Is Freemasonry a Religion?

The United Grand Lodge of England, the senior authority in mainstream Freemasonry, states the point plainly: Freemasonry is not a religion, and it is not a substitute for one. It requires a belief in a Supreme Being, but it provides no system of faith of its own, and it is open to men of every religion.

The clearest way to see this is to set Freemasonry beside the things that define a religion. It is missing each of them.

Some observers, including several churches, argue that Freemasonry resembles a religion because it uses ritual, prayer, oaths, and references to a deity. Freemasonry’s answer is that these are moral and symbolic, meant to bind men of different faiths in a shared ethical life, not to teach them what to believe or to stand in for the worship they owe elsewhere.

Regular Freemasonry asks one religious question of a candidate, and only one: does he believe in a Supreme Being? A man who answers no cannot join. But Freemasonry does not define that Being, does not ask which faith a man follows, and does not rank one answer above another.

Two ideas often raise questions. The first is the Great Architect of the Universe, a name Freemasonry uses for the Supreme Being. It is deliberately non-sectarian, chosen so that men of different religions can pray together without naming a God that excludes any of them. It is not a separate deity and not a Masonic god; it is a respectful placeholder for the God each member already worships.

The second is the Volume of the Sacred Law. In a regular lodge the sacred book of the members’ faith lies open during meetings, and obligations are taken upon it. Where members of several faiths meet, more than one sacred book may be present. The principle holds throughout: Freemasonry honors the member’s own scripture rather than supplying one of its own.

No. Freemasonry does not fit the definition of a cult, and the differences are not subtle. The features that mark a cult, coercion, secrecy of purpose, control over members’ lives, and the demand that a person cut other ties, are absent from regular Freemasonry.

Most religious bodies place no obstacle in the way of their members becoming Freemasons, and many clergy have been Masons. Some churches object, however, and the best known and most clearly documented objection comes from the Roman Catholic Church.

The Catholic objection rests on doctrine. Its central concern is that Freemasonry, by welcoming all faiths equally under a common name for the Supreme Being, treats every religion as equally valid, a position the Church calls indifferentism and judges incompatible with its own teaching. Some Protestant churches also discourage or prohibit membership, usually on different grounds.

Freemasonry, for its part, has never barred Catholics or members of any other faith, and it holds that it does not compete with any church or seek to replace anyone’s religion. A man weighing membership against the teaching of his own church is making a personal decision, and the honest answer is that he should weigh it in the light of that faith.

If Freemasonry honors religion, why does it forbid discussing it? The answer is practical and old. A lodge brings together men of many faiths, and the surest way to keep peace among them is to leave the subjects most likely to divide them, religion and politics, at the door. By keeping sectarian religion out of its meetings, Freemasonry lets men who would otherwise argue about doctrine work side by side in friendship, and it prevents any single creed from turning the fraternity into a church.