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AR 25:43 - How the Freemasons "made the modern world"
In this issue:
FREEMASONRY - "one of Britain's 'most successful exports'"
ISLAM - "the misuse of Shariah is limited to a minuscule fraction of Muslims"
QANON - viral conspiracy theories, evangelicals, and "the death of expertise"
Apologia Report 25:43 (1,500)
October 28, 2020
FREEMASONRY
The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World, by John Dickie [1] -- this Spectator review by British historian Dominic Green <www.bit.ly/2G3j2oe> (Aug 8 '20) begins: "*The Craft* is a shadow history of modernity. Though more sober than most lodge meetings, it is, like its subject, ingenious and frequently bizarre. Freemasonry, [author] John Dickie argues, is one of Britain's 'most successful exports'.... If this ideal of tolerant fraternity sounds modern - the absence of women aside - it is because it is. ... [F]reemasonry is a child of the Renaissance and the Reformation. It speaks the universal language of reason, and the particular languages of Protestant Hebraism and mystic Neoplatonism," and thus "it emerged from Scotland and conquered the world."
In 1594 William Schaw, "master of works" for James VI of Scotland, was commissioned to "construct a new chapel at Stirling Castle. The 'earliest Renaissance building of its kind', the Chapel Royal was, like the Sistine Chapel, made to the dimensions of Solomon's Temple. Warming to his revivalist theme, in 1598, Schaw incorporated the masons' sacred geometry and guilds (called 'lodges', after the temporary shacks on their building sites) into the old-new learning.... Scotland's 'operative' masonry depended on trade secrets, so much so that the bond ran deeper than the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants. ...
"Outside, the landed aristocracy and the Anglican settlement still ruled. Inside, the 'illustrious topers' of urban England networked with Jews, Catholics and Protestant sectarians, politely speculating on the mystical backdrop to the Anglican universe [and] 'merged the Newtonian system, masonic symbols and the Hanoverian monarchy into a single vision of universal harmony'. ... Later, the British carried it around the world. The lodge was a link with home, but also common ground in an imperial society divided by colour, caste and class. ...
"But tolerance ended as the members stepped outside again. [Rudyard] Kipling ... was a member of the same lodge at Allahabad as the young Nehru, whose Anglicised manners made him a member of the babu class that Kipling despised. ... French lodges banned 'Jews, Mohammedans and Negroes', though the Chevalier d'Eon, a celebrated transvestite, was one of the boys some of the time. ... And then, according to Augustin de Barruel, the Illuminati, a failed Bavarian political club, executed a masonic plot to launch the French Revolution. In the century after 1789, this theory became a weapon in the Catholic Kulturkampf with secular power. Sponsored by clerical fantasy and aristocratic resentment, and fusing with anti-Judaic conspiracy theories, it developed a life of its own. ... French novels also supplied the material of the most successful forgery in history, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion <www.bit.ly/35C0HYh> (1905). By 1925, the fantasy of a 'Judeo-Masonic conspiracy' was 'bread-and-butter' to Hitler's first supporters. ... This did not stop Hitler from following Mussolini's lead and banning freemasonry. In 1934, a recruit to the SS's intelligence agency demonstrated his organisational skills by compiling a central list of German free-masons. His name was Adolf Eichmann. ... In 1983, Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, wrote that Catholic freemasons are 'in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion', while in 1993, the Southern Baptist Convention ruled that membership of a lodge was a private matter. ...
"Freemasonry's promise of tolerance, Dickie writes, has been fulfilled in the truly ecumenical lodges of India, but it still provokes paranoia in Muslim societies. ... The charter of Hamas lists freemasonry, the Lions and the Rotary Clubs as 'networks of spies', created by Jews to 'destroy societies and promote the Zionist cause'. ... *The Craft* is well-crafted and sensible, making good use of English archives which have only recently been opened. By offering a new way of socialising, freemasonry laid the foundation of our commercial society, providing a sense of purpose to its practitioners - but also to its enemies, who confuse it with their own fantasies of power." <www.bit.ly/3kgnu1R>
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ISLAM
Demystifying Shariah, by Sumbul Ali-Karamali (a corporate lawyer <www.bit.ly/3ki7lc6> with a degree in Islamic law) [2] -- begins with "an outline of the scope and mechanisms for divining Sharia opinions. The second part of the book traces the historical development of Sharia from the time of the early Muslims to contemporary times." (Library Journal, Apr 1 '20) She "argues that there isn't an organized attempt to incorporate Sharia law in Western democracies...." (Booklist, Apr 1 '20) "Ali-Karamali argues that 'the shariah-based legal system that flourished for over a thousand years' is effectively gone." (Publishers Weekly, Apr 27 '20)
Further, Ali-Karamali "contends that Western colonization interrupted Muslim cultures, disrupting and perverting Shariah, forcing it to conform to more rigid standards found in European law. ... Throughout, she contends that the misuse of Shariah is limited to a miniscule fraction of Muslims and that without European interference, everything from the Ayatollah Khomeini's abuses of power to the rise of the Islamic State group could have been avoided. Ali-Karamali may overstate the case somewhat, but her book is significant in a time of continued misconceptions about Islam." (Kirkus, Feb 15 '20)
We found nothing to indicate whether Ali-Karamali proposes ways of effectively curtailing the horrific varieties of Shariah currently practiced by extremists.
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QANON
"QAnon: The alternative religion that's coming to your church" by Katelyn Beaty (former managing editor, Christianity Today) -- "Named after 'Q,' who posts anonymously on the online bulletin board 4chan, QAnon alleges that President Donald Trump and military officials are working to expose a 'deep state' pedophile ring with links to Hollywood, the media and the Democratic Party. Since its first mention some three years ago, the theory has drawn adherents looking for a clear way to explain recent disorienting global events." (At the same time, the anonymous "Q" might be enjoying the time of his or her life by faking out conservatives with an urban legend.)
"'To look at QAnon is to see not just a conspiracy theory but the birth of a new religion,' wrote Adrienne LaFrance in The Atlantic <www.bit.ly/3dJtWMh> in June. ... Once the fascination of far-right commentators and their followers, QAnon is no longer fringe. ...
"One scholar found a 71% increase in QAnon content on Twitter and a 651% increase on Facebook since March."
Jon Thorngate, pastor at LifeBridge, a nondenominational church of about 300 in a Milwaukee suburb, "attributes the phenomenon in part to the 'death of expertise' - a distrust of authority figures that leads some Americans to undervalue long-established measures of competency and wisdom." He regretfully notes: "That part for us is concerning, that nothing feels authoritative right now. ...
"For years in the 1980s and '90s, U.S. evangelicals, above nearly any other group, warned what will happen when people abandon absolute truth (which they located in the Bible), saying the idea of relative truth would lead to people believing whatever confirms their own inward hunches. ...
"Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center [BGC] at Wheaton College, noted that distrust of mainstream news sources 'can feed a penchant for conspiracy theories.'
"A 2018 poll <www.bit.ly/35EbiBN> from BGC found that 46% of self-identified evangelicals and 52% of those whose beliefs tagged them as evangelical 'strongly agreed that the mainstream media produced fake news.' It also found that regular church attendance (at least once a month) correlated to believing that mainstream media promulgates fake news (77% compared with 68% of those who attend less regularly).
"Jared Stacy [college and young adult pastor of Spotswood Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia] said the spread of conspiracy theories in his church is particularly affecting young members. ... He says his and other pastors' job is to teach that conspiracy theories are not where Christians should find a basis for reality." ...
"Jeb Barr, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Elm Mott outside Waco, Texas ... said conspiracy theories are 'extremely widespread and getting worse' among his online church networks. ...
"Barr and other pastors I spoke with are [reluctant] to police church members' social media conduct. Instead, they try to teach broader principles. ...
"Barr also teaches critical-thinking skills....
"But teaching media literacy isn't enough, precisely because QAnon thrives on a narrative of media cover-up." Another pastor "tries to address the dehumanizing language of QAnon theories that equate certain people with evil. History is replete with examples of where such language can lead.
"'I can't hate another person, but boy if I can make them less than human, that's the Crusades, that's Jewish persecution throughout history, that's racial issues hand over fist there."
"In a fraught political moment, the pastors I spoke with worried that taking on QAnon, by addressing politics directly, would divide the church.
"But QAnon is more than a political ideology. It's a spiritual worldview that co-opts many Christian-sounding ideas to promote verifiably false claims about actual human beings.
"QAnon has features akin to syncretism - the practice of blending traditional Christian beliefs with other spiritual systems, such as Santeria. Q explicitly uses Bible verses to urge adherents to stand firm against evil elites." Religion News Service, Aug 17 '20, <www.bit.ly/31pHJ5S>
Meanwhile, in an August 19th cover story, Emily Belz of World magazine <www.bit.ly/34zu6D0> explores "Questions about QAnon," and at The Gospel Coalition, editor Joe Carter offers helpful "FAQs: What Christians Should Know About QAnon." <www.bit.ly/2TrEA0S> and last, see <www.bit.ly/35C0HYh>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World, by John Dickie (PublicAffairs, 2020, hardcover, 496 pages) <www.amzn.to/31q2bDo>
2 - Demystifying Shariah: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It's Not Taking Over Our Country, by Sumbul Ali-Karamali (Beacon, 2020, hardcover, 256 pages) <www.amzn.to/3o6N5wu>
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