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Mormonism and Freemasonry/The use of ritual in gospel ordinances
Why would Joseph Smith use a non-religious vehicle for presenting a temple ordinance?
Questions
Freemasonry has no actual relationship to Solomon's temple, and has no actual religious elements.
- Why would Joseph Smith use a non-religious vehicle for presenting a temple ordinance?
- What is the value of a ritual presentation?
- Will God really deny us eternal salvation simply because we do not practice a set of, as some critics put it, "archaic medieval Masonic rituals" in Mormon temples?
Answer
The Endowment is not a Masonic ritual
First off, the endowment is not a Masonic ritual. No one ever became a Mason in an LDS Temple and no one has ever been endowed in a Masonic Lodge. However, rituals have proven pedagogical value. Some critics of the temple ceremony would seem to want to paint the LDS Church and the faith as some sort of restorationist version of Calvinism where an unflinching and unforgiving God metes out eternal separation of families. This ignores the reality of the universalist nature of LDS theology and its view of a supremely loving Father providing a plan where ALL of His children can continue to advance and make themselves better both as individuals and as wider families through the atoning sacrifice of Christ..
Ritual forms are a useful teaching tool in a semi-literate society
Nothing is divine about Freemasonry and indeed Freemasonry has rejected any and all attempts to portray it as a religion. However, masonic ritual forms are very useful as a teaching tool, particularly in situations such as were found in Nauvoo in the 1840's where many members could not read. The 1850 Illinois census was the first to gather data on literacy. According to the census, almost 11% of all white adults 20 and older in Illinois couldn't read or write. [1]
Literacy was higher in the East: as high as 90% among males. [2] However, the literacy of the populous areas to the east is a poor marker for what it would have been on the western frontier. Women in particular often had markedly lower literacy rates than men. For example, during this period "the literacy rate in Massachusetts and Connecticut from 1640-1700 was as high as 95% for men, and 62% for women." [2] This lower literacy rate for women was also true of the western frontier, with some affidavits from women in Nauvoo signed with an X: they couldn't even write their own names. Even in 1870, 24 years after the exodus from Nauvoo, 11.5% of the total white population of the United States over age 14 was functionally illiterate. [3] Consider also the introduction of immigrant groups among the Saints from Scandanavia and other countries. Thus, a participatory form of teaching the temple concepts makes perfect sense. Using ritual forms found in masonry as instructive tools to teach a divine message is what we are dealing with here.
Purpose of tokens
The tokens are to show our fidelity to covenants, a central point of both the endowment and the masonic rituals. God does not need them, we need them, or more precisely, we need the covenants that they represent. They help us learn to be faithful to what we want to be.
Notes
- ↑ Illinois Census 1850: A) Total population: 851,470. This is made up of 1) Total white males: 445,544 2) Total white females: 400,490 3) Total free colored (male and female): 5,436. White adult males unable to read and write: 16,633. White adult females unable to read and write: 23,421. off-site
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 David W. Kirkpatrick, "Literacy Then and Now," Education News (8 July 2003). "[F]rom 1650 to 1795 literacy among American males was as high as 90%; from 1800-1840, it rose as high as 97 percent in the North and 81% in the South."
- ↑ "Literacy from 1870 to 1979," National Center for Education Statistics.