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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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[[es:Pregunta: ¿Qué críticas se asocian con el ritual del templo y su relación con la masonería?]] | [[es:Pregunta: ¿Qué críticas se asocian con el ritual del templo y su relación con la masonería?]] | ||
[[pt:Pergunta: O que as críticas estão associados com o ritual do templo e sua relação com a Maçonaria?]] | [[pt:Pergunta: O que as críticas estão associados com o ritual do templo e sua relação com a Maçonaria?]] | ||
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Critics of the Church often point to similarities between the rituals of Freemasonry and the LDS temple endowment and claim that since Joseph Smith was initiated as a Freemason in Nauvoo, Illinois shortly before he introduced the full endowment to the Saints (as opposed to the partial endowment given in the Kirtland Temple), he must have incorporated elements of the Masonic rites into his own ceremony. Implicit in this charge is the idea that Joseph Smith's ritual was not revealed to him by God and thus not a legitimate restoration of ancient Israelite and early Christian ordinances.
It is worthwhile to note that these critics are also often critical of Freemasonry, and thus attempt guilt by association.
While it is true that some of the endowment was developed and introduced in the weeks following Joseph Smith's initiation as a Master Mason. This oversimplifies the issue considerably. The endowment and other parts of LDS temple worship developed slowly over a period of years. It did not happen all at once. Joseph Smith's critics want to label him as an intellectual thief by claiming that he stole some of the ritual elements of Freemasonry in order to create the Nauvoo-era temple endowment ceremony. The greatest obstacles to this theory are the facts that
Furthermore, Joseph's contemporaries saw the parallels to Masonry clearly, and yet they did not charge him with pilfering.
In order to understand this issue, a few facts need to be understood:
Symbolist F. L. Brink suggested that Joseph Smith successfully provided an "innovative and intricate symbology" that suited well the psychic needs of his followers. [1]
Notes
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