STB-OC94 Scanned by Hiram's Oasis
FUNDAMENTALISM AND FREEMASONRY
By: Dr. Gary Leazer
This short talk bulletin has been extracted from a
chapter in Dr. Leazer's new book of the same
title (MSA will prepare a notice of availability
when it is in print.) the attacks on our
freemasonry have not stopped and we must be
prepared, as Freemasons, to respond to those
vicious and false accusations. We thank Dr. Leazer
for allowing us to reprint from the "conclusion" of
this book.
Editor
Dr. James L. Holly in his new book entitled
"Southern Baptist Convention & Freemasonry Vol.
III" asks the question of Southern Baptists" "Are
we now allied with the Masonic Lodge?" The answer
is "NO!" Although Holly and some Masons may
believe we have. the Southern Baptist Convention has
not aligned itself with Freemasonry. That was
never the design or intent of the Study. In its
conclusion, the original manuscript submitted to
Larry Lewis stated, "The Interfaith Witness
Department reaffirms its position taken in 1986;
Freemasonry is NOT a religion."
The final sentence in the original manuscript
was, "We, therefore, with no hesitation, recommend
the following: That the Southern Baptist
Convention take a position neither for nor against
Freemasonry and its related branches, and that
membership in Freemasonry be left with the
judgment of the individual."
Part of this recommendation came; from the
decision by Charleston, South Carolina Baptists in
1798 who recommended that membership in
Freemasonry "be left with the judgment of the
individual." Nowhere in "A Report on Freemasonry"
is found any hint that the Southern Baptist
Convention has allied itself with Freemasonry, The
vote at the 1993 Southern Baptist Convention did
not align the Convention with Freemasonry, rather,
messengers voted not to condemn the fraternity.
Holly asks, "Have southern Baptists abandoned
the Word of God and made 'individual conscience'
the supreme rule of faith?"
The answer is again, "No!" The Preface to
"The Baptist Faith and Message," a statement
of faith adopted by the Southern Baptist
Convention in 1963, states:
Baptists emphasize the soul's competence before
God, freedom in religion, and the priesthood of
the believer. However, this emphasis should not be
interpreted to mean that there is a absence of
certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe,
cherish and with which they have been and are now
closely intensified.
"The Baptist Faith and Message" also states
that "God alone is Lord of the conscience." Any
freedom carries with it responsibility. Freedom
of religion or conscience is no different.
Ultimately, each person is responsible to
God for what he believes and does, not to his
fellow man.
Holly asks, "Can we allow the assertion that
Southern Baptists have blessed the Masonic
Lodge to go unchallenged?"
The Southern Baptist Convention has not
blessed the Masonic Lodge. Anyone who
believes the Convention has blessed
Freemasonry is wrong and doesn't understand
the polity of the Convention.
Holly asks: "Have we instead given Masons
loaded gun with which to press their attack
against pastors who wish to see their churches
unfettered from the shackles of the occult?"
First, I reject Holly's identification of
Freemasonry with the occult. That is simply not
true. A few Masons may be occultists, but not all
or even most, just as a few Southern Baptists
may be universalists, but not all or even most.
Every church is still free to determine who may
be members; they can refuse membership or
leadership roles to Masons if they wish. Masons,
who are refused membership or leadership roles,
should find a church where they can serve God
as He leads.
The Future of the Southern Baptist
Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention faces an uncertain
future. The Freemasonry issue has taken on a life
of its own; it will continue to haunt the Southern
Baptist Convention for years. Many Southern
Baptists are demoralized after fifteen years of"
constant infighting. Moderate Southern Baptists
have lost the struggle to regain any leadership
role in the convention. Moderate Southern
Baptists cannot expect to be named to positions of
influence within the convention for many years.
Perhaps the greatest threat to the Southern
Baptist Convention is financial. Offerings to the
convention through the Cooperative Program have
plateaued or declined. There are a number of
reasons. Certainly, many moderate Southern
Baptists have begun sending their missions
offerings, normally sent through the Cooperative
Program, to the moderate-supported Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship, headquartered in Atlanta,
Georgia. Moderate churches have traditionally been
the strongest supporters of the Cooperative
Program and other mission offerings. Some Southern
Baptists, disgusted with the feud of the past
fifteen years, have reduced or stopped
contributing to the Cooperative Program.
Fundamentalist churches, often megachurches with
huge, expensive programs of their own, have failed
to make up the loss of revenue from other
churches.
The Cooperative Missions Giving Study Committee
of the Baptist General Convention of Texas
announced in April 1994- it is considering a
recommendation to focus on Texas Baptist causes
and to allow individual churches to decide how
their mission funds would be distributed beyond
Texas. The new agreement. which would require
approval at the annual meeting of Texas Baptists,
is seen as an effort to allow churches to express
their will and wishes concerning changes in the
direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.
If the Southern Baptist Convention takes an
anti-Masonic stance, as a number of leaders are
committed to doing, individual Southern Baptist
Masons will have to make a tough decision.
Some will resign from the Masonic lodge to
retain membership in their local churches. Some
will remain quiet and not draw attention to their
fraternal membership. Others will move their
church memberships to Southern Baptist
churches which ignore the position of the
Southern Baptist Convention. Some will
designate their mission offerings around the
Cooperative Program to the moderate
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Some will join
non-Southern Baptist churches.
If the Southern Baptist Convention takes an
anti-Masonic stance, several possibilities are
seen. Some churches will refuse to allow
Masons to hold leadership in the church,
whether as Sunday School teacher, deacon or
pastor. Southern Baptist seminaries will be
pressured to include Freemasonry in their courses
on heretical religious groups. The Southern
Baptist Convention mission boards will be
pressured to reject for missionary appointment any
person who is a Mason. A motion to study whether
to appoint Masons as missionaries failed after
the outgoing Home Mission Board chairman broke
the tie vote and voted against the motion in
April 1994. Convention literature will reflect an
anti Masonic stance.
In the third volume, Holly says the "right
choice is" to "urge all Southern Baptists to
refrain from participation or membership in "the
Masonic Lodge" That is the goal of his personal
vendetta against the fraternity.
Southern Baptist New Testament theologian,
Jack McGorman, in a discussion of Galatians
5:15, illustrated the danger of "Christians fighting
one another with this ditty:
There was once two cats from Kilkenny.
Each thought there was one cat too many,
So they fought and they fit,
They scratched and they bit.
Until except for the nails
And the tips of their tails,
Instead of two cats
There weren't any."
Southern Baptists, whether Masons or not, can
be certain that the Freemasonry issue will
continue to haunt the denomination for many years.
If the Southern Baptist Convention adopts an
anti-Masonic position, the issue will begin to
tear apart local churches as they debate how to
respond to the decision of the Convention. The
end result would be devastating to churches,
families, individuals and the Kingdom of God.
There are not enough Christians on the face
of God's earth for us to keep on "killing"
each other.
<![CDATA[
Prepared By:
Masonic Information Center
8120 Fenton St.
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4785
Phone: 301-588-4010
Fax: 301-608-3457
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