His press release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/freemason/swift/prweb1045664.htm quotes him as saying:
Dr. Swift is a practicing Catholic who formerly trained to become a Jesuit priest. "I see Freemasonry as an interfaith fraternity in which I can share a common belief in God with men of other faiths while maintaining my identity as a Catholic. Being able to call a Jew or a Muslim my brother increases my hope for peace in the world," Swift says.
Tolerance is a highly regarded tradition in the practice of Freemasonry where all men meet On The Level. I prefer the use of the terminology non judgmentalism as obviously there are certain things that we will not tolerate. But we can leave the judgment to God and accept most any faith as reverential.
We read in the Book of Matthew:
Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, "Let me take the speck out of your eye", while the log is in your eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.
This is a subject that Freemasons should promulgate more often. I wrote a paper in 2005 titled "World Peace Through Brotherhood", available at www.phoenixmasonry.org There is no other organization in the world that brings more diverse men together peacefully than Freemasonry. This seems to me to be OUR CALLING in society.
Dr. Swifts press release goes on to say:
"When Christian leaders like Reverend Rod Parsley wage war against Islam from the pulpit, you've got to wonder what they're thinking," says Swift. "Don't they realize that they have a part in inciting conflict and violence, like religious extremists have done from afar?"
This book is available for a limited time as a free download. Do your part for World Peace. Read it and then go out into the world and spread the message.
Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteS&F, Patrick
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