My Response to Mormon Odyssey

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:

1. William Morgan is referenced as if he were a credible source; this despite the facts that:
1. He was never a Captain in the American military, yet still he used the title (stolen valor)
2. He lied his way into a Royal Arch chapter by pretending to be a Freemason (which he later admitted was not the case).
2. It makes various claims about Freemasonry that simply are not true, such as:
1. There is no such thing as a washing ceremony in Freemasonry.
2. There is no representative impersonation of Adam in Freemasonry.
1. 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 before the Saints’ forced exodus to the west; this degree (and any other from the Scottish Rite) is wholly irrelevant to this subject.
3. There is no representative impersonation of Moses or God in Freemasonry.
1. Note that the webpage provides a source for this claim: the Royal Arch degree. This is a degree of Royal Arch Masonry, another body appendant/concordant to Masonry. This organization was not established in Nauvoo in Joseph’s lifetime nor before the Saints’ forced exodus west; this degree (and any other from Royal Arch Masonry) is wholly irrelevant to this subject.
4. Nowhere in Masonic ritual does the phrase "marrow in the bone" or any variant thereof appear.
1. It does appear, however, in the Word of Wisdom (recorded in D&C 89), a revelation which Joseph Smith, Jr received in 1833 (almost a decade before he became a Mason; see also Psalms 3).
3. It tries to use normal, everyday things in order to paint the Church in some kind of incriminating light; for example:
1. That both Masonic lodges and the Church’s temples have dressing rooms.
1. Dressing rooms!?! The horror! The scandal!

If the author of this webpage ever comes across my response and disagrees with any of my criticisms concerning Masonic ritual, they are more than welcome to cite any legitimate grand lodge’s ritual to prove me wrong.

"It may seem surprising that Joseph Smith would incorporate so much Masonry into the endowment ceremony in the very weeks when all his leading men were being inducted into the Masonic lodge. They would have been blind indeed not to see the parallelism between the costuming, the grips, passwords, keys, and oaths. However, Smith covered his bases when he told the men that the endowment ceremony had to be restored to the original and pure form of Adam's time. According to Smith the Masons had corrupted the ceremony originated by God in Solomon's time by removing and changing many parts."

It should be noted that this was merely Joseph's opinion, as it was never written in the doctrinal canon in the Church.

It should further be noted that Joseph only adopted the Masonic teaching model (concepts of theatrical presentation, of physical gestures for tokens, of illustrative symbols, etc.) and adapted it to:

• teach the Church's already-existing doctrine (which is not found in Freemasonry).
• be a vehicle whereby members could make covenants with God to keep His commandments.

The subject matter, context, and purposes of the Church's temple endowment ceremony wholly differ from those of the degree ceremonies of Freemasonry (I go into more detail about this all in my interview here). This addresses all of the ceremonial elements listed in the antagonistic webpage.

In addition, we know from Doctrine & Covenants 124 that Joseph was receiving revelation concerning the temple endowment as early as January 1841 (over a year before Joseph became a Mason). In this revelation, Christ commands the Saints to build Him a temple in Nauvoo for two reasons:

1. Various ordinances which they were already performing (baptism for the dead, washings, anointings) should only be performed in the temple except in times of poverty when temples cannot be built.
2. Christ was to reveal ordinances that had theretofore been "hid from before the foundation of the world" and that "[pertained] to the dispensation of the fulness of times."

Only three ordinances were thereafter revealed that would later be performed in the Nauvoo temple:

• The Endowment
• The Eternal Sealing (Marriage)
• The Second Anointing

Joseph was initiated in Masonry in March 1842, long after this revelation was received.

"While Mormon apologists have a hard time explaining the fact that the Bible does not support the doctrine of baptism for the dead or temple marriage, they are faced with an even greater problem when they turn to The Book of Mormon. Since The Book of Mormon is supposed to contain the fullness of the gospel, why doesn't it contain even one passage to support either of these two doctrines? It's interesting to note that the same revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants that contains the information concerning Temple Marriage is also the revelation that contains the teaching of polygamy. Therefore, 'polygamy' and 'temple marriage' must stand or fall together."

Though not a doctrinal source, this article addresses the webpage's very question of how the fulness of the Gospel is contained in a volume of scripture that claims to have it, but does not include details of every necessary ordinance.

"Until 1978, persons with any known trace of black African ancestry were not permitted to enter a Mormon temple, even if they were otherwise worthy members of the Church. Joseph Smith taught that Negroes (blacks) are the descendants of Cain. (J. S. History, vol. 4, p. 501) Brigham Young was equally adamant about the status of the blacks. Young said; 'Blacks are cursed with a flat nose and black skin'. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, pp. 290-291) 'Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African Race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.' Brigham Young also said 'that if the priesthood was ever given to the Blacks, on that very day and hour, if we should do so, the priesthood will be taken from this church.' (Brigham Young Addresses, p. 61) Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith said: 'They are an inferior race, and their intelligence is stunted.' Apostle Bruce McConkie said: 'The Negroes were less valiant in the preexistence, and therefore spiritually restricted.'

"In spite of earlier revelations concerning the blacks, in 1978 the leaders of the Mormon Church announced that they had received a revelation allowing all worthy male members to receive the Priesthood. (D&C, p. 293). On June 13, 1978 the Salt Lake Tribune reported that President Kimball refused to discuss the revelation that changed the Church's 148-year-old policy against ordination of blacks, saying it was a personal thing. Kimball said: 'The revelation came at this time because conditions and people have changed. It's a different world than it was 20 or 25 years ago. The world is ready for it.'"

FAIRMormon has already provided the context for the quotes provided from Brigham Young here. Interestingly enough, no citation is provided for Joseph Fielding Smith's quote nor for Bruce R. McConkie's; a simple search on Google for these exact quotes only lead to a few sites antagonistic to the Church and also with no sources cited. How convenient.

Insofar as Spencer W. Kimball's quote is concerned (for which I also cannot find any primary, authoritative sources to confirm it), its last part does somewhat match up with what I have written about here.

"When Dr. Reed Durham, director of the LDS Institute of Religion, made this discovery in 1974 and gave a speech on the subject of the Mormon-Mason connection before the Utah History Association on April 20, 1974, he was highly criticized for making this matter public. He also showed the Jupiter talisman during that speech, and explained that Joseph had carried it on his person since 1826 (the same year he was convicted of money-digging charges and being a believer in magic), and that he had the Jupiter talisman on him at the time of his death. The talisman contains symbols relating to astrology and magic, and there were other magical items discovered at the same time that belonged to Hyrum Smith."

Mormon Odyssey fails to mention that there is no primary, authoritative source to support the claim that the Jupiter Talisman belonged to Joseph.

To all of you who have concerns about the Church and Freemasonry and are able, I recommend that you become a Freemason; don't rely on thirdhand gossip like Mormon Odyssey.