Poster George Miller: Shamless Mason Apologist.

[Guest]

When I was brought up in the Church the Masonoic organization was always portrayed as 'of the devil' and I was instructed that Mormons needed to stay away from it.

Is it Church policy that Mormon's cannot be Mason's? Or is it discouraged/frowned upon informally?

When the Grand Lodge was formed in Utah they banned Mormons from joining or visiting Masonic lodge in Utah. After the ban was introduced by the Utah Masons, the church made it official policy in the Handbook of Instructions that joining of any oath bound organization was strongly discouraged, and it was up to the discretion of the file leader to withhold a temple recommend from anyone who maintained membership in such an organization. There was discussion at the time of providing an exception for Freemasonry in particular, but in the end the decision was made to make it a blanket statement.

When in the 1980s the Utah Grand Lodge, due to internal and external pressure, removed the prohibition, the church soon thereafter removed the line from the CHI and from that point on Mormons joining Masonry has relatively common. In fact recently a Mormon served in the highest Masonic office of Grand Master in Utah.

The idea that "Masonry is of the Devil" is a sentiment that did exist in the church, but the sentiment is gradually dying off. The sentiment is a bit humorous given that Oliver Cowdery and his family, Heber C. Kimball, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith Jr., many other members of the family, and almost every eligible Mormon male in Nauvoo were Freemasons.

The best published source on the this time period is as follows.

Homer. Masonry and Mormonism in Utah (1847-1984). Journal of Mormon History (1992) vol. 18 (2) pp. 57-96.

[_Blixa]

My source is George Miller's interview on ME. I don't remember which one exactly - probably one of the last ones.

Ah, forgot he mentioned that! Thanks for reminding me!

[_George Miller]

At the NYPL, I've often read through the diaries of John W. Phelps who served as an army captain at Camp Floyd. As vociferous a critic of Mormonism as Masonry (after the Civil War he ran for president on an Anti-Masonic platform), Phelps had no idea about the overlap between his two bêtes noires. Had he, well, what he wrote in his journals would have singed the page!

I know that W. W. Phelps was a vociferous critic of Masonry and that he ran for office on the Anti-Masonic ticket. I was unaware of the journal by John W. Phelps. Is there any chance you might put me in contact with this information?

Sincerely,
George Miller

[_George Miller]

My source is George Miller's interview on ME. I don't remember which one exactly - probably one of the last ones.

It is contained in the last podcast If I recall correctly.

[_Blixa]

At the NYPL, I've often read through the diaries of John W. Phelps who served as an army captain at Camp Floyd. As vociferous a critic of Mormonism as Masonry (after the Civil War he ran for president on an Anti-Masonic platform), Phelps had no idea about the overlap between his two bêtes noires. Had he, well, what he wrote in his journals would have singed the page!

I know that W. W. Phelps was a vociferous critic of Masonry and that he ran for office on the Anti-Masonic ticket. I was unaware of the journal by John W. Phelps. Is there any chance you might put me in contact with this information?

Sincerely,
George Miller

The originals of his Camp Floyd diaries are in the NYPL rare books collection. As far as I know they've not been transcribed and published. I thought there was a biography of Phelps, but after a quick look around the web I can't find it at the moment (if it exists). Phelps wrote a lot on many subjects; a great deal of his observations in the Camp Floyd journals are about meteorology for example. I have some transcribed bits and bobs in my notes from the diaries which might have some of his screeds against Masonry. If I recall correctly, these are mostly just asides in which he, fulminating over one thing, ends up fulminating over all things, including Masonry. I can look up what I have and if you are interested I can take a look at the diaries again.

Phelps is one of the sources about castrated young Mormon men, as well as Dr. Brewer and other's reactions to the bones and hair still strewn around Mountain Meadows two years after when the army first investigated the scene. I think Dale Morgan read these in the NYPL and made transcripts which Juanita Brooks and others used. If I recall correctly there may even be a copy of said transcripts in the Juanita Brooks papers at the Marriott Library at the University of Utah. (Either way, you can tell that those who source Phelps's diaries are using the same transcript because there is a minor transcription error I noted when first reading the journals. Also, as of two years ago, there were only two people who had checked out these diaries in the last decade or so. I'm one and you can probably guess the other.)

Phelps was an interesting man, not only does he have the distinction of being the candidate to historically garner the least amount of votes for President, he was also a keen abolitionist and one of the first in the military to argue for letting runaway slaves play an active role in the Union army (he even tried to resign his commission over this). He was a splendidly over-the-top prose stylist, so even if there is nothing "new" in his journal's anti-masonic tirades, such remarks will be pleasurably couched.

[_Morley]

The originals of his Camp Floyd ... such remarks will be pleasurably couched.

Wow. I was at the NYPL for the first time a few years ago and was stupidly disappointed that everything seemed to be locked down in special collections. I wish I'd have known. Perhaps next time....

Holy Damn, the world is such a wonderful, delicious place.

[_MCB]

Blixa, do you think you can talk them into puting the Phelps material into google books?

[_Blixa]

Blixa, do you think you can talk them into puting the Phelps material into google books?

I don't think any handwritten manuscripts have been included in the Google collections.

I also don't know what the NYPL is doing about digitizing its own rare collections. I would imagine that something like Phelps's journals are low on the list given how cash strapped the library currently is.

[_Blixa]

Wow. I was at the NYPL for the first time a few years ago and was stupidly disappointed that everything seemed to be locked down in special collections. I wish I'd have known. Perhaps next time....

Holy Damn, the world is such a wonderful, delicious place.

Here's some Phelps on secret societies:

"There is an effort being made to get up a secret society among the soldiers and officers. One of the privates of my company is, I understand, an important member of a lodge into which officers belong. The soldier should have his head shaved and be drummed out of service and the officer cashiered. The Jewish law used to condemn such persons to death, just as the pope does! "Thou shall not suffer a witch (secret society man) to live." Such was the Mosaic law."

THOU SHALL NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE!!!

[_MCB]

Just concerned about the library cleaning crews. Of course, things in rare book collections are more protected from them.

I'm 14 minutes into 145a, but decided to call it a day. That is a WEALTH of material. Now I will get to my laptop, and enjoy a few hours of internet-free writing.

Wow!! He makes Thomas Sharp look like a very calm, 100 % rational person.