The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The Book That Breaks Masonic Silence [Hardcover]

Richard P. Thorn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 1994

This is a book which I highly recommend for reading by all Freemasons...--Tom Jackson, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As the religious right spreads its influence throughout the U.S., it is inevitable that some of its more provocative speakers should tread on the toes of other groups, both religious and nonreligious. In Thorn's case, the fundamentalists have met their match. Thorn attacks the critics of Masonry, showing where they err in their assumptions and providing some good insights into the nature of the Masons' "secret" society. He also draws on his own fundamentalist background to explain the theology behind the fundamentalist statements. Thorn acknowledges that he may not change anyone's mind, but he feels that Masonry stands at a crucial point and that its future may depend on how it meets the fundamentalist attack. This book is recommended for those interested in the influence and place of religion in the world. Mary Deeley

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: M.Evans & Company; 1st edition (May 25, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871317605
• ISBN-13: 978-0871317605
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,367,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Read David Stevenson's 'Origins of Freemasonry' instead., November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The Book That Breaks Masonic Silence (Hardcover)

If your real interest is in the true origins of Freemasonry, this isn't the book for you.

Instead, I recommend that you read 'The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710', by David Stevenson.

Stevenson's book is the only work on the origins of Freemasonry I have ever seen that ignores the movement's vast myth-making literature (which includes everything Albert Pike wrote) and focuses instead on the surviving records of the earliest known masonic lodges. Stevenson--who teaches history at the University of St. Andrews--paints a solid, sober, believable portrait of Freemasonry's rather prosaic origins in the operative masonic lodges of early 17th-century Scotland.

His study is a welcome and refreshing antidote to all the junk that has been written about Freemasonry in the past three centuries. It explodes Masonic authors' extravagant claims for an origin in ancient civilizations and possession of power supernatural secrets. It also undermines anti-Masonic authors' equally bizarre accusations of pacts with supernatural forces of evil. It replaces these fanciful images with the story of a remarkable human institution whose recent, humble, workaday origins are far more interesting than its myths.

If you only read one book about Freemasonry in your lifetime, that book should be David Stevenson's 'The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710'.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Masonic Silence was Exploited by the Right, April 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The Book That Breaks Masonic Silence (Hardcover)

Richard Thorn's book presents what amounts to the party line from Masonry. He was both diplomatic and polite to the religious right - something worthy of praise.

It is sad that, in the name of their G_d, the religious right can 'bear false witness against their neighbor.' Fortunately the secular society in which we live - there being a wall of seperation between church and state - allows BOTH thinking and believing to exist in the same communities.

3.0 out of 5 stars oddy familiar, January 2, 2001

By 

tom ball - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The Book That Breaks Masonic Silence (Hardcover)

While the premise of this book is laudable, and Rev. Carlson deserves every slap on the hand he gets for his many prevarications in the name of God, Mr. Thorn's book is nearly identical to an earlier book by A. DeHoyos, "The Cloud of Prejudice." Interested parties should get both books and judge for themselves whether Mr. Thorn has acted questionably.