Most Mormons participate in a Temple Endowment Ceremony, which they hold to be very sacred. At the time Joseph Smith introduced this endowment ordinance, he was an active Mason. Many scholars have noted the strong resemblance between this ceremony and Masonic ritual.1
In 1990, the Church changed or omitted many parts of the original script of the endowment ceremony, but until that time its resemblance to the Masonic Initiators Ceremony was striking. Some of the similarities include: ritual anointing of body parts, a drama representing a spiritual journey, bestowal of a secret name, special garments worn including temple robes and aprons, secret handshakes and tokens, promises to fulfill moral obligations, sworn penalty oaths, progression through three degrees toward perfection, and the word exalted to signify becoming kings in connection with the Royal Arch degree. Smith also used many Masonic symbols such as the beehive, the all-seeing eye, the clasped hands, two triangles forming a six-pointed star, and the sun, moon, and stars. The Masonic square and compass are cut into the temple garment on the breast and a slash is made across the knee. There is also a slash in the garment across the abdomen, symbolic of the disemboweling that would be the fate of anyone who reveals the sacred oaths.2
In the early days of the Mormon Church, Freemasonry was considered by the public to be an elite institution. Joseph Smith’s father and brother were both prominent Masons, and many of the other early members of the Mormon Church became Masons as well. Smith wrote: “In the evening I received the first degree in Freemasonry in the Nauvoo Lodge.” The next day he stated: “I was with the Masonic Lodge and rose to the sublime degree.”3 The degree he refers to is Master Mason, the highest degree of Freemasonry. Seven weeks after his Masonic initiation, Smith established his own Temple Endowment Ceremony by performing the ritual himself. Early Mormons were quite open about the connection between the endowment ceremony and Masonry.
In 1827, Capt. William Morgan, who had become disillusioned with Freemasonry, published a book entitled Freemasonry Exposed. In it, he gave a detailed description of Masonic ceremonies, complete with illustrations. Three months later, Morgan was murdered, allegedly by members of his own lodge, provoking an anti-Masonic furor among the public. Tensions remained high over time, and as the Mormons began to gain prominence in Masonry, the public began to relate them as two parts of one cultish secret society. When Smith established his Temple Endowment Ceremony, he and other Mormons were expelled from the Masonic order for violating their oaths. Smith believed that the Masons had corrupted the ceremony by removing and changing parts that were originated by God in Solomon’s time. He believed his own version of the ceremony was divinely inspired and a restoration to the original and pure form of Adam’s time.4 Many of the men who later murdered Smith were identified as Masons. Eventually, the Grand Masonic Lodge of Utah publicly announced its anti-Mormon stance, and since that time many attempts have been made both by Mormons and Masons to downplay their relation.5
Capt. Morgan played another interesting role in the correlation between Mormonism and Masonry through his widow, Lucinda Pendleton Morgan. Despite vowing eternal widowhood, she married George W. Harris less than three years after her husband’s death, later converting with him to Mormonism. In 1838, while still married to Harris, Lucinda became one of the first plural wives of the prophet Joseph Smith. Mrs. Sarah Pratt, a great friend of Mrs. Harris, after being propositioned by Joseph Smith in 1842, related the following in an interview with W. Wyl: “When Joseph made his dastardly attempt on me, I went to Mrs. Harris to unbosom my grief to her. To my utter astonishment, she said, laughing heartily: “How foolish you are! Why, I am his mistress since four years.’”6
In Joseph Smith’s time racism was rampant, and when Joseph established his endowment ceremony he included the conditions that anyone with any known trace of black African ancestry, even if they were a worthy member of the Mormon Church, was not permitted to participate in the ceremony, nor even enter a Mormon temple. They also, as well as women, could not hold any position of leadership. (Women still cannot hold positions of any real authority today.) Joseph Smith taught that African Americans are the descendants of Cain.7 Brigham Young said, “Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African Race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” He also said “…if the priesthood was ever given to the Blacks, on that very day and hour, if we should do so, the priesthood will be taken from this church.”8 Joseph Fielding Smith said, “They are an inferior race, and their intelligence is stunted.” Apostle Bruce McConkie said, “The Negroes were less valiant in the preexistence, and therefore spiritually restricted.”
It wasn’t until 1978 that then President Kimball claimed to have received revelation overturning the Church’s 148-year-old policy against the ordination of Blacks. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that President Kimball refused to discuss this revelation, saying it was a personal thing. Kimball said, “The revelation came at this time because conditions and people have changed. It’s a different world than it was 20 or 25 years ago. The world is ready for it.”
- Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, Richard Ostling, Joan K. Ostling. Harper Collins, 1999, p. 188 [<]
- Masonry & The Mormon Temple Ceremony Chapter XVIX [<]
- History of the Church, vol. 4, p. 552 [<]
- Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, Richard Ostling, Joan K. Ostling. Harper Collins, 1999, p. 194-5 [<]
- The Mormon Church and Freemasonry by Terry Chateau [<]
- No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie, p. 460. [<]
- Joseph Smith History, vol. 4, p. 501 [<]
- Brigham Young Addresses, p. 61 [<]
Tags: Adam, Africa, African, America, apostle, ban, Brigham, Brodie, brother, Cain, church, death, endowment, Expelled, god, history, Interview, Joseph, Law, Mason, Monism, moral, Mormon, mormonism, president, prophet, Religion, Revelation, spirit, temple, Unearthed, Utah, war
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Oh I do love how the LDS now things that segregation was okay because the world evidently wasn’t ready for everyone to be equal. ““The revelation came at this time because conditions and people have changed. It’s a different world than it was 20 or 25 years ago. The world is ready for it.” I think is just as damning to say as to have the rule in the first place.