"To preserve the reputation of the Fraternity unsullied must be your constant care."

BE A FREEMASON

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Whew. Freemasonry No Longer A Threat To Christianity


Golly. That was a close one.

Apparently Christianity Today, a "magazine of evangelical conviction," has decided that Freemasonry is "nearly forgotten." It has looked at our membership figures and decided that 1.8 million U.S. Freemasons are such a small enough number as to now render us flaccid, or at least impotent. "(Masonic m)embership is half what it was 50 years ago. It's hard to believe that Freemasons and similar secret societies were one of the top three social ills targeted by evangelicals of the mid-1800s, along with slavery and alcohol.

A slightly refreshing point of view is that the author, Ted Olsen, seems to be asking what was all the hubub, Bub. "Now Freemasonry is nearly forgotten, and the Christian campaign against "secretism" had little to do with the decline. That makes me wonder how much our social-reform campaigns of the early 21st century resemble those of the mid-18th." Of course, on the other hand, one of the hotlinks in the article is from the appalling, abysmal, anonymous and hysterical Canadian website, Freemasonry Watch (to which I'll forego a link, just because, you know, no sense in feeding the animals). Not exactly the sort of reference I would use if trying to bolster my position as a credible commentator on any subject.

Not to be a provocative churl, but if we're comparing numbers, I wonder what the circulation is of this magazine of evangelical conviction. I'll take a stab and guess it's something on the order of less than 1.8 million.

5 comments:

  1. Hey, you churl.

    Christianity Today boasts a whopping 145,000 circulation and a 304,500 readership, according to Wikipedia.

    Comparisons:

    * National Enquirer — 1 million
    * Wall Street Journal — 2 million
    * Readers Digest — 10 million

    Widow's Son
    BurningTaper.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that you hit the nail right on the head ...great observation Brother Chris ! Ted Olsen's "herd behavior", "group mind" or "mob behavior" comments do not support or validate his argument.

    If he knew anything at all about Freemasons, he should know that a Freemason is rarely a "follow the crowd" type of person.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What I really find interesting is that he's asking why Freemasonry was considered to be such a nationwide horror, worthy of the night-sweats of 19th century evangelicals, to begin with.

    We sorta wondered that ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never understood why Evangelicals have such a fear of Freemasonry unless, it is our stands for freedom of religion, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state. If you are looking to create your own brand theocracy, free thinkers like Freemasons are a real threat.

    ReplyDelete

ATTENTION!
SIGN YOUR NAME OR OTHERWISE IDENTIFY YOURSELF IN YOUR COMMENT POSTS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT.
Your comments will not appear immediately because I am forced to laboriously screen every post. I'm constantly bombarded with spam. Depending on the comments being made, anonymous postings on Masonic topics may be regarded with the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers, as far as I am concerned. If you post with an unknown or anonymous account, do not automatically expect to see your comment appear.