Is it Wrong for a Lutheran Priest to be a Freemason? Opinions in the Hungarian Lutheran Church about Freemasonry in the Early 1910s

Abstract

In Hungary, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries there were several different views in the Lutheran Church about Freemasonry. There were Lutheran believers and church officials who sympathized with this society or were even members of it. Others were critical of the Freemasons, or were indifferent to them. In 1911, a debate broke out among Lutherans of different opinions about whether their ministers could be Freemasons. Some thought it was possible for pas-tors to be Freemasons, while others sharply rejected it. Some demanded that church laws should be passed to prohibit officials of the religious community from joining the Freemasons. However, liberal-minded Lutherans managed to prevent such a prohibitive measure in their church.