Equal Rites: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture

353 Pages·2004·4.123 MB·English

by  Clyde R. Forsberg Jr.

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Equal Rites
religion and american culture
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  An Early American Royal Arch Templar Diploma
Robert I. Clegg, Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
(Richmond, Va.: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply, ), :a.
The Religion and American Culture series explores the interaction between reli-
gion and culture throughout American history. Titles examine such issues as how
religion functions in particular urban contexts, how it interacts with popular cul-
ture, its role in social and political conflicts, and its impact on regional identity.
Series Editor Randall Balmer is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of American
Religion and former chair of the Department of Religion at Barnard College,
Columbia University.
 . ,Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalsim in
Postwar America
 , Moral Geography: Maps, Missionaries, and the American Frontier
 .  , Latino Pentecostal Identity: Evangelical Faith, Self,
and Society
 , O God of Players: The Story of the Immaculata Mighty Macs
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Equal Rites
THE BOOK OF MORMON, MASONRY,
GENDER, AND AMERICAN CULTURE
Clyde R. Forsberg, Jr.
Clyde R. Forsberg Jr.
  
 
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Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
© 2004 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Forsberg, Clyde R.
Equal rites : The Book of Mormon, Masonry, gender, and American culture /
Clyde R. Forsberg, Jr.
p. cm. — (Religion and American culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-231-12640-9 (alk. paper)
1.Mormon Church—Doctrines—History—19th century. 2.Freemasonry—
Religious aspects—Mormon Church—History—19th century. 3.Women—Religious
aspects—Mormon Church—History of doctrines—19th century. 4.Book of Mormon—
Criticism, interpretation, etc. 5.United States—Church history—19th century.
I.Title. II.Religion and American culture (New York, N.Y.)
BX8611 .F65 2002
289.3—dc21
2002073881
Columbia University Press books are printed
on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For my mother,
who loved “the mysteries of the Gospel” more than life itself
  Prostyle Temple Memorializing De Witt Clinton
Jeremy Cross, The True Masonic Chart (1819), reproduced in Steven C. Bullock,
Revolutionary Brotherhood:Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social
Order, 1730–1840(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), p. 144.
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Motto of Royal Arch Masonry:
“Holiness to the Lord”
A goal of Freemasonry, as expressed by Widows’s Sons’ Lodge No. 60,
Charlottesville, Virginia, for two hundred years:
“To make good men, better men”
A goal of Mormonism, according to LDS president Brigham Young:
“It will make a bad man good, and a good man better”
Inscription on Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City:
“Holiness to the Lord”
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The people will always mock at things easy to be misunderstood; it must needs
have impostures. A Spirit that loves wisdom and contemplates the Truth close
at hand, is forced to disguise it, to induce the multitudes to accept it. . . . Fictions
are necessary to a people, and the Truth becomes deadly to those who are not
strong enough to contemplate it in all its brilliance. . . . The truth must be kept
secret, and the masses need a teaching proportioned to their imperfect reason.
—Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, cabalist and inspiration to Christian Masons
So Masonry jealously conceals its secrets, and intentionally leads conceited in-
terpreters astray. There is no sight under the sun more pitiful and ludicrous at
once, than the spectacle of the Prestons and the Webbs.
—Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Brother Brigham, if I were to reveal to this people what the Lord has revealed
to me, there is not a man or woman that would stay with me.
—Joseph Smith Jr.
What is spoken in a prayer Circle should never be Named out of the Circle not
[to] a wife or any body Els [sic]. If there is any thing to be said I will say it. I
Could preach all about the Endowments in Public and the world know Noth-
ing about it. I Could preach all about Masonry & None but a mason know any
thing about it. And the mane [sic] part of Masonry is to keep a secret. . . . Now
Brother L.N. Scovill thinks so much of masonery [sic] that he might Join in with
them. G.A. Smith Said He does not wish to mix hair and wool but he would
like to Go to England & obtain five Charters for lodges which would give us a
grand lodge which would make us independent of all other Grand lodges in the
world. This is what Brother Scovill would like to do and this Could be done but
I do not think he would be willing to mingle with our Enemies to the injury of
this people.
—Wilford Woodruff, LDS president