club a devotion that they do not give their
church and that makes it wrong for them.  Nevertheless such
organizations are the cement of democratic society, absolutely
imperative to the health of a democracy, and it is notable that in
dictatorships and bureaucracies people do not unite in voluntary
associations.  To say that a Mason could not be a Christian is
silly.

    Masonry is a representation of the truth that man is by
nature a builder of more than a shelter, that his buildings
describe the affinity of his soul with the Supreme Architects and
the longing of his soul to express spiritual truth in material
things.

    Thus Ruskin in "Seven Lamps of Architecture" shows that
the laws of architecture are moral laws--sacrifice, truth, power,
beauty, life, memory, and, as a crowning virtue, obedience which
includes reverence and humility before the Creator.

    Masonry is a friendship of good men of all races and
creeds who seek to practice in their own lives a love without
limits and rising above all prejudice, and an integrity of truth
and justice in character while striving to project into society a
temple of mankind which will be an earthly reflection of the
Kingdom of god.

    In a world made bitter by partisan spirit, racial hatred,
class cleavages, and credal animosities, good men rejoice in the
peace of fraternity free from bigotry, a band of brothers joined in
the quest as old as mankind for the Lost Word, the Ineffable Name,
who believe in the freedom of the individual and who believe that
man is ore than a creature of the dust, that he has an immortal
destiny, and that the ultimate reality of the world is spiritual.

    In the black horror of our days with their superstitions,
their intolerance, and their monstrous cruelty, in the gathering
darkness of war and atomic dust, Masonry lifts a glorious white
star of hope and faith to tell mankind that truth can never die,
that love is eternal, and that behind the things which are seen
rules the invisible Soul who measures men and nations by the
compass of truth, the square of justice and the plumbline of
equity, Who has established the world upon the pillars of
righteousness, and Who has declared that the whole universe shall
be a symbolic revelation of His Love.


             `

THIS ARTICLE WAS PREPARED BY REV. BRO. DR. FRANK S. MORLEY OF
CALGARY, ALTA.  IT WAS PART OF A COLLECTION OF PAPERS OF OUR LATE
P.G.M. R.V. HARRIS.