The Masonic “Reconquista”

reply to post by JoshNorton


Fair enough.

But just to be clear, my "motivations" are to present information as potentially interesting discussion points, engage in debate, and learn.

[edit on 25/5/10 by Extant Taxon]

Originally posted by Extant Taxon
Any comments from the masons on ATS on the following?

I am luckily in possession of a large set of New Age magazines, circa 1945 - 1960 (for those unfamiliar, this was the official monthly publication of the Supreme Council 33°, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States).

A great many of the articles there, though written seriously and sombrely, are actually quite comical to read today. The level of anti-Communist and anti-Catholic hysteria found in them is astounding.

The Scottish Rite continues to stand firmly for the public school system and complete separation of church and state. Indeed, it is required of candidates that they believe in these principles before they are initiated. But most of the rhetoric from old issues of "The New Age" is obsolete, and thankfully so. Much of it bordered on paranoia.

reply to post by Masonic Light


The New Age magazine articile in question dates from 1970 though, but I do take your point that commentary from such a time may not represent current Freemasonic policy.

As per my original post here I will at a later date post excerpts from the following paper by Jolicoeur and Knowles. I have to get access to it first, via JSTOR. Though dating from 1978 I feel that it may provide a useful discussion point as regards their thesis on Scottish Rite Freemasonry and civil religion:

Originally posted by Extant Taxon

Originally posted by JoshNorton
reply to post by Extant Taxon

 

“Fraternal Associations and Civil Religion: Scottish Rite Freemasonry.” the description states:

In this paper, empirical evidence is presented that Freemasonry, the oldest, largest, and most prestigious of American fraternal associations, has as one of its major purposes the maintenance and propagation of civil religion. Data are from a content analysis of issues of The New Age magazine, a major national Masonic publication, from 1964-1974. The implications of this function of Freemasonry for the debates regarding the existence of civil religion, its nature, and its social consequences are discussed (3).

reply to post by Extant Taxon


I've got JSTOR access via my library. While I don't have time to read the full 21 page article right now, it appears to be a statistical analysis of the appearance of particular topics in issues of The New Age published between 1964-1974.

Under general (non-Maonsic topics) "Threats to American Way of Life" lead with 13.9% of the sampled articles, followed by "Value/Meaning of American Way of Life" and "Personal Conduct/Morality" tied for 9.5% of the general articles each.

The top Masonic topics were "Masonic Symbolism/Philosophy" with 25.3% of the Masonic articles, and "History/Description of Masonry" following with 20.2% of Masonic articles.

God was mentioned in 46.5% of the articles; the Founding Fathers in 21.6%; the Constitution in 19.2% and the Declaration of Independence in 11.5%.

Using the Constitution and the republican virtue of the Founding Fathers as the standard of perfection, New Age authors sound a distinctly prophetic alarm regarding the current state of affairs in America:

On every hand there are signs that the moral strength of our Nation is decreasing alarmingly. The principles upon which our country was founded are being eroded slowly but surely. We are substituting materialistic values for spiritual ones (Fishel, 1969: 13).

...

The conservative nature of Masonic prophecy is illustrated by the fact that 102 of the 149 articles focusing on the American way of life are defensive in nature and concerned about internal and external threats to the constitutional order. The most serious challenges to the American way of life are Communism, creeping Federal control of the nation, and civil disobedience (Schultheis, 1964; Head, 1964; Meese, January 1966; Meese, July 1966; Watts, 1967. Wallin, 1970; and Knost, 1973).
To summarize, Scottish Rite Freemasons stress the importance of the revolutionary era as the golden age of the nation. The Constitution and Bill of Rights together with the Declaration of Independence comprise the blueprints for the divinely-inspired society. The national dilemma of slavery and the crisis of the War Between the States are largely ignored. The future of the nation depends on its citizens modeling themselves after the example of Washington and other revolutionary leaders in their devotion to God and country. While Masons agree with Bellah that the present time is an era of great crisis for the United States, their prophetic message is a call to return to a former golden age rather than to forge a new society and new structures.

[edit on 5/26/2010 by JoshNorton]

reply to post by JoshNorton


Thanks for the input there, but I prefer to read the article myself and then I will see if it potentially has any worthwhile information and/or discussion points for the purposes of this thread.