Masons

[scooter]

Do you have any masons that attend your church?

Have you ever had to deal with that or do you even feel that's something that needs to be dealt with?

[pastorables]

Do you have any masons that attend your church?

Have you ever had to deal with that or do you even feel that's something that needs to be dealt with?

Scooter,

I don't remember ever having to deal with that from a membership perspective, however my deceased uncle, a Baptist deacon, left the masons after coming to Christ. He could not accept many of their practices after coming to full salvation knowledge.

pa

[Paully_44]

[quote="scooter"]Do you have any masons that attend your church?/quote]

nope, but I have the Advice to Members all dusted off and ready to whip out in the event one does walk thru our doors.

[Dr. Ron]

Scooter, I have several....they do not cause problems by recruiting or anything like that.

They will generally walk away from that if you don't make a huge issue. Just let the Lord lead them....like Richie said.

As for the Advise to Members......well, I preach from that every sixth Sunday of the month.....

[dolfan]

Most Masons that I know, truthfully, are just guys in a guys' club. They do the charity stuff with Shriners or whatever, and they meet once a month and probably do their little handshakes and what have you. But, they are typically noncommitted to Freemasonry as a whole, just use the thing as an excuse to be with other guys and get out of the house, and gives them something to gossip about when they come home to the wife. "Did you know Steve's wife's mother had cancer?" "Bill's got a new truck like the one I've been wanting." That kind of stuff.

My brother's father in law is a Missionary Baptist Deacon and a long time Mason and a closet tobacco chewer (he just doesn't do it around his wife, who dislikes it). He's also one of the nicest men I've ever met, good-hearted as you'll find, and is in his very own funny and country way a highly devoted believer and well versed in all things biblical. He sounds just like Hank Hill, a ringer. "The woman ain't supposed to 'surp the 'thority from the man." That kind of stuff. A fine gardener and all around fruit-bearing Christian as far as I've ever known. And, he goes to his masonic meetings on occasion, wears the ring, etc. I wonder, truthfully, how many of these little rural lodges even do the oaths and ceremonies and stuff. I imagine many of them omit parts of it.

[MacUser]

Most Masons that I know, truthfully, are just guys in a guys' club. They do the charity stuff with Shriners or whatever, and they meet once a month and probably do their little handshakes and what have you. But, they are typically noncommitted to Freemasonry as a whole,

Dolfan,
You know you just described a lot of Churches, right?

On the flip side.. To state these people whom are part of a very exclusive club and typically be noncommitted is a stretch imho.


Several years back.. my wife has a 1st cousin and we used to chat a lot about family and life. He was invited to become a member and told me all about the coming meeting. A few days later.. I asked him how it went... and he told me he couldn't talk about it etc because they could find out. Silence *crickets chirping*. So I do what comes naturally and pushed the issue with humor because we were friends etc. He stopped communicating with me.

[dolfan]

Some of them are serious, by all means. I didn't mean to imply that most are not. A lot of them are. And, a lot of those guys don't profess Christ, too. I guess my impression is that the ones that are fruitful believers are (just in my experience and observations, mind you) not very devoted to "Freemasonry". They don't go to meetings all the time. You don't see them running around with bumper stickers saying "2B1ASK1" (and you see those from time to time here), etc. And, the ones that have talked with me about what they do --- and I know they may be lying --- say that they just meet and talk. Well, I've been in the Lions Club with some of these same characters to know what they do when they meet and talk --- they sit around and they talk about whatever comes up, mainly gossip, hunting stories or comparing hip replacements or talking about who died or whatever. Those are the types I've been around most that I know of.

[Mike Vande]

My father and mother were both involved in masonic organizations. My father held the 32nd degree in both the York & Scottish rites. The only higher rank is the honorary 33rd degree given to a man who served in various positions in his chapter when he retired from holding any office. Dad would never tell me anyting about it because he swore an oath to keep it secret and he valued his word. But, he steadfastly maintained there was nothing in either that would conflict with Christianity. My mother was a member of the Eastern Star, sort of the woman's auxilliary of the masons, and she said the same thing.

Neither of my parents were active in freemasonry of any sort after about 1975. I guess they had moved on or something. But neither of them stopped taking part because of any moral or theological conflict with Christianity.

In fact, the only people I ever heard get down on freemasonry were people who were trying to sell books about it, or folks who bought 'em.

[Tarheelone]

Concerning membership in the COGOP, I have been informed that we accept individuals on their confession of faith - including Masons.

[RamboPreacher]

attending church is one thing, covenant membership another. the only prerequisite to covenant membership is salvation and the fruit of salvation. was going to quote from the minutes of the exact wording, but don't have the pdf from 2004 with me.

[free]

I had a man who got saved while he was a mason...After about a year of praying and seeking God he determined that he could not in good conscience continue to be a mason. One of the rituals he told me about was begin buried alive and then being reborn a mason.

Today he is a pastor and is very much against being a mason...He's not hateful about it but he has strong convictions about it.

I dont have any in my church now and really dont hear a lot about it in my area.