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Quote from Rob James & Gary Leazer's The Fundamentalist Takeover in the Southern Baptist Convention: a Brief History -- The quote is from Rob James and Gary Leazer's The Fundamentalist Takeover in the Southern Baptist Convention: a Brief History (Impact Media, 1999): 114-115.  The quote outlines the history of the $110,000 SBC study of Freemasonry, which was abbreviated and summed in 1993 SBC Report to 8 positive and 8 negative points, ending in a respect of conscience.  Since 1993, the study was "deep-sixed" according SBC expert Bill Gordon -- no longer available.  From the abbreviated version in 1993 SBC Report, Bill Gordon as the SBC expert from now North American Mission Board's Interfaith Witness Department used only the 8 negative points to launch his Closer Look at Freemasonry.  Gordon's Closer Look mutilation is one Frankenstein dismantled in the my book above.  

National Problems Part Religion's Fault -- an on-line section from Character Counts that helps put into perspective some the nutty Religious Right corkscrewing

Barton's New Book Occults Freemason Founding Fathers -- Critique of Barton's Question of Freemasonry & Founding Fathers -- Barton's new book is 132 pages, filled with 3-5 pictures per page, and is given a thorough thumping here.  This is the full critique, intended for the book, but condensed in the book to save space for more important items.  Barton shows anti-Mason colors here, engages in market-based history making, and shows forth a secret third agenda in his little book--tailored to innocent readers, his third agenda is to pull in the founding era Freemason Founding Fathers into his current Christian establishment agenda.  He is deceitful and molests quotes to suit him, clearly, and causes one to wonder what kind of country he is truly wanting.

Analysis of Jonathan Blanchard Freemasonry Illustrated—A Complete Exposition ... (7th edition; Chicago, IL: Ezra A. Cook, 1886;  1st edition, 1879; 640p) with excerpt from Character Counts pages 273-278.

Paige Patterson and SBC Expert E-Mails -- In 2004, I sought clarification on the SBC document, then known as the Closer Look at Freemasonry, and was treated not as a fellow Southern Baptist but like a burden.  I told them I was chronicling as I went, and this was the full text of Appendix 6 of the of my book, was condensed in the book to make room for more important material.  These 14 e-mails tell a great story of avoidance and unwillingness to detail substance.

War & Peace Article -- detailing SBC Baptist Faith and Message view on peace and war, the relevant Scriptures therein and throughout the O.T. and N.T., quotes from several experts, and some of the relevant literature.  Among the three Christian views on war, namely pacifism, just war, and crusaderism, Christians are to be peacemakers that sometimes must use war to restore order and insure peace.

Patrick Henry's Speech on American Liberty -- he may have been a Freemason, but he certainly knew, respected, and knowingly followed and worked with Freemasons, and knew the difference between the anti-Mason Frankensteins and the nobility of Freemasonry--and had the courage to say so, "Give me liberty or give me death" was rooted more in Freemasonry than in most of the Christian colonial sects that demanded conforming more than liberty.

Freemasonry a Religion? - No - E. R. Johnston & A. C. Monette's Religious Side of Freemasonry -- A masterpiece that distinguishes precisely how Freemasonry is not a religion, among the many fine pieces that anti-Masons ignore.  This is answer #787 of 1,025 answers in 933 pages in their massive Masonry Defined:  A Liberal Masonic Education (Shreveport, LA: National Masonic Press, 1930, with appendix and dictionary 1939; pp442-445).

Critique of James L. Holly's Freemasonry in the Southern Baptist Convention -- a substantial and rather gentle challenge to Holly's most significant points.  Holly is a wealthy and influential medical doctor in Beaumont, Texas, and was the spur that got the SBC study off and running.  The degree of his occulting behavior and shallowness of his work would amaze many, most especially coming from a successful medical doctor.  Scary.

Holly's Response to My Book -- No Doubt Left -- James L. Holly responded to the advance copy of my book, essentially assailing the whole book as a diatribe and self-serving, practically admitting he did not read it or understand how character counts.  Like his previous work, Holly simply complained and failed to address the issues, leaving no doubt as to his subjective feelings and inability to address the issues straightforward.
Click < Holly HERE > if page does not show.

Challenge & Small Critique of Paige Patterson's Work -- as seen in my book, Heart of the God, which includes a previous review of his commentary, Troubled Triumph Church, and more with respect to Patterson's criticism of lack of defense of our real-time relationship with God in Christ inside of Classical Theism versus Open Theism.  Patterson is president of Southwestern Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.  Patterson is a good and inspiring preacher.  Yet Patterson criticizes Freemasonry, though he has not written nothing truly substantial theologically and nothing on Freemasonry.  Truly ironic, the first president of Southwestern Seminary, Freemason B. H. Carroll, wrote more theology and biblical commentary than Patterson and all of the current SBC seminary presidents combined (perhaps in the history of SBC seminaries), and much of Carroll's work was re-published 40 years later--something no seminary president and no SBC theologian has matched in SBC history!  Why is the history and character of Carroll occulted?

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Alphonse Cerza, Anti-Masonry: Light on the Past and Present Opponents of Freemasonry (Fulton, MO: Ovid Bell Press, 1962; 410p.). Cerza was a law teacher and past master of a lodge.  It is truly ironic that a Freemason scholar is the writer of the best history on anti-Masonry, and more so ironic that most of the best anti-Masons leave out most of their own anti-Masonic predecessors;  that is, in the anti-Masonic literature, book by book, you can see how they have occulted their own predecessors for the last 200 years.  Freemason Cerza's work a uniquely substantial, and no anti-Mason has answered anything in it to date.  Here are a couple of sections from this great work.

Alphonse Cerza's on "Is Freemasonry a Religion?" - Which is a small portion of lawyer Cerza's view, just another articulate and powerful clarification, also never addressed by anti-Masons.

Appendix A.  Anti-Mason Chronology - Gives an overview of the vast array of 300+ individual piece of hisotircal persecution and twisting for the last 300+ years.  Unprecedented.

Appendix B.  Exposés of Freemasonry Ritual - One of best lists, by a Freemason, most of which are absent in most current anti-Mason books!

Appendice E & F.  Albert Pike's Address and Written Reply to Pope Leo XIII's Humanun Genus (the harshest and longest anti-Mason treatise to come from the Roman Catholic Church).  No anti-Mason or Catholic to date has bothered to address Pike's eloquent challenge here.

Appendix G.  Rev. J. L. C. Dart's 1951 Answer to Anti-Mason Rev. Walton Hannah - Worthy of a trophy.

Appendix J.  Mrs. M. E. DeGeer's 1869 Debate with Charles Blanchard - Worthy of two trophies--best in show, best in class, even alone in class. Then student and son of ardent anti-Mason President John Blanchard (1811-1892) of Wheaton College.  Mrs. DeGeer's defense is perhaps the most eloquent and powerful defense by a non-Mason.  Blanchard appears the adolescent being corrected by a stately, inoffensive, but articulate champion of the language.  The young Charles' father Jonathan Blanchard wrote one of the largest anti-Mason works, that became a precedent--though few reference him today--entitled, Freemasonry Illustrated: A Complete Exposition of the First Seven Masonic Degrees, by Jacob O. Doesburg ... A Historical Sketch of the Institution and a Critical Analysis of the Character of Each Degree, by President J. Blanchard of Wheaton College ... The Accuracy of This Exposition Attested by J. O. Doesburg ... and Others (Chicago, Ill., E. A. Cook & co., 1879. Freemasonry Illustrated. Jacob O. Doesburg. Chicago, IL: E. A. Cook, 1879. 640p. Revised Freemasonry illustrated. 18th ed. 1916. 640p.).  Mrs. Degeer's defense must have been so pleasant to hear, and incensing to Blanchard.

Appendix K.  Alphonse Cerza's Own Statement on Christianity and Freemasonry - Which is an address given to the Drexel Park Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL, on October 12, 1959.  How have the anti-Masons missed these?

Alphonse Cerza's References - an extraordinary and unique collection.

Art DeHoyos and S. Brent Morris, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry?: the Methods of Anti-Masons? (Foreword by James Tresner II; NY: M. Evans and Co., 2004. 262p.; Silver Spring, MD: Masonic Information Center, 1997; 1st 1993).  A new trophy in the literature.

See also their newest:  Freemasonry in Context: History, Ritual, Controversy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003.

See the publisher, Masonic Service Association of North America, which publishes several books, pamphlets, lists of masons in congress, medal of honor recipients, and remains a general resource of masons and non-masons alike.

These books outline and correct many anti-Mason confusions and lies.  It is amazing the degree of malignance and shallowness found in many anti-Mason works.  One would think that if one wanted the truth about an organization, one would look at the significant works by that organization, that organization's history, and who had been a part of the that organization.   

We did not look at the SBC doc on Bridge to Light --
this is adequately addressed in deHoyos' book below

The three used in the vivisection are grossly dependent upon Freemasonry being a religion, which it never has been.  Bill Gordon especially made no effort at all to distinguish the truth of Freemasonry, to address the obvious, and moreover appears to parrot ancient anti-Mason critics without due reference to them or other anti-Masons.  Amazingly, in all three, no one saw fit to reference one SBC Freemason of good report in those studies on Freemasonry in the SBC.  See the following resources for more.

a. Masonic Information Sites

Freemason.org - a web portal to Masonic sites around the world home the Philalethes Society, the world’s oldest and largest Masonic Research Society

Masonic Service Association of North America Masonic Service Association of North America, www.msana.com, pamphlets, masons in congress, medal of honor recipients, source of many popular brochures and well-organized lists, including the following:

U.S. Grand Lodges – www.msana.com/linksus.htm

International Grand Lodges – www.msana.com/linksintl.htm

Southeast Texas Masonic Family – www.setxmasonicfamily.org 

Freemasons-Freemasonry.com, a huge site with most of the classic works available to read on-line, including Albert Pike, Albert Gallatin Mackey, a premier and independent Masonic on-line magazine by Freemasons for Freemasonry. Articles and books from around the world and from many different faith groups within freemasonry, including the classics below.
      Several works are controversial, mostly Albert Pike and Albert Mackey, but anti-Masons never quote them in their context. See them here for yourself. Be mindful that no Mason can speak for Freemasonry as a whole or another mason's beliefs, and also that Freemasonry has never considered itself a religion, only religious in that the basic religious belief required is a belief in one God and immortality.  Recognize that most anti-Masons predicate their attacks upon their own imputation of authority of one or two Masonic authors (like Mackey and Pike) or their own imputation of a religion status upon Freemasonry.  And twisting Pike to confuse Freemasonry as a religion is a common tactic.  One does not need to believe all of Pike to be or continue to be a Mason, which seems to escape most anti-Masons, and Pike's erudition or championing of honor is hardly ever recognized.

Masonic Info.com has a huge list of famous masons and info on anti-masonry. Even includes non-famous and black sheep masons.

National Appendant Bodies - www.bessel.org/append.htm - see other sets of links collected by Paul Bessel at www.bessel.org

Freemasonry.net  &  www.freemasonry.net/links.asp, huge list of lodge web sites

Freemasonry Today, www.freemasonrytoday.com  leading magazine with news and articles, and huge number of links to masonry around the world

George Washington Masonic Memorial, www.gwmemorial.org

Library and Museum of the Supreme Council 33rd degree, http://www.srmason-sj.org/library.htm

National Masonic Foundation for Children www.masonicmodel.org, presents and supports a student assistance program, the Masonic Model Student Assistance Training (MMSAT) program.

International Association Legions of Honor is a Shriners Association consisting of 156 Legion of Honor Units within the Shrine. Membership requirements are being a Mason, a member of the Shrine and also a Veteran of the Armed forces. For more information you can access the International Association Legions of Honor web page at http://ialoh.org.

London Museum of Freemasonry, www.freemasonry.london.museum,  The Library and Museum of Freemasonry is a registered museum housing one of the finest publicly available collections of Masonic material in the world.

Grand Lodge of England, www.grandlodge-england.org: the first record of the ‘making’ of an English Freemason is Elias Ashmole, the antiquarian and herald, whose collections formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. He recorded in his diary that a lodge met at his father-in-law’s house in Warrington, Cheshire on 16 October 1646 to make him a Mason. None of those involved was a stonemason. In the later 1600s there is further evidence for the existence of Freemasonry as a separate organization unrelated to groups controlling the stonemason’s craft. Organized Freemasonry became established on 24 June 1717 when four London lodges came together at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House, St Paul’s Churchyard, formed themselves into a Grand Lodge and elected Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, as their Grand Master – the first Grand Lodge in the world. Initially the Grand Lodge was simply an annual feast for lodges in London but in 1721 John, Duke of Montagu, was elected Grand Master and the Grand Lodge met in ‘quarterly communication’ and began to establish itself as a regulatory body, attracting to it lodges meeting outside London.

Grand Lodge of Ireland, www.irish-freemasons.org, is the second oldest in the world and the first evidence for its existence comes from the Dublin Weekly Journal of June 26th 1725.

Grand Lodge of Israel, www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9991

Grand Lodge of Scotland, www.grandlodgescotland.com – Founded in 1736

Grand Lodge of New York, www.nymasons.org, a first-class site with a huge lodge

Grand Lodge of Washington D.C., www.dcgrandlodge.org

Scottish Rite, Northern U.S., www.supremecouncil.org, in the 1730’s many Scottish, Irish, and English Masons moved to the Bordeaux region of France to escape the civil strife in England. They became known as the “Ecossais” or Scottish Masons, and in 1801 the Supreme Council of 33° was established in Charleston.

York Rite, http://yorkrite.com  

World’s Oldest, information portal: http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry  — dubbed the “world’s oldest Masonic web site”

National Heritage Museum, www.monh.org, click on exhibits — long-term exhibit entitled “To Build and Sustain: Freemasons in American Community,” an extraordinary collection, even George Washington’s role in laying the U.S. Capitol’s corner stone.

www.masonicinfo.com/famous1.htm  — A through L

www.masonicinfo.com/famous2.htm  — M through Z

 ^ This site also has lists of infamous Masons, falsely attributed as Masons

www.phmainstreet.com/suncoast/famous.htm 

www.co-masonry.org/language/english/history/famous.asp

www.msana.com - Masonic Service Association of North America

www.freemasons-freemasonry.com - huge site with classic works

www.masonicinfo.com - includes lists of famous masons and counters to anti-masons

www.freemasonrytoday.co.uk - national magazine

www.gwmemorial.org - George Washington Masonic Memorial  

www.freemasonry.longon.museum - Library and museum  

www.grandlodge-england.org - the first

www.nymasons.org - outstanding site and lodge 

www.freemasonry.net 

www.freemasonry.org 

Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma - the 1870 classic

Joseph Fort Newton's The Builders - outstanding overview of Freemasonry

James Anderson's Constitutions of the Freemasons - a classic, and most read book on Freemasonry in 1770

William Preston's Illustrations of Freemasonry - a classic

C. G. Addison’s The Knights Templars

Full Expanded Contents of Character Counts

Character Counts

Freemasonry is a USA National Treasure
and a Source of Our Founding Fathers'
 Constitutional Original Intent
Michael G. Maness

Revised Second Edition
 

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