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This section of the video exemplifies the common flaw of using modern standards to pass judgement on historical figures. The segment opens with the portrayal of an inverted pentagram, with sinister flames behind the symbol. The inverted pentagram has a long history, and only took on negative connotations in the last one hundred years. Joseph Smith and others of his day would have known the symbol from, among other places, its Masonic use, where it symbolized light from the heavens to man.
The inverted pentogram is found in many contexts, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, on
the Great Star Flag of the United States (used from 1837 to 1845), as well as in the cathedrals of Chartes and Amiens in France.
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Claim: Money digging was an example of Joseph Smith being involved in the occult.
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First and foremost in mentioning Joseph's supposed connections with the occult is mentioning the Smith family's involvement in "money digging." The attempt, in the video, is to take a common nineteenth-century practice and turn it into something sinister.
During the nineteenth century, belief in folk magic of this kind was common in the United States. Indeed, in parts of New England it is still a common practice with so called "water witches" still listed in the phonebook. (See, for example, the phone book published by Verizon, Inc., for Augusta, Maine.)
Dowsing or water witching was, and to some degree still is, used to find locations for wells, buried objects such as pipes or utility lines, and, form time to time, to find lost valuable objects. It was
not then, and is not now (where it is still practiced), considered in any way sinister.
The fact that Joseph Smith and his family were involved in such activities is not unusual. Quite the contrary, had he not done this kind of activity that would be unexpected, given the beliefs of the day.
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Claim: "On March 15th, 1842, Joseph joined the Masons which is an organization that believes Jesus is not divine and is on the same level as Buddha, Muhammad or any other religious teacher."
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This is a deliberate misrepresentation of Masonry. Masonry is not a
religion and has never claimed to be a religion. It permits any man
who professes a belief in a supreme being to join, be they Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim. In this way Masonry is like many other such fraternal organization, or even the Boy Scouts. Masons permit believers
all all types to join. This open membership does not make Masonry "an organization that believes Jesus is not divine." The thousands of Christian Freemasons down through the centuries would find such a statement an insult to themselves and Freemasonry.
It is interesting to note that over the past two hundred years there have been many prominent Baptists who were also Masons. For instance, Robert E. Baylor, founder of Baylor University, was both a Baptist and a Mason. One of the university's presidents, William R. White (served from 1948 to 1961) was a 33rd-degree Mason and served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Austin, First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City, First Baptist Church of Lubbock, and Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth. He also served as executive secretary, and later as president, of The Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Geroge W. Truett, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, was also a Mason and remained such as he served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1927 to 1929, president of the Baptist World Alliance from 1934 to 1939, and trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
These are just a few of the many prominent individuals who saw no problem between their Baptist brand of Christianity and Freemasonry. Since their participation in Masonry would not presumably taint the roots of the Baptist faith, why would the several Baptist ministers associated with Search for the Truth find it necessary to have Masonry cast a sinister shadow over the roots of the Mormon faith?
To read more:
- Famous Baptists Who Were Freemasons (Adherents.com) off-site
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Claim: "Within one day Smith rose to the highest degree which is the sublime degree."
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This error is one which critics of the Church commonly make. The visual accompanying this claim shows an old Masonic chart showing the supplemental degrees of Scottish and York Rite Freemasonry and implies that Joseph was a member of these bodies.
Such was not the case as Masonry in Illinois at the time (1842) did not have these supplemental bodies. The video also gets wrong the name of the degree. Joseph was a Master Mason, which is also refered to in the Masonic rites as "the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason," but never as "the sublime degree." There is no such degree.
The video tends to make much of the fact that Joseph was raised in a single day, but fails to point out that Joseph's raising was done in complete accord with the Masonic practice of making a person Mason "upon sight." The Sixth Landmark of Freemasonry states as follows:
- "The prerogative of the Grand Master to grant Dispensations for conferring degrees at irregular times, is another and a very important Landmark. The statutory law of Masonry requires a month, or other determinate period, to elapse between the presentation of a petition and the election of a candidate. But the Grand Master has the power to set aside or dispense with this probation, and allow a candidate to be initiated at once. This prerogative he possessed in common with all Masters, before the enactment of the law requiring a probation, and as no statute can impair his prerogative, he still retains the power, although the Masters of Lodges no longer possess it." (The Landmarks of Freemasonryoff-site)
This was the process followed in Joseph Smith's case. While rare, it is not an unheard of or unprecedented procedure, and Grand Master Johnas (the grand lodge grand master who raised Joseph) was well with in his rights in making Joseph Smith a Mason "upon sight."
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Claim: "Joseph's Masonic membership affected the development of the Mormon church in many ways but the most significant area appears to be in the development of the Mormon temple ceremonies."
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That Masonry and the methods of teaching it employs have had an infulence in the development of the temple endowment is without question. However, the video does the subject a grave disservice because there is much discussion and debate among scholars as to the actual amount of influence. The endowment took many years to develop, and there are many points where there are no similarities between the endowment and the rites of Freemasonry.
The video shows re-enactments of some LDS temple rituals (borrowed directly from a classic anti-Mormon film, The God Makers II) and implies that these originated in Masonry. This is simply not the case. The ordinances shown in the video (washing and annointing) actually first appeared in Kirtland, Ohio, years before Joseph's involvement with Masonry.
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Statement: "I suggest that enough evidence presently exists to declare the entire institution of the political kingdom of God, including the Council of Fifty, the living constitution, the proposed flag of the kingdom and the anointing and coronation of a king had its genesis in connection with Masonic thoughts and ceremonies." - Dr. Reed Durham
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It seems that the producers of the Search for Truth video believe that this statement somehow taints Mormonism. Even if it is true—a supposition open to debate among scholars—that does not mean much within the context of the times.
Many elements of our society that we take for granted today have their roots in early American practices, and most have Masonic overtones. A quick examination of United States currency, for instance, will find many Masonic elements, such as the all-seeing eye, pyramids, and mottos. These same elements (and more) are found on many governmental buildings. There is evidence that these symbols have their roots in Masonry or were heavily influenced by Masonry. Does such reality of the nineteenth century mean that, somehow, the roots of American society are based in the occult?
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Statement: "...included in the actual vocabulary of Joseph Smith’s counsel and instructions to the sisters were such words...indicating that the society’s orientation possessed Masonic overtones." - Dr. Reed Durham
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Dr. Durham's assertions regarding the formation of the Relief Society are certainly interesting, but they are far from representing a concensus of LDS scholars.
Dr. Durham, in other places, has suggested a connection between the Relief Society and the Masonic "lodges of Adoption" found in revolutionary France. The problem is that there is no indication that Joseph Smith or anyone else in Nauvoo at the time (in the early 1840s) intended this. Lodges of Adoption
never found their way to the United States and disappeared from France within a few years of their formation, well before the establishment of the LDS Church in 1830.
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Claim: The Jupiter Talisman was evidence of Joseph's belief and participation in occultic rituals.
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The final purportedly occultic issue which the video approaches is perhaps the least significant, yet is the one on which the most time is spent. Joseph Smith's Jupiter Talisman is an item which at one time was on public display in the old Church Museum on Temple Square. The carrying of tokens supposed to bring a person luck (like a rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover) has been common practice throughout much of American history, and particularly in the nineteenth century.
Commentators in the video draw all sorts of conclusions about the Jupiter Talisman which are not supported by the available facts. (Some scholars even question whether Joseph Smith owned the Jupiter Talisman, as it was not on the Carthage Jail inventory of his possessions before he was murdered.) Even if Joseph did own and carry the Jupiter Talisman, there is no record of what Joseph might have believed or not believed about.
One video commentator, Sandra Tanner, states that "The fact that [Joseph] died with the Jupiter Talisman on his body shows that throughout his life he continued to hang on to that hope and that trust in that magic object." Realistically, the only thing that it may show (if Joseph did, indeed, have it on his person when he died) is that he had it in his possession when the mob attacked. We do not know where the talisman came from, who gave it to Joseph, or what significance, if any, he applied to it. The Search for Truth engages in idle speculation where there are no facts to support that speculation.
It is significant to note that the only person who claimed that the Jupiter Talisman (a) belonged to Joseph and (b) that it was on Joseph's person when he died was Emma's second husband's son. He made this claim nearly ninety years after the martyrdom when he was trying to sell the item. Such circumstances should cast more of a skeptical eye on the meaning of the talisman than the commentators in the video seem willing to do.
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