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While many Christian denominations either allow or take no stance on their members joining Freemasonry, others discourage or prohibit their members from joining the fraternity.

The Roman Catholic Church has been among the most persistent critics of Freemasonry. The Church has prohibited its members from being Freemasons since the papal bull In eminenti apostolatus, promulgated in 1738 by Pope Clement XII. Since then, the Vatican has issued several papal bulls banning the membership of Catholics in Freemasonry under threat of excommunication. In 1983, the Canon Law was changed to read, "A person who joins an association that plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict", eliminating the penalty of excommunication for Masons. Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, wrote in a letter that those who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. The penalty of excommunication is not declared in the current code of canon law, but membership remains forbidden. The aforementioned letter does not form part of Canon Law and, during his tenure, Benedict XVI did not make any attempt to change Canon Law to explicitly mention the ban on Freemasonry. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia argued that some of the ceremonial in the Scottish Rite is anti Catholic. However, this claim does not appear in subsequent editions. The Masonic use of Biblical imagery was seen in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia as being done in such a way as to deny the revelation of Christianity. However, this complaint was not included in subsequent editions. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, conflict between Catholicism and Freemasonry broke out into disputes over secular education, discrimination in employment, and in some European countries, the expulsion of religious orders.

In 1974, Cardinal Franjo Seper, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sent a letter that seemed to relax the previous absolute ban on Freemasonry, causing confusion and leading many Catholics to become Freemasons. In 1981, the Congregation clarified this stance in a letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitled Declaration Concerning Status of Catholics Becoming Freemasons, stating that Seper's private letter, now made public, had engendered unfavorable interpretations of Catholic doctrine. The Congregation's letter also affirmed that the prohibition against Catholics joining Masonic orders remained. Later that same year, the Vatican reaffirmed the ban. In 2000, a letter written by Father Thomas Anslow, a judicial vicar, indicated a more permissive attitude to Freemasonry, although this was retracted two years later, with Anslow claiming that the analysis was faulty.

Catholic critics of Freemasonry observe that it refuses to promote one faith as being superior to any others, while at the same time it also uses rituals that can appear religious to outsiders. That combination is seen as inculcating an indifference to religion. The Masonic author Mackey called Freemasonry "a science which is engaged in the search after the divine truth". Anderson's The Constitutions of the Free Masons, 1723, likens the guidance of moral truth to a religion in which all men agree and said that the specifics of Mason's religious faith are their own opinions to leave to themselves. Freemasons reply that not obliging a member to profess a certain religious viewpoint as a condition of membership is not the equivalent of asserting that no religion can be superior to any other. Personal theological beliefs are not to be discussed in the lodge, thus avoiding arguments with those holding different beliefs. It has been suggested that this ban on religious discussion was especially important in eighteenth century England where a civil war, in part caused by religious conflict, had only recently ended.

Although many Protestant denominations do not prohibit or discourage their members from joining Masonic lodges, nor have they issued any position papers condemning Freemasonry, other churches have formally opposed Masonry and spoken of the problems they see with Christians belonging to Masonic lodges. The United Brethren Church, the first American denomination not transplanted from Europe, is one such denomination that formally forbids its members from joining a Masonic lodge.

There is a range of intensity among those Protestant denominations which discourage their congregants from joining Masonic lodges. Most of these denominations tend to be either evangelical Protestant or other neo Protestant. Among Protestants opposed to Freemasonry are the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, Mennonites, The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Church of the Brethren, Assemblies of God, Society of Friends (Quakers), Free Methodist church, Seventh day Adventist Church, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Free Church of Scotland, Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, Presbyterian Church in America, Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK). Most of these condemnations resulted from the work of church committees appointed only in recent decades. Many of these Protestant condemnations have never been enforced.

Many historical, traditional, and mainline Protestant denominations in mainland Europe officially do not prohibit Freemasonry. An example is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, a member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany. It recognizes Freemasons among its members and sometimes the Masons hold public ceremonies in the historic St. Michael's Church, Hamburg.

Some Eastern Orthodox Churches have condemned Freemasonry. In 1933, the Synod of the Church of Greece condemned Freemasonry, forbade all clerics to be members of it, and demanded that church members break all relations with Freemasonry. Joseph Smith, likewise, became a Freemason in 1842, when the church was headquartered in Nauvoo, Illinois. He and hundreds of his followers—including his first four successors as church president—all became Freemasons. Shortly after becoming a Freemason, Smith introduced the church's temple endowment ceremony, which contained some symbols and language closely paralleling some of the rituals of Freemasonry. When the church relocated to Utah in 1847 after Smith's death, Brigham Young it has been rumored, was unsuccessful in establishing masonic lodges in the Utah Territory. There has been no proof of this. This was supposedly due to several factors, but the church's practice of polygamy and the strong anti Mormon sentiment of the era greatly contributed. Distrust between members of the church and Masons grew throughout the second half of the 1800s. Many Freemasons who were not members of the LDS Church harbored strong anti Mormon sentiments that started in Nauvoo. Soon after Smith and his followers were initiated, the Grand Lodge of Illinois was compelled to revoke the charters of several predominantly Latter day Saint lodges due to anti Mormon sentiment and rumors of irregularities. In 1872, the Grand Lodge of Utah was formed and in 1925 implemented a policy prohibiting members of the church from become Masons or from associating with Utah lodges from out of state. The church also began discouraged its members from joining any "oath bound" fraternities or "secret societies" without naming Freemasonry specifically, eventually codifying it in the Church Handbook of Instructions. In 1984, The Grand Lodge of Utah rescinded its ban on members of the church, after the proposal failed in 1983. In 2008, Glen Cook, a practicing Latter day Saint, became the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Utah, and subsequently held national and international masonic offices Another Latter day Saint Freemason, Mark E. Koltko Rivera, who authored an introduction to Freemasonry entitled "Freemasonry: An Introduction."

Freemasonry unambiguously states that it is not a religion, nor a substitute for religion. There is no separate "Masonic" God, nor is there a separate proper name for a deity in any branch of Freemasonry.

Certain types of Freemasonry, most notably the Swedish Rite, are said to be connected to Esoteric Christianity, which holds that Orthodox Christian doctrine is for the duller masses and that "real" Christianity holds the secret knowledge concerning the sacrifice of Christ on Golgotha.

The 1917 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia says that the Masonic authors Clavel, Ragnon, Pike and Mackey claim Masonic symbolism is rooted in the solar and phallic worship of pre Christian mystery religion, particularly Egyptian religion.

First Conjuration Addressed to Emperor Lucifer. Emperor Lucifer, Master and Prince of Rebellious Spirits, I adjure thee to leave thine abode, in what ever quarter of the world it may be situated and come hither to communicate with me. I command and I conjure thee in the Name of the Mighty Living God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to appear without noise and without

This quote is often attributed to "Arthur Edward Waite, 33°" on Christian Anti Masonic websites, as if it were an authoritative statement from a "high level" Mason, but Waite is not identified as a 33rd degree Mason anywhere in the book the quote is taken from. He is described simply as an individual with an interest in the occult. Waite was not a Mason when he wrote this book (the book was written and published in 1898; Waite became a Mason in 1902). Additionally, according to the Masonic research document "The Lie of Luciferianism" Waite was never a 33rd degree Mason; he never joined the Scottish Rite. He was, however, a "high level" member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical order based on an initiated lodge model similar to Freemasonry.

I hereby promise the Great Spirit Lucifer, Prince of Demons, that each year I will bring unto him a human soul to do with as it may please him, and in return Lucifer promises to bestow upon me the treasures of the earth and fulfil my every desire for the length of my natural life. If I fail to bring him each year the offering specified above, then my own soul shall be forfeit to him. Signed {Invocant signs pact with his own blood}

This passage is from Manly Palmer Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages (specifically, the chapter "Ceremonial Magic and Sorcery."). As with Waite, Christian Anti masons use this quotation as if it were an "authoritative" statement from a "high level" Mason. However, as with Waite, Hall is not identified as a 33° Mason anywhere in the book, nor is there a record of his reception of the 33° cited in any readily available source that does not include the above quotation. According to the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, Hall was initiated into Freemasonry, but not until 1954, when he was 53 years old. The secret Teachings of All Ages was published in 1928, when he was only 27. More importantly, the quotation is taken out of context. Hall is not discussing Freemasonry at all, but rather summarizing how a magician would invoke a spirit and giving an example of how a demonic pact might read. Hall was an occultist, and according to one source, was a well established lecturer on the occult and other esoterica by the age of 20, before he was even eligible to become a Mason. When The Mason learns that the Key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the Mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply this energy. This quotation appears in Hall's The Lost Keys Of Freemasonry. It appears in Chapter 4 (titled "The Fellowcraft") which has nothing to do with the actual Fellowcraft degree. The passage is again taken out of context, and its meaning changes when it is put back into the context of the chapter it comes from: it is part of a larger philosophical discussion which can also be read to imply that the improper use of "energies" can make the Mason a tool of Satan. Furthermore, even taken out of context, this passage does not refer to worshipping Satan per se. As with the previous quotation from Secret Teachings of All Ages, the book was written well before Hall became a Mason. In his Introduction to the book Hall clearly states: "At the time I wrote this slender volume, I had just passed my twenty first birthday, and my only contact with Freemasonry was through a few books commonly available to the public".</blockquote>

This quotation is taken from Helena Blavatsky's magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, and is often presented by Anti Masons as evidence of Satanism on the part of Freemasonry. This passage is quite regularly taken out of its context as Blavatsky makes extensive use of symbols and types in communicating occult doctrine. Furthermore, Blavatsky was not associated with Freemasonry and nor did she ever claim to be.

Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also God. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two Gods: darkness being necessary to light to serve as its foil as the pedestal is necessary to the statue, and the brake to the locomotive. Albert Pike is frequently quoted by Christian Anti Masons, often with the quotation taken out of context. However, in this case the statement was not even written by Pike. It was included in a letter which con artist Leo Taxil claimed was from Pike, and was later demonstrated to be a forgery.

The occultist Aleister Crowley, who called himself "The Great Beast 666" claimed to be a Freemason, and his association with Freemasonry is one major reason why some conservative Christians see it as an occult organization. According to Martin P. Starr, all of the lodges and organizations Crowley joined and founded were considered irregular.