Latter-day Templar

Over the past few years, a user on Reddit's ExMormon community has been posting, deleting, and reposting the same thing over and over again. So I decided to take to my blog so that I can just repost a link containing my response any time I come across the same claims that pretend to be uncontested. "Did you know that prior to April of 1990 members used to pantomime in the Temple slitting their own throats and disemboweling themselves? "… "Did you know that members used to say[,] 'I suffer my life to be taken' if they broke the Covenant and obligation of Secrecy they were taking?" This was referred to as the symbolic penalty and is a part of the Masonic teaching method . Just as in Masonry, it was only ever symbolic (in this case, of the importance/value of our covenants with God) and was never carried out by Church authority. By this portion of the ceremony, the value of sacred things was instilled into the culture of the Church. "Did you know that...

As a Latter-day Saint, I have been directed more than once by enemies and critics of the Church to " Chapter XVIX: Masonry and the Mormon Temple Ceremony ." As a Freemason, I find this webpage appalling for three reasons: William Morgan is referenced as if he were a credible source; this despite the facts that: He was never a Captain in the American military , yet still he used the title (stolen valor) He lied his way into a Royal Arch chapter by pretending to be a Freemason (which he later admitted was not the case) . It makes various claims about Freemasonry that simply are not true, such as: There is no such thing as a washing ceremony in Freemasonry. There is no representative impersonation of Adam in Freemasonry. Note that the website provides a source for this claim: the Knight of the Sun  degree. This is a degree of the Scottish Rite, which is a body appendant/concordant to Masonry. This organization was not yet available in Illinois in Joseph Smith, Jr’s day nor befor...