Behind the Lodge Door: Church, State and Freemasonry In America [Paperback]

Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1991

This book traces the machinations of the world's best known secret fraternity as it has operated historically in the United States, particularly with regard to its unrelenting warfare against Christianity, especially the Catholic Church.

Perhaps most stunning of all is the book's revelation regarding the fraternity's successful efforts, beginning in 1940 and continuing through 1971, to shape U.S. Supreme Court' First Amendment religious clauses decisions and, thus change America's previous Christian orientation to an ambience that is almost totally secular and, more or less, hostile to Christian values.

Also the long history of Justice Hugo L. Black's religious prejudices are carefully examined, including his lifetime membership in the Ku Klux Klan, and his Constitutional ineligibility to serve on the high bench. Moreover, the work documents that for the first time in its history the Supreme Court was dominated by Freemasons in ratios of 5-4 to 8-1 during the period 1940- 1971.

Behind The Lodge Door is based primarily on an examination of Scottish Rite Freemasonry's flagship monthly publication, The New Age magazine, for each of the 12-month periods 1921- 1981, augmented by documents (several formerly classified "SECRET") in the National Archives, various major newspapers, Congressional debates, House and Senate hearings, selected Congressional acts, Presidential Inaugural Addresses, Internal Revenue documents,and many Supreme Court decisions bearing on the religion clauses.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A brilliant expose of the hidden power that Freemasonry has in the past and still is exerting so successfully to de-Christianize America. This is must reading." -- Father Vincent Miceli, former professor at the Gregorian and Angelicum Universities, Rome, Italy, October, 1989

"Fisher knows how to do research and how to weigh facts. Those skills give his work a sense of balance and sobriety that make it as persuasive as it is alarming." -- Michael Schwartz, The Wanderer, America's oldest national Catholic weekly, April 12, 1990

"I recently obtained a copy of Behind The Lodge Door through my library book-loan program, and needless to say, I could not put the book down. It is very enlightening. I would like to pass some of the knowledge in the book on to my four grown children, and hence, my grandchildren." -- A reader, Center Line, MI, March, 1998

"One of the most important books I have ever read." -- Stan Monti, Radio Liberty, May 20, 1998

"This study is particularly valuable, not only for its thoroughness, but also for the sources on which it rests. -- Peter D. Felner, OFM, Miles Immaculata, Rome, Italy, December, 1989

From the Back Cover

"Behind the Lodge Door is at once an in-depth and probing analysis of Masonic activity in four principal areas of influence, especially as they relate to the United States, but it is also an overview of the Masonic fraternity in general that will enlighten and inform the reader and make a perusal of this book most worthwhile. Those four areas are: 1)the religious education issue in the U.S.; 2) opposition to the Catholic Church; 3) the molding and directing of national political and social policy; and 4) how the Masons attract their members.

"But further, the author who documents thoroughly everything he writes touches upon a host of interesting topics, such as the birth and rise of Freemasonry, its roots in the ancient mystery religions and gnostic cults, the Catholic Church's early and traditional condemnation of the Craft, its scope and influence in American national social and political life, its opposition to the practice of religion, its activities in various other countries (Italy, Germany, France, Japan, China, the Philippines,etc.), its rapprochement with the Catholic Church (especially during the 1960s), how it is in a very real sense a religion of its own, how it is politically extra-national, and many others.

"This book shows how for over 150 years the political policy of the United States was marked by governmental cooperation with and encouragement of Christianity in the schools and in social and political life. However, the situation changed dramatically beginning in 1941 when the Supreme Court for the first time in its history became dominated by justices who were members of the Masonic fraternity. It was a dominance that continued for the next 30 years, and resulted in the imposition of an alien secular humanism on American education and upon the country's political life."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 361 pages
• Publisher: Tan Books (October 17, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895554550
• ISBN-13: 978-0895554550
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #918,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book's Background, May 17, 2001

By 

Paul A. Fisher (Clermont,, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behind the Lodge Door: Church, State and Freemasonry In America (Paperback)

I am the author of Behind The Lodge Door, and believe it may be helpful if potential readers knew the type of research and findings which the book brings out.

First, of all, before writing the book, I was generally favorably disposed to the Masonic Fraternity after viewing a Shriner's Parade. Accordingly, to find out more about the "Craft," as initiates call Freemasonry, I read each monthly issue of its flagship monthly magazine, "The New Age," for each of the 10 annual issues for each year from 1921 through 1984. The majority of those issues ran about 110 pages per month, with very little advertising. The magazine's length shortened considerably about 10 years prior to its name change in less than a year after my book was published.

From that research, augmented by Inernal Revenue Records, personal papers of five Supreme Court Justices, Civil War Records, Presidential papers, etc., I learned that Masonry was a militant opponent of the Catholic Church. The fact is that Church issued more than 50 major documents condemning Masonry for its Naturalism, and its unceasing efforts to overthrow Church and State.

A crucial part of the book discusses how America was changed from basically a Christian nation to an agnostic country. That was accomplished through the Supreme Court of the United States when that body was dominated by Freemasons in ratios of 5-4 and 8-1 during the period 1941-1971 when it completely reversed 162 years of prior Court decisions regarding the religion clauses of the Constitution, as well as Congessional and Presidential actions.

One of those Justices, Hugo Black, an ardent Mason, was found to be 1. A lifetime Member of the Ku Klux Klan, and was Constitutionally disqualified to sit on the Court. The latter reason is that when he was a U.S. Senator, he voted to increase the salaries of Justices from $10,000 to $20,000 per year, which is in violation of Article 1 of the Constitution.

An interesting aspect of the Court's religion clauses decisions is that the arguments set forth in the Court's negative opinion on Christianity in America were predicated on arguments previously set forth in "The New Age." Moreover, they were brought before the high bench almost in the identical sequence in which they were complained about in the "New Age."

That is the general thrust of the book. But interestingly enough, shortly after my book was published, Scottish Rite Masonry changed the title of its flagship magazine.

Read the book. There is none other with such devastating documentation.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite Good, September 3, 2005

By 

Michael Tozer (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behind the Lodge Door: Church, State and Freemasonry In America (Paperback)

Paul Fisher's important book is thoroughly researched, meticulously documented, and well written. Certainly, it is the clarion call of a Catholic against the dangers of freemasonry in American society. But that is no reason to condemn the book. Rather, understanding the perspective of the author helps us to appreciate more fully what is reflected in the corpus of the work.

And there much in the body of this work that is extremely important and revelatory. For instance, Mr. Fisher shares startling, sensational, and well founded examples of many of America's leaders who were both freemasons and prominent members of the insidious Ku Klux Klan. When the author delves into the influence of secret societies on American history, the work is absolutely great and powerfully important. A small criticism is that, in this reviewer's opinion, too much space is devoted to the supreme court and its penetration by the aforementioned freemasons and Klansmen. This notwithstanding, the book is, in the whole, important and well recommended. May the Lord richly bless the author, his publisher, and any future readers.

34 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masonry's Counterattack, January 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Behind the Lodge Door: Church, State and Freemasonry In America (Paperback)

I have tracked this book on Amazon's web site, and, frankly, am amazed that there have been several quite negative comments to the effect that the book is not based on facts, or is "the same old story of half-truths," innuendos, etc.

The fact is the book is copiously documented with over 1000 end notes, primarily from Masonic sources. Indeed, the author makes known that he read every page of each monthly issue of the former flagship magazine of Scottish Rite Masonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, titled, "The New Age," for each of the years from 1921 through 1984. The book is based primarily on that work, and documents from "New Age" articles that Masonry has been for nearly 300 years a subversive secret cabal to overthrow church and state in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Within two years after "Lodge Door" was published, the magazine's title was changed to, I believe, "The American Freemason."

Further, "Lodge Door" is augmented by numerous citations from a Scottish Rite "Bible" titled, "Morals and Dogma" by Albert Pike, who was found guilty of treason to the U.S. during the Civil War. He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, a Mason, who was awarded the fourth through the 32 degree in Masonry in his White House bedroom. That President's pardoning of Albert Pike was one of the reasons for the House impeachment of him, which was rejected in the Senate by one vote, following a full court press by Masonry in America.

I strongly urge every American to read the book which has sold well over 25,000 copies.

Other sources include a long secret report on Masonry's secret efforts to initiate the Philippine Insurrection at the turn of the last Century, which is available in the National Archives, Internal Revenue Forms 990 on the Scottish Rite and allied organizations, as well over 200 other books.

The most startling revelation in the book documents that the U.S. Supreme Court was dominated by Masonic Justices from 1941 through 1971 in ratios of 5-4 and 8-1. Moreover, it is documented that the Court took up religion clause cases almost in the same sequence as was discussed in the "New Age."

Behind The Lodge Door is one of the most important books on Freemasonry that has ever been written. Al Jerome, Florida