Well, I guess it's official. All Freemasons are "clandestine." Or at least that's what Bob Larson says. Who is Bob Larson? At first glance he's just another anti-Masonic fundamentalist Christian with a website. He runs Bob Larson Ministries and a Protestant church called the Spiritual Freedom Church of Phoenix. He seems to be making quite a bit of money selling his books, holding retreats and lectures across the globe, and providing personal coaching. Oh, and exorcising demons.
There's no mention of his price for casting out Satan.
Yes. Bob's also a Protestant exorcist! He has even teamed up with the Catholic super-exorcist the Burning Taper showcased a few weeks ago, Father Gabriele Amorth. Larson has even written a book, Larson's Book of Spiritual Warfare, outlining how you, too, can become an exorcist. Only $15.99, while supplies last. Weighing in at a hefty 500 pages, one wonders if you're supposed to beat the Devil out of people with the book.
A self-proclaimed "expert on cults, the occult and supernatural phenomena," Larson's latest book, Larson’s Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality, "explores more than one hundred non-Christian religious movements, covering everything from Islam to feng shui to reincarnation."
If the rest of the material this man offers his readers is as full of errors as his rant on Freemasonry (which his website spells Freemassonry), they're being sold a load of ka-ka. Larson's anti-Masonic rant on his website is packed with errors and meaningless trivia.
Larson erroneously tells his readers that third-degree Masons are called Shriners, and that "Masons refer to their 33rd degree Masons as 'Worshipful Master.'"
For benefit of Burning Taper readers who do not know, all Master Masons are third-degree Masons. To be a Shriner you (currently) must be a Mason, but not all Masons are Shriners (currently there are less than 500,000 Shriners in the US, compared to five million Masons). The Shrine is a separate organization.
Also, a Worshipful Master is the elected Master of a local lodge, usually serves only one year, and while he may be a member of other Masonic bodies, he only has to be a Master Mason. Any degree higher than the Third is a Scottish or York Rite degree, and has nothing to do with a Worshipful Master.
If you want to hold your own exorcism, here's Larson's checklist of what to bring:
- Your own Bible so you can look stuff up quickly.
- Another Bible, of a different translation.
- A complete, unabridged concordance, as God might
lay a verse on your mind to smite Satan with, and you might not remember what chapter and book it comes from. - Water and light, healthy snacks for you and the Possessed One. This could go long, you know.
- A portable cassette player and tapes of praise and worship music to torment the demons with.
- Toilet facilities should be nearby, and all items that could be used for suicide should be removed before the exorcism begins. If the Exorcist and the Possessed are of opposite
sexes, someone of the same sex as the Posessed should be present.
Ever vigilant, Larson's website's home page warns visitors not to believe anything negative they may have read or heard about Larson:
SPECIAL NOTICE... In your effort to locate our web site, you may have encountered other sites devoted to attacking our ministry. Be aware that these sites contain misinformation, disinformation, twisted facts and outright lies. Many of these accusations are sinister distortions of reality and fabrications designed to look truthful. Our response is that of Nehemiah: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you (Nehemiah 6:3)?" To those who maliciously malign our efforts to reach the lost for Christ and see those in demonic bondage set free, we respond as our Savior commanded us. We "pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).A 1993 Cornerstone magazine article was quite critical of Larson, saying that in the 1960s and 1970s, Larson tried to make a name for
himself being an anti-rock'n'roll crusader, but didn't hit the Big Time until he became an anti-Satanic cult-buster when it became fashionable in the 1980s? (Remember Geraldo Rivera's fascination with so-called Satanism?)
According to the Cornerstone article, Larson's fundraising techniques have long been controversial. It is alleged that he ran and re-ran taped religious radio programs for years as if they were live, setting the call-in numbers to be "busy" while keeping the toll-free 800 number donation line open. Later, the article says, he got more sophisticated and did live commentary while re-using old call-in recordings, manipulating would-be donors with a called-in pledge that was "sent by God."
An ex-employee claims to have not only ghost-written but totally fabricated Larson's account of the Satanic ritual abuse of a small girl.
Even Christian magazines and other ministers have painted Larson in a less-than-flattering light. Apparently, Larson lashes out with charges of conspiracy whenever anyone speaks out against him.
Maybe if he reads this blog entry, he'll at least correct the errors about Freemasonry on his website. I mean, if you're gonna trash Freemasonry, at least get it right.
More stuff:
- Video — Watch Tom Brown, another Protestant exorcist, send Satan scurrying in this History Channel video
- Interview — The introduction to "My Dinner with Bob Larson," a 1994 interview with musician and member of the Church of Satan Boyd Rice, says of Larson:
Bob Larson should be a familiar name to anyone reading Snake Oil. His high-pitched tirades against rock music and, indeed, all aspects of popular culture can be heard for two hours a day on Christian radio stations across the country. From Beavis and Butthead to Howard Stern to the latest death metal band, you haven't arrived until Bob does a show about you. Bob sees the influence of Satan everywhere and is big into worldwide Satanic conspiracies, generational Satanism, ritual abuse, and demon possession. A good episode of "Talk Back With Bob Larson" is scarier and more lurid than The Exorcist. The term "Christian Pornography" has been aptly applied to Bob, but like all good Exploitation peddlers, he justifies his sensationalism with moral outrage.
- Sacred Feminine / Catholic website that supports Bob Larson — Along with many articles about the Sacred Feminine, and more than a few drawings and photos of female breasts in religious settings, you'll find an amazingly flattering write-up about Bob Larson from Rasa von Werder, the operator of WomanThouArtGod.com and the College of Matriarchy and the Feminine Divine.
Bob Larson | Satanism | Catholic Church | Freemasonry |
Feminine Divine | Sacred Feminine | Charlatans | Exorcism | Christianity | Religion | Church of Satan | Satan | Demons | Sacred Feminine | Charlatans | Spiritual Freedom Church of Phoenix
Strange Bedfellows.....
ReplyDeleteThis woman says on her web site that she knows Bob Larson well, and endorses his acumen with knowing the correct names of demons. Consider her article on :
GODDESS SYMBOLISM WITHIN FREEMASONRY
http://www.womanthouartgod.com/wmbondfreemasonry.php
Her essay on the 'great secret' of High Freemasonry seems a bit more well informed than from an afternoon's reading of a "book in my local library and glanced through it, out of idle curiosity"
If you think Bob is a fake, why don't you try attending one of his meetings? I did and had freemasonry cast out of me. My grandfather was a 33rd degree mason. And it brought so much fear and demonic domination into me. I just went to see if he was fake. He wasn't. And it is real. So don't mock what you don't know.
ReplyDeleteBob Larson is a powerful and convincing speaker. I heard him at a Christian youth meeting in the mid 1970s at the Admiral Beatty Hotel in Saint John, New Brunswick Canada.
DeleteBob Larson exorcised out of me some of the most joyful, moving and beautiful musical creations of the 60s and 70s by performing the music live, and then condemning it as he performed. He was bizarrely talented. I recall that he played a Fender Jaguar through a Twin Reverb and a fuzz/wahwah pedal and was accompanied by a drum machine. He would speak until audience attention wandered, and then bombard his audience with the high volume rock’n roll, as attention commanding examples of demonically inspired sinful music. He used record album covers as flash cards, and ran through dozens of great and fantastic works of art discarding each in turn as the work of the devil.
The inconsistencies in his sermon/speech/performance/diatribe struck me at the time, but I was young and in my formative years, and he was old (at least 30), and had been mistakenly presented to me as an authority by my church. It is a huge regret in my development as a Christian that I attended this conference and listened to him, and for a time, believed what he said. I have recovered.
In the hotel elevator, I had the pleasure of meeting and engaging Mrs. Larson - who has since become an ex-Mrs. Larson - in conversation. To me, she seemed to be a lovely woman, just a few years older than me and was clearly shying away from his extremism when quizzed about his details of his "ministry". This was a hint that I should not take the message on face value.
Since, I have matured. I have developed a healthy disrespect for what God tells other people to say he told them to tell me.
God and belief and Christianity and even fundamentalist orthodoxy are not so narrow as Bob Larson would paint them. Sadly, I missed some really great things in life for many years as a result of his influence.
But I haven't missed Freemasonry. I refer Mr. Larson to the Book he holds sacred, and remind him that judgement and condemnation are not his to dish out. He clearly hasn’t grasped the “unto others as you would have them do unto you” or the “judge not” concepts central to the New Testament message.
I won’t ridicule or condemn Bob Larson’s concept of God, his ethics, friends or beliefs, but I will ask that same courtesy from him. From what I know of him, I am unlikely to receive it.
My suggestion to you as readers whether or not you are Freemasons is ignore Bob Larson. He is he is a self serving zealot who rails against what he doe does not value or understand.
I do not think Freemasonry could make Bob Larson a better man. He should leave it alone and go about the business of improving himself, before he casts stones at others.