Of course Christians can pray in Lodge! What they may not do is offer a
specifically Christian prayer as Lodge prayer, any more than a Jew or
Muslim may offer a prayer specific to his religion.
The
reason for this is that it is the custom of Masonry to require all to
participate in and assent to Lodge prayer. How can it be proper for a
Christian to require non-Christians to assent to a prayer peculiar to
his own religious belief?
No Christian would assent to a prayer offered by a Jew or Muslim which
essentially denied the doctrine of the Trinity. Because a Lodge acts in
unison, prayers offered in Lodge must be of a nature that will be agreed
to by all present.
To be sure, some Christians believe that only
prayers given in a particularly Christian form are truly prayers. These
people cannot become Freemasons because they do not subscribe to the
principles of religious toleration required of Masons. But most
Christians do not hold these exclusive beliefs and have no objections to
the form of prayer offered in the Masonic Lodge.
