"A lot of people are finding in the 21st century that organised religion is not answering their needs, and for some people Freemasonry is that answer."
That's what Diane Clements said in the Reuters article, "Freemasonry alive and well in 21st century." Clements is director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry.
This statement touches on exactly why I feel uneasy with the Masonic Lodge. I have a few friends and relatives who are Masons, but I've always been a little uneasy with the organization. In fact, when I was in 10th grade I joined and then quit the DeMolay, the Lodge's auxiliary club for boys. Even at 14, I could identify religious teaching when I heard it, and I decided that I didn't need a supplement (or an alternative) to my Bible and my church. When a man is taught so-called secret names for God (Abaddon and Jah-Bul-On), that man is hearing religious teaching. And when a man is taught by the Lodge that his "purity of life and conduct" is what grants him entrance into the "celesital Lodge above," that man is hearing religious teaching (and teaching not found in Scripture, by the way).
The Lodge may not be a religion, but it's impossible to deny that it's religious. And it has been a substitute religion for many men. I'm not the only pastor who's expressed this concern (see the The Southern Baptist Convention's official report for more). But it's interesting to read a Masonic historian who acknowledges the Lodge as a worthy alternative to religious institutions.
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