An Answer To Anti-Masonic Religious Propaganda

Rev. Thomas Sherrard Roy, 33
Abstract of 
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 1952 

When presented with an inquiry from an officer of the Southern
Baptist Convention, Sovereign Grand Commander Francis G. Paul, 33,
N\M\J\, included in his letter of response an article written 40
years ago by Rev. Thomas Sherrard Roy. We are pleased to reprint
here a portion of Grand Commander Paul's letter, with his
permission, and to republish a shortened version, as follows, of
M\W\ Brother Roy's article.

"The main thrust of many recent articles and broadcasts is that
Freemasonry is a religion and, therefore, a man cannot be a Mason
and at the same time a good Christian. "Unfortunately, over a long
period of time, the Masonic Fraternity has not done all that it
should to refute these incorrect impressions of Freemasonry, thus,
the misunderstandings continue.     r "One of the most scholarly
responses ever made addressing this problem was delivered by the
Rev. Thomas Sherrard Roy. Attached is a copy of his statement, 'An
Answer to Anti-Masonic Religious Propaganda.' "Dr. Roy was born at
New Castle, New Brunswick, in 1884 and was brought up Roman
Catholic. At sixteen years of age, he began attending the local
Baptist Church which sparked his desire to enter the ministry. He
was ordained in 1911 in the United Baptist Church, Digby, Nova
Scotia. He came to Massachusetts in 1913 and held pastorates in
West Newton, Brockton and Worcester. He retired from the First
Baptist Church in Worcester in 1951 to become the Grand M aster of
the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He d active in the Fraternity and
in his church until his death on March 21, 1980. A remarkable life
of 96 years of devoted service to humanity.

						Cordially yours,


						Francis G. Paul, 33
						Sovereign Grand Commander

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Rev. Thomas S. Roy's comments, "An Answer to Anti-Masonic Religious
Propaganda," as delivered to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts on
September 10, 1952, follow:

        These religious critics of ours are harsh in their
criticism of the religious factor in Freemasonry. Their criticism
takes this form: Freemasonry is a religion; it does not conform to
the beliefs and practices of the Christian religion; therefore it
is a false religion; therefore any person having membership in
Freemasonry is guilty of promoting a false religion, and perforce
is not worthy of membership in a Christian church. . . .

        Unfortunately, some of the apologists of Freemasonry in
other days have tried to establish the worth of the Order by making
claims for it not consistent with its organization and purposes.
One of them made the statement that "Genuine Freemasonry is pure
religion." That is an unfortunate and misleading statement. But it
has been taken at face value by these religious critics who proceed
to show the kind of religion it is, and gives them the basis for
their argument that Freemasonry is a false religio herefore to be
condemned.

        Our answer to this is that while Freemasonry is religious,
it is not even in the remotest sense a religion. We have prayers,
it is true, invocations to Deity. But Congress opens its sessions
with prayer, and no one has ever suggested that our legislature is
a religion. The Republican and Democratic Conventions opened with
prayer-and such prayers they were! But not even the most ardent
member of either convention would call it a religion. Colleges have
religious services, some of them daily Chapel, b dy ever called a
college or educational program a religion. What it means is that
these organizations, even as ours, are composed of religious people
who believe that their religion should enter into all of life.

        We have none of the marks of a religion. We have no creed,
and no confession of faith in a doctrinal statement. We have no
theology. We have no ritual of worship. We have no symbols that are
religious in the sense of the symbols found in church and
synagogue. Our symbols are related to the development of character
and of the relationship of man to man. They are working tools to be
used in the building of life.

        Our purpose is not that of a religion. We are not primarily
interested in the redemption of man. We seek no converts. We
solicit no new members. We raise no money for religious purposes.
By any definition of religion accepted by our critics, we cannot
qualify as a religion. All of which means that a man has not
subscribed to a new religion, much less an anti-Christian religion,
when he becomes a Mason, any more than when he joins the Democratic
Party, or the Y.M.C.A. And there is nothing about Freem that is
opposed to the religion he brings with him into the Lodge.

        We are condemned because we say that a man may be obligated
on the Scripture of his own religion, and that we thus place all
religions on an equality. But Freemasonry does not assert and does
not teach that one religion is as good as another. We do not say
that all religions are equal because we admit men of all religions.
We refuse to apply a theological test to a candidate. We apply a
religious test only. We ask a man if he believes in God, and that
is a religious test only. If we asked him if he d in Christ, or
Buddha, or Allah, that would be a theological test involving a
particular interpretation of God. Belief in God is faith; belief
about God is theology. We are interested in faith only, and not
theology. We do not set ourselves up as judges of the qualitative
values of the theological interpretations of God. When Freemasonry
accepts a Christian, or a Jew, or a Buddhist, or a Mohammedan, it
does not accept him as such, but as a man, worthy to be r eceived
into the Order. We ask him to pledge him self by the highest and
holiest loyalty in his life to be true to his vows. To ask him to
vow on a book in which he did not believe would be the kind of
hypocrisy condemned by the highest teachings of the Christian
religion.

        To say that we reject Christ because we do not mention Him
would be as reasonable as to say that we reject the prophecies of
Isaiah because we do not mention them. It is the glory of Masonry
that a man who believes implicitly in the deity of Christ, and a
man who says that he cannot go that far, can meet as Brothers in
their acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the Supreme Being, the
Maker of Heaven and Earth, and in acknowledgment of their duty to
love Him with heart and mind and soul and strength. an unite in
fulfilling the great purpose of Freemasonry, the development of
human character, and the establishment of the collective life of
mankind in brotherhood. In doing this we dare to hope that we are
more than neutral in helping the church in its great task.

        We are not a religion, and we are not anti-religious. We
are a completely tolerant organization. We stand for the values
that are supreme in the life of the church, and we are sure that he
who is true to the principles he learns in Freemasonry will be a
better church member because of it. Indeed, just the other day I
heard the Rector of the largest Episcopal Church in another city
say that he was a better Christian and a better Rector because of
his Freemasonry. Freemasonry, rightly conceived and pr , will
enhance every worthy loyalty in a man's life. It will not weaken a
man's loyalty to his church, but will strengthen it by the
increased sense of responsibility to God and dependence on God
taught in our Ritual. It will not drain his strength from the
service of the church, but will increase his strength for the
service of the church. It will not draw him away from the doctrines
of his church, but stimulate his interest in the values of religion
t hat enrich and ennoble the life of man.

        As distinguished from the church or the synagogue,
Freemasonry does not claim to know all there is to know about
Deity, and therefore makes no assertion of infallibility. Our quest
is for light, more light, further light; for truth, more truth,
further truth. Because we do not claim to have received full light,
to have a monopoly of, or a corner on, truth, we can claim to be a
tolerant group. We believe that there should be some place where
men can meet without having to assert or defend the peculia of
their doctrines. There should be some place where men can meet and
know that their right to worship God in their own way is respected
completely; a place where a man learns that the only respect he can
claim for his beliefs is the respect he accords to the beliefs of
others. There should be some place where men can face the realities
of life and know that the only barriers that separate men are those
of ill-will and enmity. Freemasonry is that p lace, for it unites
men in a unity created by our common loy alty to the realities of
religion as expressed by the prophet Micah twenty-seven hundred
years ago when he wrote: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good,
and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."     s

      Thomas S. Roy was pastor of various Baptist churches in Brockton
      and Worcester, Massachusetts, for more than 40 years and was Grand
      Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts in 1951-53.

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Why Is a Master Addressed as "Worshipful"?

        Few Masonic matters are less understood by the non-Masonic
public than this. The word "worchyppe" or "worchyp" is Old English,
and means "greatly respected." In the Wycliffe Bible "Honor thy
father and thy mother" appears as "Worchyp thy fadir and thy
modir." English and Canadian mayors are still addressed, "Your
Worship." In some of the Old Constitutions of Masonry is the
phrase, "Every Mason shall prefer his elder and put him to
worship."

        "Worshipful," therefore, in modern Masonry continues an
ancient word meaning "greatly respected." A Grand Master is "Most
Worshipful," that is, "Most greatly respected" (except in
Pennsylvania, where the Grand Master is "Right Worshipful," as are
Pennsylvania's and Texas' Past Grand Masters).

The Masonic Service Association of the United States Digest
"101 Questions About Freemasonry"


