Mormonism and Freemasonry

[bill4long]

After leaving Mormonism I joined, several years later, Freemasonry. The Mormon endowment instilled a taste for ritual. After being raised to Master Mason, I Joined the local Royal Arch chapter and the Cryptic council, and participated in other degrees in the Allied Masonic Degrees, and experienced several degrees of the Scottish Rite. At the time I liked the idea of ritual among other things, such as esoterica and the history of the fraternity. It was interesting and useful for a while. All the Masons I've ever known are top notch men and human beings and a credit to the human race.

I "left" Freemasonry after a while (demit'd as we call it - technically I'm still a Mason, just not a member of a lodge) because quite frankly my experience ran its couse. Freemasonry is a relic of the past, mostly a drinking fraternity, a dying institution, and not very interesting any more given all the resources available to the common man today. It served a purpose for me, but it was temporary and ran its course.

I would never have joined had it not been for the Mormon endowment, which awakened in me a taste for ritual, and made me research Freemasonry even more after I bailed from Mormonism.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Peace

[yellowstone123]

I’m not sure if one can answer this but would someone in 1790 like George Washington know the penalty with the neck and all that.

Would someone who was anti-Mason like Joseph Smith and pro-Mason like Hyrum Smith understand the penalty in 1830

What would you say to the young Mormon male who went through a similar ceremony and gesture.

[bill4long]

I’m not sure if one can answer this but would someone in 1790 like George Washington know the penalty with the neck and all that.

Would someone who was anti-Mason like Joseph Smith and pro-Mason like Hyrum Smith understand the penalty in 1830

What would you say to the young Mormon male who went through a similar ceremony and gesture.

Joe wasn't an enemy of FreeMasonry by 1942.

Nauvoo Joe was a whole different species of human than the 1830s Joe.

[yellowstone123]

Thank you for answering. Time and setting is very important. Proper genealogy might increase the flow of information.

[yellowstone123]

Also didn’t Joseph Smith tell his brother Hyrum, ‘beware of the Masons.’ William Morton disappeared around 1826 as he was about to reveal the secretes of Masons. His wife Lucinda becomes a plural wife on Joseph Smith.

If they were around now and I was doing my old job, interviewing Joseph and Lucinda I could present a case pretty quickly with modern equipment.

Thank you again for your answer

[bill4long]

Also didn’t Joseph Smith tell his brother Hyrum, ‘beware of the Masons.’ William Morton disappeared around 1826 as he was about to reveal the secretes of Masons. His wife Lucinda becomes a plural wife on Joseph Smith.

You're referring to William Morgan. Google "the morgan affair." He wasn't "about" to reveal Masonic secrets, he did reveal them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M ... reemasonry

By the 1840s, all that blew over and Freemasonry was no longer socially accursed generally speaking.

If they were around now and I was doing my old job, interviewing Joseph and Lucinda I could present a case pretty quickly with modern equipment.

What?

Thank you again for your answer

You bet.

[yellowstone123]

Thanks Bill for clarifying things. You’re right it was William Morgan not Morton. Per wiki, anti-Mason party was gone by 1838. I’m curious how his wife ended up a plural wife in Mormonism.