possibly controversial question.

[Saguaro]

Here's a podcast with Greg Kearney, he's a Mormon and a Mason, it's very interesting. It's episode number 005 on the list.

Episode List | Mormon Stories Podcast

[HiJolly]

I'm going to be an idiot and comment on your excellent post, Ram.

Is it true that Joseph Smith used some Masonic rites in the temple rite? Yes. He saw it as the "apostate" endowment (not a bad thing, just that it had been changed from its pure form). Joseph often used things he came across as a catalyst for greater truth and light.

Yes, that is my understanding also.

But many of the key temple endowment teachings are found in the Book of Mormon, written over a decade prior to his becoming a Mason. So, Joseph didn't just see the Masonic rite and decide to use it for something. Instead, he knew he had to develop a temple endowment, and the Masonic rite had many of the correct concepts needed.

So true. I think this is the most important point of all.

Yet they were still miles apart. The Masonic rite did not include baptism for the dead, women were not involved in the rite, there was no eternal marriage. Joseph's temple rite did not have levels (e.g., 32nd level Mason), but only one set series for all worthy members to experience.

There were at least two different 'lodges' that had developed ritual based on the story of Adam & Eve, instead of Hiram Abiff. Probably the best known was in France.

Joseph's temple rite included 3 degrees or levels, and the Blue Freemason lodges also have 3 degrees. Additional masonic degrees are not obtained in the Blue lodge, but in systems such as the Scottish Rite and the York Rite (the two best known rites). So there is a parallel. How they are pursued or enacted is very different, this is true, but still, there is a parallel in 3.

Given that much of the symbolism in the early Masonic rite no longer is understood by Americans, much less by LDS members in other parts of the world, the endowment has been updated to reflect a world-wide Church, and has little of the Masonic rite left in it today.

Yes. It is so sad. The 1990 update removed one of the 'smoking guns' of the parallels between the two systems: the points of fellowship. There's a great article written by Arturo de Hoyos about this.

HiJolly

[Hemidakota]

Sorry if this is controversial, but if i have a question about the mormon church i ask it here instead of some random anti-mormon site.

I was debating with my friend who read the book of mormon, prayed, and said she "received confirmation that it was false" (which to be hoenst, was really hard for me to even fathom that idea that she could read it and think its false, but i digress..). Well during the debate, she hit me with a question i have never been asked/accussed of before and i didnt really know what to say.

She accused the mormon church of copying and having connections with the free masons. After doing some research, im confused becuase Joseph Smith was a free mason.... i dont mean to be controversial, i mean i consider myself mormon, im just asking, what is the correct reply to something like this?

How was the answer received? A voice? A angel appeared? A prompting?