Posted by:
Amyjo
(
)
Date: November 25, 2015 03:03AM
My maternal grandfather was a Mason living in Utah, for several decades until he passed away.
I wondered about his abject hatred for Mormons for most of his life. From reading your thread, Shummy, I just learned from checking Dr. Google, that indeed Utah Masons were synonomous with anti-Mormons up until 1984, when Utah Masons changed their decree by allowing Mormons to become members in that state. So that helps to explain my grandpa's intolerance toward the religion.. My grandfather had died in the early 1970's.
"Of course, what many Latter-day Saints simply fail to realise is that Masonry was considered a by-form of Mormon male expression in the Nauvoo period. So, if it was good enough for Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow why is my friend embarrassed about heralding his own membership? Of course, things change, and the aformentioned brothers were also polygamous, but it is interesting to note that Mormonism’s drift from Masonry in Utah was not so much because Mormons came to distrust Masonry (the bitterness that certain Illinois Masons left them was probably not directed at Masonry itself), but because Utah Masons were synonymous with anti-Mormons. The infamous expose of the Mormon Temple Ritual, "Lifting the Vail. (sic) The Endowment House Mysteries Fully Explained," was the work of Robert Newton Baskin, who was a member of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 2. Remarkably for an organisation that promotes tolerance, Utah Masonry only removed its ban on Mormons becoming Masons in Utah on January 31, 1984."
http://bycommonconsent.com/2005/02/22/my-life-as-a-mormon-freemason/Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2015 03:05AM by amyjo.