The Compasses and the Cross

This is the trailer for my latest book - The Compasses and the Cross: A History of the Masonic Knights Templar.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• knights
• templar
• freemasons
• masonic
• stephen
• dafoe

[richcapo]

@proudfreemason Brother: Please contact me directly.  This is not the appropriate forum for addressing your grievances with a member of the Craft.

[proudfreemason]

We take Oath's (Much like you do in court) or much you you would when you become a citizen? I am not sure your reservation as this has no religious ties whatsoever, it's a mystic tie that binds us all.So the Muslim takes what he learns and applies it in his way and I the Christian take the moral learnings from lodge and apply them my way, how is this at all in conflict?Because I don't scream and yell telling the Muslim that he needs to accept Jesus as the Prophet?You're the issue!

[proudfreemason]

@richcapo Yes, the "GRAND CELESTIAL LODGE" is where all good Masons go back to whence they came. Jesus IS the ONLY source of LIGHT, but that doesn't mean that other Religions don't have the right to practice and sit beside other Brethren of other religious denominations.This is what you fail to realize is that what does it matter who the Guy next to me pray's to?The moral teachings I learn, I take and apply them to my life.We don't care your religion just as long as you have faith!

[richcapo]

@bboyGrimes "we are tolerant of all faiths."

We are the "religion in which all men agree," as our saying goes.

[richcapo]

@proudfreemason I didn't say anything about Hell, but Freemasonry does uphold that there is a celestial lodge (2nd and 3rd degrees), and it performs a funeral service in which the brother's passage into Heaven is asserted. This is undeniable. As for your Christianity and Masonry not coming into conflict: Great. You must not believe that Jesus is the only source of light, that swearing oaths is anathema, that God is only father to those who believe in Jesus, and so on.

[proudfreemason]

@richcapo You are complete in accurate with your statement. There is no HEAVEN or HELL taught in Freemasonry just moral examples set forth that completely progress oneself in harmony with thy own Religion. Look at the "G" in Freemasonry, could very easily stand for "GENERIC". You profess to know all of this yet as a Christian I can tell you not once hath my Religion or Masonic Brotherhood come into conflict, NOT ONCE! The big problem the church has is we sit next to Men of other denominations..

[richcapo]

@bboyGrimes "Freemasonry does not claim it is a Christian organization, it is compatible with Christians ..."

Not necessarily. Since Freemasonry teaches that all religions worship the same God and that all good men go to Heaven (taught in the Second Degree, Third Degree, and on), it is incompatible with denominations of Christianity that uphold that the only God is the God of the Bible, and that salvation is only attainable through faith in his son, Jesus.

[richcapo]

@michaelresanders The first two bodies of the York Rite are non-denominational. As for the Knights Templar, it often does require faith in Christ, but not always. In some Grand Lodge jurisdictions, like mine (the Grand Lodge of Washington, DC), any Mason can join the Templars as long as he is willing to take an oath to defend Christianity, which some non-Christian Masons have no trouble with, because they believe that Masons should be willing to defend all religions.

[michaelresanders]

The York Rite is a Christian only group in Freemasonry; hence, the references to Christianity. If you are not a Christian, then you may not become a Knights Templar in the York Rite. The Scottish Rite differs -- all good men everywhere regardless of their religious faith who are Master Masons may become members of the Scottish Rite. Also, in our Blue Lodges, all good men are invited to join regardless of their religious faith.

[bboyGrimes]

That's the mistake of the individual mason then, because grand lodges in most of the districts of the world prohibit recruiting and it is one of the MAIN pillars of freemasonry that we are associated with no one religion, we are tolerant of all faiths.

While many of the moral lessons are built using biblical accounts, FM does not claim to solely be Christian in its form.