Once again, hearing interesting things on the radio this morning. I must've been living on another planet and just recently returned to Earth, because I've never heard these things before.
When I tuned in, there was an on-going discussion between a caller and the host about the Freemasons. The host said that George Washington and many other presidents were Freemasons. He said that the REASON Joseph Smith became a Freemason was TO PROTECT THE CHURCH AND CHURCH MEMBERS. When he was killed, he cried out with the Masonic distress signal: "Is there no help for a poor widow's son?" Apparently, there were masons in the crowd and no one stepped forward to help him. He said that Masonry wasn't applied until BY decided to apply it, because BY was upset because none of the masons helped JS. Did anyone else know about this?

Never heard that before. Interesting, if true. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, John Taylor, Heber C Kimball and Smith's plural wife Zina D Huntington said he gave the masonic distress signal to masons in the crowd.

http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Martyrdom/Masonic_cry_of_distress

"The Murder," Times and Seasons 5 (15 July 1844), 585. off-site GospeLink (requires subscrip.) Taylor's original italics have been removed, and italics added for emphasis. The article itself is unsigned, but John Taylor was the editor of the Times and Seasons and would have either written it or approved its publication.

Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball: The Father and Founder of the British Mission (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1888), 26. It should be noted that while Heber C. Kimball personally knew Joseph Smith, he was not an eyewitness to the events at Carthage.

Andrew Jenson, Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 4 vols., (Salt Lake City, A. Jenson History Co., 1901; reprinted Salt Lake City, Utah : Greg Kofford Books, 2003), 1:698. Zina's statement about "leaping the window" matches very closely with what her father, Heber C. Kimball, said about the incident.

"He said that Masonry wasn't applied until BY decided to apply it, because BY was upset because none of the masons helped JS."

What do they mean "Masonry wasn't applied"?

Joseph Smith clearly copied many aspects of the temple and endowment ceremony from the Masons. I thought he joined because it was the popular thing for people who considered themselves community leaders to do at the time.

I thought the exact same thing: that JS joined because it was the thing to do for leaders. I believe the host meant to say that Masonry wasn't applied in the temple ceremonies until BY gave the okee dokee, because BY was angry with the masons for not helping JS.

To this discussion. The account of JS giving the Masonic cry, "Is there no hope for the widow's son," is accurate. It appears to me--and others--he was just trying save his arse from the Carthage Mob hoping there were Masons in that group. There may well have been.

I always have some excess road rage I need to shed, and as noted, JS borrowed shamelessly from Masonic rituals and lore while claiming the Temple Rituals were restored from Solomon's time.

Freemasonry only dates to the Middle Ages however, from the trade guilds in Scotland, England, and elsewhere. Ah, here we go... I've never been through the Temple, but my friends tell me the similarities are unmistakable.

http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/masonic-apron.html

Many who attend Exmormon Conferences in Salt Lake have taken tours of of the Masonic Temple here and have been shocked by the similarities with Mormon Temple robes and rituals.

What makes the conspiracy claims so ludicrous is each individual lodge is autonomous and as far as the LDS Church goes, one could not be a Mormon and belong to the Salt Lake lodge until 1984. There was a reason for that even though masonry only requires a belief in a "Supreme Being."

Yes, a number of U.S. Presidents were freemasons, including many of the greatest, Washington, Monroe, both Roosevelts, and Truman. There were some turkeys, too, such as Jackson, Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson (Buchanan got a "raw deal" IMO, particularly from LDS historians for his "Utah Expedition," but that's just my private view).

As far as the crackpots who are hollering "Masonic Conspiracy," I recommend you tell them to look in a mirror because their tinfoil hat is on crooked.

the gang of assailants with blackened faces were a masonic hit squad - they traditionally blackened their faces for the same reason certain groups in the south in later years wore white hoods - for anonymity.

Joseph smith allegedly told someone that the masons lost their authority to 'correctly' pass along the tokens - that they had been the 'proper priesthood' back in solomon's time but were now apostate, and god told him to join the masons to learn the tokens and use them 'correctly' in the new and everlasting covenant for polygamy, aka plural marriage. The local groups did not like him initiating anyone he fancied without them going through the proper stages and, probably worse, he was initiating women. Bottom line: he broke masonic rules and had to suffer the consequences.

FYI, freemasons love their black and white tiled floors. Now that you know this you will see these floors everywhere in older buildings like municipal buildings, banks and libraries.

But I'm doubtful it will fly. I realize in the UK you don't have that tradition of "Freedom of the Press" that we do here in the colonies (I wrote a grad paper on Fielding, Walpole, and the Licensing Act 30 years ago in a Master's level British literature class and received high praise from the professor; it's a subject I'm familiar with. Robert Walpole was the "de factor first Prime Minister" of Great Britain), but the reason Joseph Smith was arrested was for ordering the destruction of the "Nauvoo Expositor" published by his Second Counselor William Law and his brother Wilson.

(Source: Brodie; "No Man Knows My History")

http://www.mrm.org/law-interview

They took freedom of the press seriously on the American frontier, honest.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2017 11:37PM by SL Cabbie.

what I meant (and did not explain) was they took their opportunity to execute him whilst he was prisoner at carthage awaiting trial. We know he was imprisoned because of the destruction of the press, which we were indoctrinated was because it was used to print 'lies' that we now know were 'truths'.

Didn't the governor, or the person in charge who promised his safety until the trial, disappear earlier in the day before the lynch mob arrived later that night? It would appear that since he was imprisoned for so long there was plenty time to get together a bunch of 'brothers' willing to carry out the penalty incurred by the 'widow's son'.

I agree that our press is not quite as free as we are led to believe and our allegedly 'impartial bbc' (which is funded by tv licence holders, ie everyone with a television or broadband) is far from impartial and quick to drop facts and change the meanings of words in a similar way to the way the cojcolds does, in order to control the narrative / political spin of any story.

My never Mo grandfather was a Mason who lived majority of his adult life in the Morridor of Utah. When he was a Mason, Mormons were foreboden from joining their ranks, and were loathed by local Masonics. Wasn't until later 1970's they eased up by eventually allowing Mormons to join the club.

Grandpa had a full Masonic funeral when he died. At one time he was Grand Master where he lived. He hated Mormons so much that after my mom joined he stopped speaking to her for fourteen years, until he was on his deathbed. In his mind she'd committed the unpardonable sin.

And the proscription only applied to the Salt Lake Lodge. And of course there are lots of Masonic Symbols associated with 19th Century Mormonism including the "All Seeing Eye."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2017 11:42PM by SL Cabbie.

I've read somewhere it was the entire state of Masons that was anti-Mormon.

My gramps lived in Ogden. He was ardently anti-Mormon. With exception he tolerated his grandchildren. Gramps was a character, he was.

If I can find the source read originally, I'll share it here. This is what I could find so far in a precursory search:

"After Smith’s death and the eventual Mormon migration to Utah, it became the standard practice of Freemasonry to bar Mormons from the group. What seems ironic at first glance to me, a novice on this subject, is that the most fierce anti-Mormon Freemason organization was its Utah chapter, which banned Mormons well into the deep 20th century."

http://www.standard.net/Faith/2015/02/20/Author-of-book-on-Mormonism-and-freemasonry-to-speak-at-WSU

I see where you might've derived the ban was limited to the Grand Lodge in SLC. However, based on the history I've found, the ban was in effect for all of Utah from around 1925 until its demise in 1984.

"In 1923, it was noted in a meeting of the Grand Lodge that Utah Mormons living in other jurisdictions could, and some did gain membership in the Fraternity, and that being denied visitation rights in Utah resulted in "humiliation" and "embarrassment". In January 1924 a Resolution was presented to the Grand Lodge forbidding members of the LDS Church from joining any Utah Masonic Lodge. The resolution was laid over for one year and the following reworded resolution was presented and adopted by the Grand Lodge in 1925.

"Whereas, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, is an organization, the teachings and regulations of which are incompatible with membership in the Masonic Fraternity, therefore: "Be It Resolved: That a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, is not eligible to become a member of any Lodge F.& A.M. in this State and membership in such Church shall be sufficient grounds for expulsion."

An attempt was made to repeal the Anti-Mormon Resolution in 1927, but the Grand Lodge rejected the appeal and what had been unwritten law became written law.(19) Other attempts at repeal occurred in 1965 and 1983. These attempts also failed, and this was the state of affairs between the Church and the Fraternity for the next fifty-seven (57) years, until 1984."

http://www.themasonictrowel.com/Articles/Freemasonry/religion_files/freemasonry_and_mormonism.htm

Here's a video discussing the restoration of the Ogden Masonic temple (video circa 2010)
Narrator considers it the 2nd oldest building in Ogden of substance.

https://youtu.be/B_Fv76NVWQE

but the single piece of evidence that I cling to is this:

My uncle, my father's older brother, served as my surrogate "Daddy" after his younger brother, my father, died at the age of 42 from a genetic kidney disease.

Although we did not live in the same state, I could (and did) pour my little teen-age heart to my uncle in letters. I was stuck with my disagreeable, alcoholic, widowed mother, who only became worse after Dad died when I was 15.

It was my uncle who encouraged me to apply for admission to an "away" university and live in the dorm there, so I could get away from Mother. Those were among the best years of my life.

Until his passing at 87, my uncle and I remained close, by letter and phone. To my extreme astonishment, when he died, he left me $30,000. My cousin explained, "He felt that your Dad died too young to be able to leave you much of an inheritance." With that money, I was able to travel in Europe for two months, which was probably the single biggest-ticket item on my lifelong bucket list.

My uncle was one of the finest men, and deepest thinkers that I ever knew - and he was a Master Mason.

So, while my experience is very limited, if my uncle was typical of Masons, they are A-OK in my book.

What a lovely, nurturing relationship you had with your uncle!

One of my dad's half sisters left me $10K in her will. It came as a shock to me. It made a huge difference in my life as I was able to buy my first car and effect a move back east. It was an economic boost at a time I badly needed it.

most masons only ever do the first 3 degrees up to master mason. In this respect, the group is more of a boys' club whose focus is on networking and charitable endeavors for the local area. Traditionally in scotland and ireland these lodges were arranged by trade or occupation, in a nod to the former guilds. In areas where there are less masons the lodges are more mixed.

Going up the degrees increases your annual dues and gets more into the religion of freemasonry and why their lodges are actually 'temples', but most members stay on the periphery of the boys' club with the benefits of being raised to the 3rd degree - a brother will always defend another brother, even if said brother had committed a crime. Sounds a bit like 'the brethren', doesn't it?

Freemasonry as a whole is not sinister or evil, but there are - and have been - societies within the fraternity, comprised of 'select' brothers, which are indeed sinister and/or plain evil in some definitions of the word. Like mormons as a collective group are not evil, but there are groups within (eg danites) who are what some call 'evil' - this is the same for freemasonry. Some think all forms of freemasonry are evil, as they think the same about all mormons and their church.

Thank you everyone for your comments. Lots of interesting and educational information!

In Nauvoo there is a building that is called the "Cultural Hall". It is sort of like a theater with a stage and comfortable seating. Originally, it was the Masonic Lodge.

Joseph Smith was such a yutz.

When even the masons will admit they weren't around until the Middle Ages and had NOTHING to do with Solomon, it makes him even yutzier.

The other thing that amuses me is the emblems of the square and the compass--hey, guess what mormons, those used ....CONSTRUCTION!! WTF does that have to do with Jesus!? If it had to do with Jesus the carpenter, the emblems would be a wood chisel and a Skil saw...