Unfinished Temples and Unnamed Gods: Free Masonry and America's Founding

Free Masonry mid-wifed the birth of our nation. But that has been part of America's problems.

Every Fourth of July, Americans light fireworks in the name of liberty. We sing anthems, wave flags, and remember a revolution that birthed a nation. But behind the patriotic pageantry is a history more complicated than most care to admit—one shaped not only by pastors, pamphleteers, and patriots, but by a fraternity cloaked in secrecy and symbols.

Freemasonry.

To speak honestly about the American founding is to confront this uncomfortable reality. The influence of the Masonic brotherhood is not a matter of speculation; it’s a matter of record. Many of the Founders were Freemasons. Their lodges were centers of conversation, organization, and action. And their imprint remains etched into our architecture, our currency, and—perhaps most profoundly—our political ideals.

A few years ago, I wrote the foreword to a book laying out why the Masonic order is fundamentally incompatible with the Word of God. But patriotism doesn’t mean pretending away the parts of history we find unsavory.

Earlier today, an online critic thought it contradictory that I would wish the world a happy Independence Day, when only a few days ago had written the viral article about our bombing of the Christians in Nagasaki. I had to explain - but should not have had to - that loving your country doesn’t require endorsing every chapter in its story. Likewise, we can acknowledge the role Freemasonry played in the birth of our republic without endorsing it.

Truth doesn’t bend to comfort. And history—if you’re brave enough to look—rarely lets you draw a straight line from cause to righteousness.

THE MASONIC MOTHERS OF REVOLUTION

Before the ink was dry on the Declaration of Independence, the scent of Masonic incense already clung to the drapes. It’s a fact—uncomfortable though it may be—that many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. Not just attendees, mind you. We’re talking apron-wearing, hand-signing, oath-swearing initiates.

George Washington? Worshipful Master of the Alexandria Lodge. Benjamin Franklin? Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France. Paul Revere? Freemason. John Hancock? Yep. Even that butter-churning intellectual Thomas Paine was deeply influenced by Enlightenment-era secret societies.

Freemasonry didn’t just play a background role; it was baked into the cultural batter of the rebellion. Their lodges were often safe houses of seditious talk, staging grounds for revolutionary activity, and in some cases—like Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern—headquarters for the planning of the Boston Tea Party.

And just so no one thinks I’m tossing out half-baked innuendo, I’ll remind you: I once wrote the foreword to a book outlining exactly why Freemasonry is incompatible with biblical Christianity. I’m not here to lionize Luciferian hand signals. But again, acknowledging history isn’t the same as endorsing it.

WHOSE PROVIDENCE? WHOSE GOD?

One of the most dangerous myths in conservative Christian circles is that America was founded as a Christian nation in the purest, most creedal sense. Certainly, many of its citizens were Christians—many even devout. Certainly, the moral furniture of the Republic was borrowed from the household of the Church.

But the guiding hands behind the Declaration and Constitution included men whose view of God ranged from biblical to bizarre. Jefferson’s scissors were used more for cutting out miracles than crafting creeds. Franklin once suggested that prayer be brought into the Constitutional Convention after reminding everyone he didn’t exactly believe in the God who answers prayer.

Masonry added fuel to that fire. It offered a middle path between Enlightenment rationalism and organized religion—a kind of spiritual Unitarianism with aprons and geometry sets. The Masonic “Great Architect” wasn’t the Triune God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was a conveniently vague, deistic deity acceptable to all who pledged the oaths, regardless of faith—or lack thereof.

That theological squishiness worked like yeast in the revolutionary loaf. It allowed men of diverse (and sometimes contradictory) beliefs to unite under a banner that said “Providence” instead of “Jesus.” It was an act of national vagueness that allowed something profound to be built—but also something vulnerable to decay.

THE GREEN DRAGON’S SMOKEY WHISPERS

The Green Dragon Tavern in Boston was not just a pub. It was a lodge—specifically, the meeting place for the St. Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons. And it served as an unofficial command center for what would later be known as the Sons of Liberty. If those walls could talk, they’d speak in cryptic phrases and coded knocks.

It’s here that plans for the Boston Tea Party were finalized. Here that Paul Revere got his marching orders. And here that resistance against British tyranny was distilled into actionable rebellion.

Was it the Holy Spirit or the spirit of Masonry that moved them? That’s a false dichotomy. God often writes straight with crooked lines—and sometimes, those crooked lines are drawn by men with compasses and squares.

WASHINGTON’S APRON, AND THE SWORD OF PROVIDENCE

George Washington cut quite the figure: powdered wig, steely eyes, steady hand. He was a general, a statesman, and yes—a Freemason. He took his oaths seriously and was active in Masonic life until his death. He was even buried with Masonic rites.

Does this tarnish his legacy? That depends on how you define legacy. If you think every hero must be squeaky clean, you’re in for a long, disappointing ride through history. But if you believe God raises up flawed instruments to accomplish righteous ends—as He did with Cyrus, as He did with Samson—then Washington remains a marvel.

He invoked the name of Providence constantly, and though his public references to Christ were scant, there is ample reason to believe he feared God in a real and reverent sense. Was he confused? Probably. But who among us isn’t, when the fire is hot and the stakes are cosmic?

MASONRY’S COMPROMISES, AND AMERICA’S STRENGTH

What made Freemasonry attractive to so many early Americans was its offer of unity without dogma. In a nation of Protestants, Catholics, Deists, and the occasional heretic, Masonry provided a way to cooperate across religious lines without bloodshed. It was a spiritual halfway house with just enough sacred language to keep things civil and just enough secrecy to keep things exciting.

But that compromise came at a cost. The more Masonry spread, the more it pushed biblical specificity to the margins. Its vague reverence for a generic “Creator” replaced the specificity of Christ. The “Great Architect” became a stand-in for theological cowardice.

That’s why I said what I said in that book’s foreword: Freemasonry, when compared to Scripture, collapses under the weight of its own ambiguity. A man cannot serve two masters—and he cannot swear blood oaths in secret chambers while serving a God who commands open proclamation of the truth.

THE CITY OF MYSTERY: L'ENFANT’S WASHINGTON, D.C.

It is impossible to talk about Masonic influence without examining the design of the capital city itself. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French-born architect commissioned by George Washington to design Washington, D.C., was not a Freemason. But his primary assistant—and the man who ultimately completed the plan—was Andrew Ellicott, who was. Working with Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man who also had ties to Masonic lodges, Ellicott laid out a city rich with esoteric geometry and Masonic alignment.

The street grid and monument placement of Washington, D.C., reveal clear traces of Masonic symbolism. The Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument form angles that trace out pentagrams, compass-and-square alignments, and solar geometries tied to solstices and equinoxes. Some of this may be coincidental, but much is not. The city was designed to be symbolic—L’Enfant and Ellicott made no secret of their use of Enlightenment ideals and Masonic imagery to create a “New Rome,” a city that radiated meaning to those initiated in its symbology.

The very positioning of the Capitol atop Jenkins Hill (later “Capitol Hill”) was conceived as an echo of Solomon’s Temple—a sacred seat of law and authority. The “Capitol” was named deliberately to evoke the Capitoline Hill in Rome, but the spiritual undertones—especially for Freemasons—invoked the ancient notion of a Temple civilization, ruled by reason, order, and sacred geometry.

THE CORNERSTONE RITUALS: SACRED GROUND FOR A SECULAR STATE

One of the most concrete Masonic rituals imported into early American life was the laying of cornerstones. In Freemasonry, the cornerstone represents the foundation of both the building and the moral character of the man. It is typically laid with a ceremonial procession involving corn, wine, and oil—symbols of prosperity and blessing—and prayers to the Great Architect.

On September 18, 1793, George Washington, wearing full Masonic regalia, led such a ritual at the site of the U.S. Capitol. The ceremony was organized by the Grand Lodge of Maryland and attended by a full Masonic procession. Washington placed the cornerstone with a silver trowel, pouring ceremonial corn, wine, and oil, and delivering a Masonic prayer of dedication. This wasn't some isolated oddity—it set the tone for future federal buildings, many of which were consecrated with similar rites.

Such rituals reveal not only Masonic participation but the deeper intent to treat civic institutions as quasi-sacred. If America was to be a new kind of Temple society—a republic of virtue and law—it would need sacred geometry, sacred symbols, and sacred ceremonies. The problem is, none of them were rooted in the blood of Christ or the Law of God. They were rooted in Enlightenment mysticism—an elegant counterfeit.

THE GREAT SEAL: EGYPTIAN EYES AND LATIN SPELLS

Most Americans don’t blink when they see the Great Seal of the United States, but they should. It’s not subtle. The reverse of the seal, visible on every dollar bill, is a clear amalgamation of Masonic, Gnostic, and ancient Egyptian imagery.

Let’s break it down.

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