This coming Monday, April 1st, I will be speaking
in New York City on the topic, “Of
Masons and Mormons: The Relationship Between the Masonic Rituals of Initiation
and the Latter-day Saint Temple Ceremonies.” This topic has been the topic
of extremely heated controversy—even violence—for much of the last two
centuries; indeed, it figures into many contemporary anti-Masonic and
anti-Mormon discussions, as a simple internet search will demonstrate. Very
rarely has this matter been addressed by someone who thoroughly understands
both Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint (LDS) faith. However, I am both a
Mason and a Mormon. I apply my fraternal and faith
backgrounds, as well as my professional background in the psychology of religion and humanistic psychology, to
this matter. I propose what I believe is the first explanation that fits all the
facts of the case—and I will be presenting it live for the first time on April
1st. (A Facebook page for the event is here.)
Meeting Details
This presentation will be made under the auspices of TheAmerican Lodge of Research (ALR),
the oldest continually operating Masonic Lodge of Research in the United States
(founded 1931). It will take place at 8 p.m. within the beautiful French Doric Room, on the 10th
Floor of Masonic Hall, 71 West 23rd Street (just yards east of Sixth
Avenue/Avenue of the Americas) in Manhattan, New York City. The event will take
place within a tiled meeting of the Lodge, and so it is closed to the general
public; Freemasons of any jurisdiction
in amity with the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, F&AM, are invited
to attend. Such brethren are invited to attend in business suits. Admission is without charge.
(Please note: Attendees are welcome to join the officers of
the Lodge, of whom I am honored to be one of the most junior, for an
on-your-own dinner beforehand
at 6 pm at Sagaponack, 5 West 22nd Street, just
west of Fifth Avenue.)
Why This Matters
A little over 170 years ago, in March of 1842, the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., was made a Mason on sight by the Grand Master of Freemasons in Illinois. Joseph Smith was aged 36 at the time, and the Church that he organized had only been in existence for 12 years.
It is entirely possible that, by the time of his Masonic initiation,
Smith had already seen several Masonic initiation rituals acted out in public
by either seceding Masons or non-Masons, in connection with the preceding fifteen
years of the Morgan Affair and
the Anti-Masonic Episode of
American history. These rituals Smith might have witnessed include the rituals
of the Blue Lodge, the York Rite, and the Scottish Rite, many of which had been
exposed to the public in David Bernard’s 1829 anti-Masonic best-seller, Light on Masonry.(An excellent edition of this exposure, with an extensive
introduction, is available through the Scottish Rite Research Society, here.)
About seven weeks after his Masonic initiation, Smith conferred
upon a small group of close associates what he called the “endowment” ceremony—as
in ‘endowment of power.’ This ceremony is one of the major rituals conducted in
the Latter-day Saint (LDS) temples around the world even today. (I myself
received the endowment for the first time in the LDS Washington DC Temple,
shown in the lower half of the image above. Of course, the upper half of that
image shows the House of the Temple, the headquarters of the Supreme Council,
33°,
of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S.A.
Are there connections between the ceremonies recorded in the vaults of the
House of the Temple, and those conducted in the LDS Washington, DC Temple? Good
question.)
Since 1842, some people have alleged some sort of connection
between the LDS temple ceremonies and the Masonic rituals of initiation. Did the Mormons steal from the Masons?
On this question hinge all sorts of issues involving the spiritual integrity,
not only of the LDS faith, but of Freemasonry itself (at least in the eyes of
some people, as I shall explain). In brief, there is much at stake here for
just about everyone in sight.
I hope to shed more light than heat on these important
issues. Although I have previously addressed some of these matters in a video
presentation sponsored by the Worldwide Exemplification of Freemasonry in August 2011 (now also available on
Youtube), I have more material
to present after a further year and a half of research, and of course the presentation
at ALR will allow for questions and answers, which I expect to illuminating for
all. I hope to see you on Monday evening.
Incidentally, I shall have with me at the presentation information
about my forthcoming book, Of Masons and Mormons, which
considers these matters at book length. (The book itself will be available
directly from Amazon in the coming weeks.)
Finally, I am more than willing to entertain invitations to
speak on this issue in other Masonic venues, and, for that matter, in
Latter-day Saint venues as well. I am easy to contact through my profiles on Blogger, Linkedin, Twitter, through my Facebook writer's page, or through my website's Contact page.
[I must apologize for giving everyone such short notice
about this event. This is a time of professional transition for me, and I
apologize for letting those complications get in the way of my giving the
readers of this blog due and timely notice.]
I invite you to become a “follower” of this blog through the
box in the upper-right-hand corner of this page, to be informed of future
posts.
I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry:
An Introduction, published by Tarcher/Penguin. (Described here, available here.)
Mark Koltko-Rivera on Twitter: @MarkKoltkoRiver .
Visit the “Mark Koltko-Rivera, Writer” page on Facebook.
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Visit Mark
Koltko-Rivera’s website.
(Copyright 2013 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights
Reserved.)
