"And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them."
Ephesians 5:11 - King James Version, The Holy Bible
And here we do!
The Ephesians 5-11 "ministry" is active in their condemnations of Freemasonry attempting to paint it as a religion by taking out of context quotes from Masonic literature and by staging 'sneak attacks' on Masons before they can "...put up their defenses" (as they themselves describe it. Larry Kunk, claims to be a former Rosicrucian (did he order a booklet from the back of a magazine?) and is now involved in some argument with his local church, encouraging a 'break-away' from them.
Mr. Kunk uses the tax laws of the United States to provide tax avoidance for monies he receives in his quest to spread his 'message'. (A self-addressed envelope is included with every mailing, conveniently!). His "Ephesians 5-11" entity has obtained approval from the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(C)(3) corporation - i.e. tax exempt - even though the only thing they appear to do is rail against Freemasonry. Will Mr. Kunk reveal the records of his funding? If not, why not? He is, after all, claiming to be a 'non-profit' entity under the 'religion' exemption to the tax code ....
A couple of years ago, Larry began offering a number of (mostly quite old) Masonic Monitors (the books published with the various 'rituals' in them) available for sale and/or download on his web site in violation of copyright laws. He now will sell you a custom-made CD-Rom with rituals of your choice conveniently placed there. Caveat emptor!
What Mr. Kunk and his contemporaries refuse to recognize is that language changes over the years and the things people said or wrote fifty (or two hundred) years ago may have a far different meaning (understanding) than today. The sale of copies of 50+ year old ritual books, then, can lead to only one of two conclusions:
 | Mr. Kunk is attempting to fatten his wallet by selling long out-of-date material (which he presumed were out of copyright) as being current and thus valid for study of Masonry; or |
| Mr. Kunk is deliberately violating the law by selling or illegally distributing material under copyright. |
You decide!
Larry's web site includes the pages for "Ex-Masons for Jesus" as part of his web domain. One of those involved in that 'organization' is Duane Washum, the "Ex-Worshipful Master" (who's also listed as an ex-Chaplain apparently to make it appear that there are more people in this group). What is their message? Judge for yourself based on facts. Examine the 'work' of Ephesians 5-11; is there any redeeming message there, save a disdain for Freemasonry. (Based on the material at the 2000 "Ministry to Masons Conference" perhaps we can expect a new slant with this religious organization railing against other service clubs like the Lions as well as organizations for US veterans like the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion). Perhaps, like Hamaas, they'll rail against the Rotary and Lions? Oh, wait: they already have screeds against 'animal' lodges (Lions, Elks, etc.) and service organizations. How very interesting.
You may also want to consider a couple of more things:
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Do the 'testimonies' sound a bit contrived? |
In the case of Pastor Stoney Shaw, after ten years of supposedly exemplary Christian work with a church in St. Louis he suddenly he discovers that there are Masons in the congregation and begins to take actions against them - the very same Masons who'd helped make all of these formerly wonderful things possible. Because of his actions, though, the church became divided while he supposedly lost his health - and his pastorship. Perhaps those Masons weren't really bad but when the seeds of discord and hatred were planted by this 'Man of God', the result was inevitable.)
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Are any of the supposed 'ex-Masons' or 'righteous pastors' identified by full name and location? |
Each edition of "A letter from Ephesus" (Kunk's nom-de-plum apparently) contains breathless recountings of men who have left their lodge or ministers and their congregations who've battled the evils of Freemasonry. On Duane Washum's so-called "Ex-Masons for Jesus" website, there are testimonies of those who've been 'led out of the lodge' (like unsuspecting sheep perhaps?). Yet NONE of these have full names and/or locations. Why not? Aren't these righteous individuals proud enough of their decisions to stand and be counted? Do they really need to hide in the shadows of anonymity?
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And does Mr. Kunk sound a bit like a reformed alcoholic in his frenetic attacks on Freemasonry - or has he discovered that running meetings by a tax-free corporation can be a profitable sideline? |
Again, use your judgment and evaluate whether this is reality or simply a very fertile imagination working overtime!
"Don't lose the element of surprise""Keep your intentions to witness to a Mason to yourself and your prayer group. If you don't, you may not get the opportunity to witness. Masons will not usually speak with you if they know that you hold a negative opinion about Freemasonry. The more they think you know, the less likely they are to let down their defenses and meet with you. The most common Masonic defence is silence. The most effective method is to work one-on-one with a man who has not had time to speak with other Masons about the meeting. Never agree to meet with a group of Masons without other solid Christians being present. If you attempt to witness to two or more Masons at the same time, they will stick together like a pack of wolves. In reality, that is exactly what most of them are. However, there usually is very little physical danger." --From the web site of Larry Kunk and his Ephesians 5-11 "Ministry" (5 July 1998) Does this seem like honest and open Christian behavior to you? Is this the kind of advice Jesus would give? Gosh, Larry.... |
And by the way, Larry has a great offer for all visitors to his web site. If you're one of the first three people to report a broken link, he'll send you a tape or some tracts. What a deal....
We wonder if he knows that all of the popular web authoring programs have automatic hyperlink checkers and that there's also shareware and freeware that'll do the job quite nicely (quickly and completely too) as well. We'd bet he does! <wink>
One further item of note is Mr. Kunk's active defense of proven liar, Jim Shaw. We document Mr. Shaw's falsehoods - and Mr. Kunk's defense of them - right here. Apparently Mr. Kunk feels it's ok to lie as long as it defames Freemasonry. A term sometimes used by Masons to describe similar activity as "Liars for Jesus".
Since this page first appeared, we received a message from a former co-worker of Mr. Kunk who felt we were overly critical of him. Frankly, we resent the use of US tax rules to enhance a Ministry of Hate and it is Mr. Kunk who does this. Freedom of religion? Freedom of speech? No: freedom to defame and freedom to spread hatred and bigotry! It's hard to imagine being overly-critical of lies and deceit....
Taking a year off?As of June 2, 2001, there was no notice whatsoever of the 10th Annual (2001) "Missions to Masons" Conference which, in the past, had been so highly touted by Mr. Kunk and his followers using the US taxpayer paid-for Ephesians 5-11 website. Curiously, within a couple of days of our update which noted this glaring omission, the 2000 announcement page had been changed to indicate a meeting in July "somewhere in Kentucky". After Mr. Kunk's prior planning of these meetings, this obscurity seems quite strange. Later, his site had an announcement of the supposed 11th (2002) Conference, again without details and still using the same page as the 2000 conference announcement - as one could see by viewing the source code! Perhaps "Missions to Masons" finally discovered that these meetings which got together a few discredited Masonic opponents were not the things that even they were willing to spend money attending. The site brags that "The legacy of the Ministry
To Masons Conferences has been repentance in the lives of many Masons and
revival in Churches which have taken a bold stand. We have lost count of the
number of men who have left the Masonic Lodge as a result of knowledge which
was provided through these cooperative efforts." Did
they lose both hands perhaps? It appears they'd only need one to tally the
count. In fact, we'd welcome seeing a list of even a dozen of those (including
contact information). Why? We believe the claim is blatantly false! |
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