Masons helped shape the nation?

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote]It wasn't just because so many prominent members of the founding generation--George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and indeed 13 of the 39 signers of the Constitution--had been members. It was also because the rapidly growing republic and the fraternal society still held so many ideals in common. American republican values looked like Masonic values writ large: honorable civic-mindedness, a high regard for learning and progress, and what might be called a broad and tolerant religiosity. Indeed, says Steven Bullock, a historian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a leading scholar of the Masonic fraternity in America, Freemasons "helped to give the new nation a symbolic core."[/quote]
[url="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050905/5masons.htm"]from THIS article[/url]

what are we to make of this?
i am seeing this American history = freemasonry more and more, like in the Disney movie [i]National Treasure[/i]
The MI seeks to battle Freemasonry
what is up with all this?
im at a loss i guess, as to how to view this - is this theory? fact? does this change anything?
is this rewriting history?
what?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

This is fact. The founding fathers were largely Masons. If you go to DC and investigate a little at the museums, you'll find Masonic stuff everywhere.

[Theoketos]

Masons took out the stone for the Washington Monument sent by the Pope.

[jezic]

i think there are still many masons that are in charge in the us. Most of it is done in secret.

[kateri05]

masons are so scary their mission is to destroy the catholic church!

[Paladin D]

How do they know George Washington was a mason?

I wouldn't be suprised if the masons had an influence, but I'm also suspicious if secularists are trying to re-write history. I'm not a historian, but it's a speculation I have.

[White Knight]

Other than the obvious what else claims that our Founding Fathers were Masons?

[son_of_angels]

Actually, George Washington WAS a freemason, and there is a very famous, very well documented portrait of him consecrating, in the Masonic ritual, the cornerstone for the capitol.

There are masonic idealogies and principles interwoven throughout the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not to mention the fact that over a dozen Presidents have been sworn in on a masonic King James Version Bible.

[Paladin D]

[quote name='son_of_angels' date='Sep 11 2005, 01:51 PM']Actually, George Washington WAS a freemason, and there is a very famous, very well documented portrait of him consecrating, in the Masonic ritual, the cornerstone for the capitol. 

There are masonic idealogies and principles interwoven throughout the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not to mention the fact that over a dozen Presidents have been sworn in on a masonic King James Version Bible.
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Interesting.

[White Knight]

[quote name='son_of_angels' date='Sep 11 2005, 12:51 PM']Actually, George Washington WAS a freemason, and there is a very famous, very well documented portrait of him consecrating, in the Masonic ritual, the cornerstone for the capitol. 

There are masonic idealogies and principles interwoven throughout the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not to mention the fact that over a dozen Presidents have been sworn in on a masonic King James Version Bible.
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Then why is there a document and portait of George Washington bowing next to his horse in the snowy field all by himself, praying to Jesus?


How they know this is because George Washington wrote the prayer down and was found after he died.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='son_of_angels' date='Sep 11 2005, 12:51 PM']not to mention the fact that over a dozen Presidents have been sworn in on a masonic King James Version Bible.
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[son_of_angels]

Freemasonry does not exclude itself from many, many Protestant denominations. That is why you would see portraits of George Washington praying to Jesus.

My grandfather, for example, is a pretty religious "Church of Christ" guy, and also a freemason. One of my cousins is a deacon at my old Baptist Church, and also a freemason. About half the men in my family are exactly like that, as well as half the men in just about any old Southern protestant/anabaptist families.

[popestpiusx]

[quote name='Paladin D' date='Sep 11 2005, 01:32 AM']How do they know George Washington was a mason?

I wouldn't be suprised if the masons had an influence, but I'm also suspicious if secularists are trying to re-write history.  I'm not a historian, but it's a speculation I have.
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Go visit the George Washington Memorial Masonic Lodge in Alexandria VA. It is a very creepy tower/pyramid like thing that overlooks the entire city.

[dspen2005]

weren't roosevelt and truman masons???

[kateri05]

many many MANY of our presidents were Masons