Freemasonry is often a controversial thing in the Church these days, I know. Why?
It appears that the Church in question has found that it's much easier to focus its group of people against an external cause that cannot be controlled than it is to have them do work upon themselves that is controllable. This is one of many ways to rally and solidify a group that is otherwise wandering aimlessly and without any true unifying purpose. It is called, "The addiction to a cause", and it is used within organizations to focus a group's attention on things that will control and focus attention and off things that really do need to be done because those in control know that by doing so, they gain tremendous power AND it masks the shortcomings and addictions of the leadership.
As you might be gathering from my response, Freemasons are not immune from this in any way. Members within our organization suffer with this all consuming characteristic all too often and unfortunately cause others within our organization to suffer as well and as a result.
Gnostic is a term I've heard used by Christians describing Freemasonry, but... I guess just what might be the reason for this?
Labeling is a well-known way of categorizing, stereotyping and dehumanizing others so that those who are labeling them feel justified with attacking them in ways that would be unconceivable if they were not so labeled. It is done out of ignorance AND in many cases it is done purposefully to influence others so that those who do the labeling shall gain additional influence over and from those who are ignorant.
Once again, Freemasons are not immune from this in any way. Members within our organization purposefully create labels to influence members who do not know any better and who would rather have things "simplified" so that they can react to situations that they would rather not think about in depth.
If Christianity is truly completely compatible, why is it so widely frowned upon and discouraged these days?
If you are talking about Freemasonry being frowned upon and discouraged by Christians: It is not all Christians (or believers of other faiths either!) that frown upon and discourage others from joining Freemasonry. It is only those who know they have a gullible and ignorant target audience that they can control by spouting these lies and when the audience actually listens to and is moved by their non-sense. It's a power thing and it does work all too well upon the ignorant and lazy masses.
And...once again, Freemasons are not immune to this. You have a lot of non-sense being spouted by trusted individuals within our organization who are empowered by gullible and ignorant pre-members and existing members who refuse to dig deeper into issues affecting them and others.
It's like they think Masons all pray to false gods and practice voodoo...
<sigh> The members of these organizations are mislead by both
1) their unwillingness to do the work necessary to know and be better; and
2) their desire to focus their energies upon supporting things that they know are truly not good for them.
Once again, freemasons are not immune to this. It is why Freemasonry and Freemasons are currently struggling unnecessarily with so much non-sense and suffering as both an organization and as individuals.
F&S,
Brother Coach