Article: 5159 of alt.freemasonry
From: paulb@cpcug.org (Paul M. Bessel)
Newsgroups: alt.freemasonry
Subject: Grand Orient of France
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 10:14:55 UNDEFINED
Organization: Capital PC User Group
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> France lost recognigion, at least for awhile, for allowing Atheists some 
>years back.

Just for information, I am not an expert, but have looked into this subject a bit and am pretty sure that the following is accurate.

U.S. Grand Lodges withdrew their recognition from the Grand Orient of France in the late 1860's, when it still required the Bible on the altar and every candidate to make the same expression of religious belief that our lodges require today. The reason for the withdrawal of recognition was that the Grand Orient of France had recognized some lodges in Louisiana that the Grand Lodge of Louisiana did not, and Louisiana asked the other states to join in putting pressure on the Grand Orient of France over this. Also, the Grand Orient of France had at that time publicly stated that Africans should be eligible to become Masons and U.S. Grand Lodges were upset by this.

The Grand Orient of France removed the requirement that candidates must specifically and openly express a belief in God in the late 1870's, long after U.S. Grand Lodges had withdrawn their recognition of the Grand Orient of France. By the way, the reason was that France had just gone through yet another viciously violent war, with Prussia (Germany), as well as a civil war in Paris that was much more violent than the one started in 1789, and the clergy had taken a position viewed by most as against the common people. Some Frenchmen retained strong moral beliefs but no longer were willing to identify themselves with a discredited clergy, and since that clergy WAS religion in France, the specific requirement was removed from the Grand Orient rules and they went back to the same words about religion used in the original Anderson's Constitutions.