Tidings
The Freemasonry Threat
Family Life Church loves their new building in Elgin, Illinois, except for one thing: The walls still bear symbols of its past as a Masonic temple. The suburban Chicago Daily Herald reported that Elgin officials barred the markings' removal because they "contribute to the overall character of the building, its history." The church argued the symbols conflict with Christian belief, but the government said the church can only cover them up, not remove them.
Family Life Church's effort echoes a long fight in Kenya's Presbyterian Church of East Africa over eradicating Masonic symbols in colonial-era churches and government buildings. "These symbols and artifacts must be removed and destroyed," PCEA head David Githii explained to The Nation as at least 30 stained-glass windows and other items were removed from Nairobi's St. Andrews Church. "They are anti-Christ." Githii sent demolition squads to other PCEA churches around the country. Tensions with preservationists and Presbyterian Freemasons got so heated that police had to be called to keep the peace.
Yes, there are still Freemasons, including a reported 1.8 million members in the United States. And if the unconfirmed anecdotes ct editors hear regularly are to believed, Masonic cliques still wield power in several places.
But membership 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. In 1868, several prominent evangelicals, including revivalist Charles Grandison Finney and Wheaton College founder Jonathan Blanchard, created the National Christian Association (NCA) to warn believers that "all secret societies [are] ...
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Tidings
Ted Olsen
Ted Olsen is Christianity Today's managing editor for news and online journalism. He wrote the magazine's Weblog—a collection of news and opinion articles from mainstream news sources around the world—from 1999 to 2006. In 2004, the magazine launched Weblog in Print, which looks for unexpected connections and trends in articles appearing in the mainstream press. The column was later renamed "Tidings" and ran until 2007.
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Jim Maier A man Christ died for
I did not rate this article but let me say this, freemasonry is a cult. Most people who join don't realize until its to late and they find them more involed with freemason than the church. If anyone knows someone who is involed with freemason they need to denounce it right away. For more infor. go to www.dccsa.com/greatjoy/netmason.html
Lux in Tenebris
I work in Kenya with the PCEA. The so called purging of "masonic"symbols was no such thing. The symbols removed by Githii were the Cross of St Andrew and the Celtic Cross (denounced as perversions of the real cross) , a war memorial in honour of the British Air Force (the eagle badge described as a demonic dragon), a number of brass plaques in memory of deceased parishioners, a number of stained glass windows bearing a vine motif and a picture of the ark (allegedly masonic) a gate with decorative filligree (satanic snakes) and even the black and white checkered tiles in the restrooms (allegedly styled upon a Masonic lodge). Githii did this as part of his plans to introduce new theological trajectories in PCEA, by claiming that missionary Christianity was masonic. Those who opposed him were not Freemasons, but confessionally orthodox evangelicals, including almost the entire faculty of the PCEA seminary, who published a report demonstrating that Githii was wrong in all respects
Calix
The argument against historical remnants of Freemasonry in architecture reminds me of the Taliban blowing up the historical statues of Buddha in Afghanistan ... and oddly feels just as frightening.