It's Time for Freemasons to Stop Apologizing for Being Masons!

Masonry has had its critics since the first Grand Lodge was formed in 1717 (and probably before that), and in the United States, there was even a short lived Anti Freemason Party. For the most part, we have, rightfully, ignored them as ignorant pinheads, unworthy of response.

For centuries, that was the appropriate response. After all, dignifying their complaints and accusations gave weight to their weightless and thoughtless words. Today, however, with the advent of the internet and the drive by media, it has become necessary to address the konspiracy kooks, with factual and substantive statements.

When I was first raised a Master Mason on November 3, 2001 in Riverside Lodge #259, my first encounter with the mindless hordes of hatemongering antimasonry was Freemasonrywatch. At the time, that was THE web site you found when searching for Freemasonry on the internet. Since then, it has become… irrelevant, and its founder, Kevin McNeil-Smith of British Columbia who styled himself as “Watchy”, have been pulled from the shadows.

Yet, in all this rush to address the hatemongers and the ignorant haters, we have, in a small degree, begun to act as if their arguments might, maybe, somehow, have a tiny degree of merit. We don’t grant that they have any merit of course, but our actions, to eliminate their arguments, are not helping us. For example, the United Grand Lodge of England removed the penalties from the obligation, because one of the main complaints offered against freemasonry is the “bloody” penalties. As Freemasons, WE all know the penalties are symbolic, and that they have never been imposed by one brother upon another, yet the small minded, looking for any complaint, have latched on to them.

In the nature of addressing the complaints, then, the United Grand Lodge of England removed the penalties, and included, instead, an explanation of the penalties as symbols. The reasoning was that the penalties were offensive to some religious leaders, and the thought was that removing them would remove the objection:

Now to get back to our ANCIENT SYMBOLIC PENALTIES. Why on earth should we even consider relocating or removing then in the first place? "Oh because they are offensive to some religious leaders". That begs the question as to which religious leaders? Some of the greatest clergymen I have ever met, both the pragmatic and the scholarly, have been members of the Masonic Order. Not a single one of those extremely worldly wise reverend brothers ever dreamed of any part of the ceremony being offensive in any manner whatever, INCLUDING the penalties. Obviously no clergy outside of the craft should cause us any concern because they really don't understand the context of the ceremony or the part the penalties play in it. Now what does that leave us to contemplate? I believe it points out in the clearest possible terms that the Masonic Order is a true microcosm of the real world in which we live.1

Instead, the religious leaders who the UGLE was attempting to pander to, simply turned and said:

See, we TOLD you the penalties were wrong, even the MASONS recognize it. What else are we right about that if we persist, we might be able to get them to stop?

Wonderful.

That is but one example. In 2005, the Grand Lodge of California decided that henceforth, the word TEMPLE would be removed from all building association names. Even the Grand Lodge changed the name of its building association.

The net result? Our detractors now claim we are trying to HIDE that we have temples of worship because of their criticism. It would have been better if we had simply answered their objection with facts instead of cutting and running, and making the situation worse. That written, I have to include that the Grand Master and executive committee were acting with the best of intentions, as I am sure the UGLE Grand Officers were... its just that they don't seem to realize they are not dealing with rational people.

We are Freemasons. WE know that the no objection the detractors can whip up have any value, and we know that our ancient and honorable fraternity is dedicated to morality, honor, integrity and the betterment of mankind, one man at a time. Why then, do we allow these ridiculous hate mongers put us into a position where we change what we know is right?

Because we are who we are, great changes have been made to the world. Freemasons were integral to the formation of the United States, and the state of Texas, Freemasons were on the front lines in implementing public education in the United States, and many of the great luminaries of our age were Freemasons... Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Buzz Aldrin, George Washington and Amadeus Mozart, to name just FIVE.

These men LIVED their masonic principles, without apology, and so should we. Its time that we stood up and said we are Freemasons, this is what our mission statement is, this is what we do… if you don’t like it, tough. We have our values, our morality, or tenets and teachings, and we cannot allow the vagaries of political correctness to drive us away from our core values.

May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all regular masons. May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue, cement us.

References:

1. ... Ancient Symbolic Penalties ... by K. W. Aldridge

Antimasonic Harrassment

Antimasonry is an interesting subset of the conspiracy kook... by and large, the anti mason claims to be Christian, usually of the fundamentalist (think Jim Jones and David Koresh) subset. While claiming Christ's mantle, they are hateful, spiteful, mean, nasty, and generally folks you would not tip your hat to on the street, no less speak to at any length.

Many, like the man who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus, none other than the lizard shape shifting tin foil hat brigade general himself, David Icke (we think its pronounced: ickie) try to make a living at defaming good and honorable men. It has been ickie's life's mission, ever since he realized he was really g-d, and not really a third rate soccer color announcer, to slam Freemasonry with every silly, half baked slander that popped into his fevered brain. Of course, it sells books, tapes and DVD's, which seems to make him a pretty lucrative living among the brain cell challenged segment of the population.

Among the "Christian" antimasons, some aren't satisfied with defaming and lying about Freemasonry with every breath, they also advocate ambush "proselytizing", and taking superior numbers, as if to browbeat someone, before speaking to a mason. They advocate isolating the mason, almost as if they are holding an intervention rather than a spiritual discussion. See the Ephesians 5:11 website if you want to see but one version of this nonsense... and no, I won't provide the URL to that hate site. Do a Google search if you really want to waste brain cells on their claptrap.

Some even claim to be Catholics, with the goal of Stopping Freemasonry. As if. Many Popes have tried, half heartedly, to stop Freemasonry and all they have done is increase its numbers. The problem, you see, is that Freemasonry speaks to freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom to chose your leaders by election, freedom to to speak, freedom to assemble, freedom to, well chose in all things.

Its a strange situation we have here. Freemasonry does not care about Catholicism, any more than any other religion. We leave that to the brother. As far as Freemasonry is concerned, a Catholic can be a Freemason just like any other intelligent, honorable, upright and moral man. It is Catholicism that has the problem with Freemasonry, and the rhetoric employed seems to be one more of philosophical opposition rather than religiosity.

The Roman Catholic Church objects to our stand on freedoms, not for our stand on religious issues. We stand for freedom, the church stands for repression and parking your brains and will at the door. Of course they would object to us... and not all Catholics do object. Many are members of lodges around the world. Its the leadership, and not all of them that oject.
Can't have that in a fundy world... freedom is anathema to them, because, well, you might not chose what they want you to chose, and can't have that. As for that free thinking thing, well, these fundys want you to think what they want you to think, and no other thoughts... they are dangerous, those free, unguided thoughts.

This came up because of the last post, Membership "Decline" where I noted that Freemasonry's numbers are no longer declining, but are, in fact, turning around... especially in California. This forum received a number of... hateful, spiteful comments from someone claiming to be a Catholic Christian, claiming that Freemasonry, and this blog, had it in for Catholics, and among other things, that we were damned... by him, in particular. Several times, in fact. Good thing g-d is more open minded and loving than his self appointed ground crew!

The author of this blog, in fact, was stalked by a certain ex con (who was sent to prison for stealing from his clients at a jewelry store he owned) for almost two years. This from a "man" who claimed to be a Roman Catholic fundamentalist (he thought Ratzinger was too liberal), and seemed to feel that stalking someone was a Christly type behavior... go figure.

This raised an interesting point... several in fact. We know the fundy's hate Freemasons. So much so that it is rare we have not been exposed to one (or more) or these pinheads at one time or another. Its almost a rite of passage as a Mason to have some pinhead walk up to us and tell us we are damned, or devil worshipers or some such nonsense.

The good news is that the antimasonic hysteria is actually dying down! Six years ago, if you looked on the internet to find out about Freemasonry, you found pretty much nothing but hate sites. Today, searching on Freemasonry a man can find THOUSANDS of masonic sites, and a smattering of antimasonic sites. Our message is getting out, and the public, g-d bless them, are hearing the truth as opposed to the twisted lies and deceits of the nutters.

The REALLY good news for Modern Man is that the public, thanks to movies, books, magazines, newspapers, radio and a Masonic Presence in the community, has come to a better opinion of the craft. Our members are recognized these days as the good and honorable men they are, and of course, this translates to more men petitioning the lodges for membership.

Looking at one of the worst antimasonic hate sites, FW, using their chat/discussion area as a measure, we can see that there have been less than 4 posts in the last 4 months! This used to be a hotbed of antimasonic plotting and conspiracies, stalking and attacks. Today, it is a hulk of its former self, and the hit generator they are using develop the only hits they are getting. G-d IS great and merciful! (As if there were any doubt)

We have turned a corner, metaphorically speaking, and its about time. A tip of the hat to all the brothers that have worked so hard to speak out about Freemasonry.

May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all regular masons. May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue, cement us.

Understanding the Fanatic Mindset

Over the years on the Internet since I was raised a Master Mason, I have had the occasional… pleasure, of dealing with fanatics. Fanatic antimasons of the Catholic stripe, of the evangelical whatever stripe, and of the tin foil hat brigades (though to be fair, it is often hard to tell them apart).

We have all been treated to their hateful, unjustifiable defamations and slanders, and it has always surprised me, the amount of just plain kookiness they can dredge up. Part of it, I am sure, can be laid at the foot of Internet anonymity.

There is a definite lack of civility on the Internet, as if, because they are hidden, anonymous, people can write and spew the most vile and disgusting words and behaviors. I just read an article by Dennis Prager, which posits that the very anonymity of the Internet is the reason and cause for the very lack of civility that creates the hatemongers that slam Freemasons at every turn.

“Being identifiable breeds responsibility; anonymity breeds irresponsibility.

That is why people -- even generally decent people -- tend to act so much less morally when in a crowd (the crowd renders them anonymous). That is why people tend to act more decently when they walk around with their names printed on a nametag. That is why people act more rudely when in their cars -- they cannot be identified as they could outside of their car. There is no question but that most people would write very different entries on the Internet if their names were printed alongside their submission.”(1)

There is something more to this antimasonic nuttery, more than can be explained by the anonymity of the Internet, though that contributes in large part to the absolutely vile things that people claiming to be Christian post to and about us. That something more may be the very thing that creates them… their faith.

Faith is a wonderful thing, and a carpenter turned Rabbi is said to have stated that faith alone the size of a mustard seed can move mountains (by the way, how does one measure the size of faith?) Faith that becomes fanaticism, however, is dangerous, and the fanatics are the one I am referencing here.

These are the men, and women, who will do anything, commit any fraud, slander, defame and do ANYTHING to win. These are the scary people, and there may be a reason for their fanaticism. Fear.

They fear, not Masons, but themselves, and the way they validate their decision and faith is to attempt to convert others to their faith or belief. For instance, the tin foil hat Konspiracy Kook. Somewhere in the sane part of their brain, they realize that what they believe is a bit… off, that it sounds crazy even to them. So they run out and try to convince themselves by trying to convert the world.

“...How do you get more people to join than quit? One way is by having current members proselytize. The fastest-growing denominations, Mr. Twitchell says, are "selling, selling, selling." They are "foregrounding growth as a sign of value." As he explains: "Missionary zeal is at the heart of their attraction not only because showing the Way to others is a source of jubilation but because it means that you yourself must have found your way. The value of the next sale (the convert) proves the value of the previous sale (yours)." It all comes down to a kind of narcissism....”(2)

“I think the insecurity comes through, as with fundi Christians, the lack of proof. They are told to simply "believe", never question. Without questions, and answers that make sense, there is no true validation. That creates doubt. Doubt leads to the fear that they are, perhaps, "wrong", and there fore, sinful. Sinfulness leads to fear, in a neverending cycle. No wonder the poor things are confused.”(3)

Missionary zeal is a bad thing. It is intolerant. In a free society, however, the free exchange of ideas holds a place for such. What a free society has no place for is hatemongering fools taking advantage of the anonymity offered by a mature society to spew vile and vicious lies in the name of whatever g-d or theory they happen to worship.

As Freemasons, taught by a peculiar system of morality, veiled by allegory and illustrated by symbols, it is our duty and our obligation to show the light of Freemasonry, not by converting, not by missionary zeal in ourselves, but by the demonstration in our daily lives of the honor, integrity and value of our ancient and honorable fraternity.

Thus we can demonstrate to the world that upon becoming Master Masons we have become better men.

May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all regular Masons. May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue, cement us.

References:

(1) Internet Anonymity Is as Destructive as Internet Porn. By Dennis Prager, Townhall.com, Tuesday, October 23, 2007,

(2) A Congregation of Customers, By Naomi Schaefer Riley, Opinion Journel.com, Tuesday, October 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

(3) Maximus, Post #2, Novus Ordo Saeculorum

Anti Masonry or The Tin Foil Hat Brigade

A widely misunderstood pathology of mental incompetence caused by narrowing of the mind due to a lack of human compassion and understanding. This pretty much defines the anti-Masonic “mind” set.

When I was first raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, I dove headlong into the Internet, seeking Masons out around the world. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a stone CLUE what I was getting into. I did a Google search for Freemasonry, and, due to manipulation and fraud, I found Freemasonrywatch.

What a bunch of quackers, hatemongers, tinfoil hat wearers and neo-nazi propaganda masters, often claiming to be Christian oriented or focused. So, misunderstanding the intent of the forum, thinking they posters were rational people looking for information and facts, I launched into a series of posts aimed at dispelling what I assumed were simple misunderstandings due to a lack of factual information. Who-boy, was I mistaken!

I ended up with a stalker, one “Evil Captain Morgan” or “Other Captain Morgan” or whatever other sock puppet he chose for the day. Real name was C.M.B. of North Carolina, an ex-con, a fraud, and a seriously deranged individual. By stalker, I mean literally, a stalker… for two years, I, a law abiding Mason, followed all the rules, filed police reports, FBI complaints, ISP complaints, and complaints and complaints and complaints against this nutter.

Unfortunately, the law does not protect honest men from the actions of crazy people. Its no wonder some people take the law into their own hands to stop harassment and stalking activities. As a Mason, I used entirely legal methods to halt the harassment, pornographic emails, DDoS attacks against my mail server, Viruses, Trojans, slanderous posts, impersonations, illegal use of my image, and worse.

Truthfully, many brothers assisted me in my efforts or I would not have been able to bring the nonsense to a halt... and the ability to use the Internet as a research tool. And one thing these cockroaches can't stand... LIGHT. To start our action, I published the name, address, email address, and telephone numbers for the people that originally hosted Freemasonrywatch.

They didn't like to be revealed, so they dropped hosting that sewage mill. Then, using entirely legal methods, in comparison with the entirely illegal and immoral methods used by the Evil Captain Morgan and his compatriot "Neo", we shut down five chat hosted boards. The current ISP host is now hidden behind a shadow representative, and their ISP host is also a shadow representative. Their Chat board has been "revamped" four times, and their traffic has all but vanished... and the Evil Captain Morgan is no longer allowed to post there.

You see, the bad news is the FBI, while agreeing that this person had violated about 31 felony statutes, and my rights, also stated that they were not going to pursue him because “the value of his crimes does not exceed $50,000”. Therefore we had to take entirely legal action to call a halt to the harrassment. As part of that legal effort, complaints were filed with his personal ISP, which resulted in his AOL account being canceled for abuse.

That was my very first exposure to "antimasons". Real fun guys.

Then I found The Lodgeroom, run by Stephen Dafoe, where I encountered the OTHER version of the antimason, the religious zealot as opposed to the tin foil hat brigade. These people are, in many ways, worse than the tin foil hat nutters, because they are ostensibly educated folks, dedicated to their religious faith, who deliberately misstate, mischaracterize, lie, cheat, defraud, defame, delude and otherwise act in a manner that is entirely contrary to the example set by the g-d they CLAIM to follow.

The zealots, with the stink of Torquemada and the inquisition all over them claim to be acting in the name of GAWD… as one brother put it, I really like g-d, but his self appointed ground crew scare me. These folks seem to be willing to spend inordinate amounts of time poking Masons in the eye, making all kinds of wild-eyed claims, supposedly in an effort to “reform” us.

We know that Freemasonry is not a religion; we know that Albert Pike did not claim Lucifer as a god, we know that Albert Pike never sent a letter to George Washington, and we know the Illuminati were a short lived group that have nothing to do with the modern users of the name. We know that Masonry is not anti Christian, and that most Masons ARE in fact, Christian.

Yet these men will come with the same old tired cliché claims again the craft, posting endlessly in the face of facts, which clearly refute their claims. In fact, when proven that Leo Taxil made up many of the claims they make, they will often admit that the statement he made noting his articles were frauds was itself a fraud, or that yes, he THOUGHT what he wrote when he made up the stories were fraudulent, but they really were true.

Or they will claim that we really don’t know because we are only blue lodge masons, until they are informed that we are 32nd degree masons, at which point they will claim that only the 33rd or 99th or whatever N th degree they need to claim “really” know the secrets. They don’t really have any facts to hand, or the “facts” they have come from the rantings of Leo Taxil.

Oh, there is more, but the basic facts are these: Anti-Masonic folks are simply afraid, of what they do not know. They need someone to hate, to despise, to point fingers at, and like the Nazi regime did in the 1930’s, they have fixed their attention on a group that, for the most part, refused to engage them, feeling for a long time, that their accusations were beneath contempt.

In the age of the Internet, we Freemasons have a level playing field. Freemasons the world over have taken advantage of that fact, as a simple Google Search will reveal. Five years ago, if you did a Google search for the keyword: Freemasonry, you came up with E5:11 and Freemasonrywatch.

Today, if you do the same search, you come up with Lodgeroom US, Lodgeroom UK, Grand Lodge of XYZ, and at the end of the list, the antimasonic hate sites. These days, we have a voice, and the grand lodge that does not have a web presence is almost unknown, and almost every lodge has its own web page, and men like Errol Hinton, Stephen Dafoe, William McElligott, and to a lesser extent men like me, have created a real presence on the Internet.

We are shedding light on the nasty little cracks in the world where hatred still thrives, and using the truth as a Beacon Of Masonic Light to dispel the vile untruths the anti masons, who stand for nothing, and only against a good and honorable fraternity.

In part, the purpose of this blog is to dispel the myths and spread the light of Freemasonry.

May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all regular masons. May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue, cement us.