Could all the hate against freemasonry be anti-semitic in origin?

Originally posted by Northwarden


Anyway. The whole article is far from "made up";

Actually, it's completely made up.

and Pike was, perhaps still is the worlds highest ranking Freemason with 130 degrees in honourific titles from multiple orders, principally the Scottish Rite.

Pike was never the highest ranking Mason in the world. Nor was he ever the highest ranking Mason in a particular state (that position belongs to the Grand Master of Masons, which Pike never was).

Pike served as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. He held no Masonic authority in other Scottish Rite jurisdictions.

Pike has left us a lot of material to work with

He certianly did. He spent practically all of his time either studying or writing, and left us with a voluminous literary legacy. Brother Pike was a bit long-winded, but dedicated himself completely to the enlightenment of mankind.

Originally posted by Masonic Light

Originally posted by muzzleflash

The majority of today's anti-Masonic conspiracy theories actually have their origin in the Nazi Party's anti-Masonic propaganda campaign, especially those conspiracy theories that attempt to tie Freemasonry to Zionism.

Trying to recall some specific quotes here, but I think that the Nazi Party were merely recycling still older Russian secret service "Protocols" propaganda. The linking of a Jewish global conspiracy to a Freemasonic one is quite old, and can be dated back to the French Revolution.
While there may be a limited amount of truth in continental Freemasonry's role in that particular Enlightenment segment of history, much of the propaganda stems from that period to a later crystalization with the Protocols.



[edit on 30/4/10 by Extant Taxon]

From the Canonbury Masonic Research Centre main page, on the topic of anti-masonry:

Soon after its emergence in early Hanoverian London organised Freemasonry earned the enmity of both religious institutions and governments alike, and by the summer of 1738 the association had been proscribed by the Magistrate in The Hague, the French government of Cardinal Fleury, and by Pope Clement XII, in what was to be the first of many Papal Bulls issued against the order. In the wake of the French revolution of 1789, polemicists such as the Catholic priest, Abbé Barruel, accused the Freemasons of helping to bring about these momentous events, and within a few years a Jewish component had been introduced to this heady concoction. It was an elaboration that was to have disastrous consequences.

During the nineteenth century, Freemasonry found itself accused of fomenting the European revolutions of 1848 and a highly successful anti-masonic party was also established in the United States. By the close of century, the story that Freemasonry was somehow intertwined with Jewish interests (what American historian Gabriel Jackson termed ‘The Black Legend’) had metamorphosed into one of the most outlandish conspiracy tales of all time – The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. This notorious forgery of the Tsarist Secret Police – an imagined blueprint for Judeo-Masonic world domination – was eagerly embraced by the European Fascist regimes, and it helped prepare the ground for the Holocaust as well as the imprisonment and execution of thousands of Freemasons, along with the targeted theft of vast masonic archives, many of which are still being restored to their original owners.

In post-war Europe, the publication and appeal of the Protocols dwindled, although in the case of Spain, General Franco continued to maintain a belief in the existence an imaginary Bolshevik-Masonic complot until his death in 1975. And today, this infamous document is still viewed as genuine in many parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East where it is typically used to justify an over-arching anti-Western rhetoric. But while the anti-Jewish or anti-Zionist aspects of this phenomenon are frequently discussed by academics, the anti-masonic element is all too often ignored.

The conference is upcoming on the 30 - 31 October this year.

[edit on 1/5/10 by Extant Taxon]

That's funny, they like to tell people that they run a Christian organization.

I like how the other members here harped on about anti-Semitism, as if defeating anti-Semitism were some sort of sacred cause.

reply to post by vcwxvwligen


The specious roots of many, many conspiracy theories surrounding Freemasonry, Judaism, and Communism are fully valid and verifiable, and the disinformation should be communicated. Fact needs to be seperated from fiction or the real investigation of the role of secet societies in history is a non-starter.

reply to post by Extant Taxon


To say that "criticizing Freemasonry is anti-Semitic" makes no sense, if it claims to be a Christian organization. That's like saying that criticizing the Jehovah's Witnesses is anti-Semitic.

reply to post by vcwxvwligen


That wasn't my argument, nor the central question of this thread as far as I'm aware.

I shall leave to grind your axes.

Originally posted by vcwxvwligen
That's funny, they like to tell people that they run a Christian organization.

ORLY? Where's that? Certainly parts of certain side rites are limited to Christians. But that's the closest you'll get.

Originally posted by vcwxvwligen
I like how the other members here harped on about anti-Semitism, as if defeating anti-Semitism were some sort of sacred cause.

You'd prefer AntiSemitism be allowed to run riot?

You don't have to actually answer that. That's one of those 'so when did you stop beating your wife' kind of questions. But the parallel is fair enough.

Originally posted by vcwxvwligen
I like how the other members here harped on about anti-Semitism, as if defeating anti-Semitism were some sort of sacred cause.

You'd prefer AntiSemitism be allowed to run riot?

You don't have to actually answer that. That's one of those 'so when did you stop beating your wife' kind of questions. But the parallel is fair enough.

Please, search for some threads on ATS about anti-Semitism and Zionism.

Originally posted by vcwxvwligen

Originally posted by vcwxvwligen
I like how the other members here harped on about anti-Semitism, as if defeating anti-Semitism were some sort of sacred cause.

You'd prefer AntiSemitism be allowed to run riot?

You don't have to actually answer that. That's one of those 'so when did you stop beating your wife' kind of questions. But the parallel is fair enough.

Please, search for some threads on ATS about anti-Semitism and Zionism.

Please answer the actual question as opposed to asking others to do your work for you. Is that really too much to ask?

reply to post by vcwxvwligen

We have never said we were a Christian organization. The only place that one must be a Christian is in the York Rite.