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Freemasons.

I am a 3rd degree Mason, which is the basic starting point in Masonry. All it is is a fraternal brotherhood that does lots of charitable things for a lot of people. For instance, the lodge I belong to sponsors the Seattle Youth Symphony, has several little league baseball teams they sponsor and a couple of years ago they donated a $17,000 infra red goggle/mask device to the Seattle Fire Dept.

My lodge has a lot of money in a pool that is used for charity. All you have to do is come up with a good cause, present the numbers and you've pretty much got it.

One brother was funded for a program for parents to create a 'kit' for their children consisting of dental records, DNA samples and a video taped of the child talking, laughing etc. to show the child in full dimension with speech patterns, facial expressions, etc. Unfortunately, it is for a child that is kidnapped or gone missing. It helps identify them. It's a tool you hope you never have to use. There's nothing sinister, there's no secret records kept of the child, there's no micro chip devices implanted, no nothing.

I wish they were the puppet masters for a NWO. I would have a front row seat and get my share of the spoils. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to stick to coaching my little league team.

p.s. If you want to joint to party hearty, the Shriners are the way to go. They fund burn wards in hospitals for poor children and get drunk on their asses.
 
ArmillarySphere said:
I was offered as well, but politely turned it down for the same reason. It amused me a little.
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Can you please explain how you were "offered"? I hear this a lot, but there are strict traditions against "offering" anyone membership. Not that everyone keeps them, but in most jurisdictions if someone found out you were "invited" you would be blackballed by at least one person because its critical no one ever think they were invited.

In the past, I've seen where people take things as simple as invitations to give them a tour of the lodge as a a invitation for membership - which it would not be - so I am curious.
 
You don't get asked to join. However, you can apply for membership and there's a short interview process you go through which is no big deal. My joining fee was about a hundred bucks with twelve bucks a year for dues. The lodge I belong to has major coin in the bank and doesn't need the money.

The only requirement for joining is to have some kind of belief in a supreme being type of a deal. It can be anything or anyone. Mine was quantum mechanics and particle physics. The Masons simply have what they call the Grand Architect of the Universe, which is nothing but a reference to 'stone' Masons. They base their model on building in general and that's were terms like 'he's squared away' or 'he's on the level'. There teachings are a set of guidelines for a good moral/ethical life. Nothing mystical or sinister that I've seen so far although it would be more interesting if there were.

The monthly meetings are boring as ****. They spend 45 minutes to an hour with all this ceremonial horse pucky and then do about 15 to 20 minutes of general business and update and then you go have a cheap spaghetti type dinner. I joined for the strong fraternal aspect and I like to do good things for people anonymously.
 
jakesteele said:
You don't get asked to join. However, you can apply for membership and there's a short interview process you go through which is no big deal. My joining fee was about a hundred bucks with twelve bucks a year for dues. The lodge I belong to has major coin in the bank and doesn't need the money.
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Its true that there are no invitations but this doesn't prevent people from claiming they were invited, which usually turns out to be taking something as a invitation when it was not in my experience. Your lodge has extraordinarily low dues at $12/year, I pay $70/year.

jakesteele said:
The only requirement for joining is to have some kind of belief in a supreme being type of a deal. It can be anything or anyone. Mine was quantum mechanics and particle physics. The Masons simply have what they call the Grand Architect of the Universe, which is nothing but a reference to 'stone' Masons. They base their model on building in general and that's were terms like 'he's squared away' or 'he's on the level'. There teachings are a set of guidelines for a good moral/ethical life. Nothing mystical or sinister that I've seen so far although it would be more interesting if there were.
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Are you in the United States? In most of the US, I don't think lodges would accept someone who uses "physics" as their supreme being. The point of requiring a belief in the Supreme Being is that people who don't believe in some sort of deity will find very little of use in masonic philosophy. The Supreme Being need not be a God, but to find value in masonic philosophy it needs to be some sort of willful force.

jakesteele said:
The monthly meetings are boring as ****. They spend 45 minutes to an hour with all this ceremonial horse pucky and then do about 15 to 20 minutes of general business and update and then you go have a cheap spaghetti type dinner. I joined for the strong fraternal aspect and I like to do good things for people anonymously.
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I think this is sad. Freemasonry is first and foremost a philosophical institution and it should remain that way. But this description is accurate of most of the fraternity - run through the ceremonial "BS" and get to the food. Don't get me wrong - I love the food - but I'm here to expand my mind and not my (ever already expanding) waist line.

The main purpose of freemasonry was never supposed to be chiefly charity or fraternity, the order was: philosophy, fraternity, charity. The fraternity and charity come from the philosophy. If we do not return to those philosophical roots the fraternity will die. The focus should be shifted from who is cooking dinner to who is giving a paper on some piece of masonic philosophy (all members should be required to at least once a year).
 
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Alex Jones is saying the film "Watchmen" is part of the great Illumanati/Masonic conspiracy, and Alan Moore is a 33d degree mason:jaw-dropp
See my thread in the CT section.
 
Yes, well, that's the sort of blinkered philistine pig ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage. You sit there on your loathsome, spotty behinds, squeezing blackheads and not giving a tinker's cuss for us struggling artists. You excrement! You whining, hypocritical toadies with your color TV sets and your Tony Jacklin golf clubs. Well I wouldn't become a Freemason now if you got down on your lousy, stinking, purulent knees and begged me!
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That's a bit rough.
Belief in some kind of Surpeme Being is a basic tenent of Masonic Philosophy.
I don't blame them for turning down membership for somebody who does not accept a major tenant of their philisophy.
It's like joining The Atheists Of America Society, and they getting angry when they reject you because you believe in God.
 
Checkmite said:
Well, people are kind of scared of masons in the UK. I've read (could be wrong) that they had passed a law, or had attempted to pass a law, requiring government officials who are masons to declare (I almost wrote "confess") their membership for the public record.

Contrast with America, where masons drive around with Masonic bumper stickers and lapel pins and rent out their lodges' common rooms for private parties and such. Big difference.
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I think part of the explanation for British Paranoia about the Masons is that for a long time, Masonry was pretty much a upper and upper middle class phenenmenon in England, whereas in the US it has always been a pretty egalatarian organization. In face the US Masons have always prided themsleves that somebody who might be a blue collar worker in society can be the head of a Masonic lodge, while a millionaire might only be a rank and file member of the same Lodge. In England, class, sadly did enter in Masonry for much of it's history. That might or might not be true now.
But no doubt, there is a suspicion of Masons as an "in group" in the UK that strikes many in America as being unfounded.
In the US, Anti Masons tend to be of the kookier, "They Are OUt To Rule The World" variety.
 
My old fella is a mason, and has been master of his lodge twice, although now he is retired and has moved abroad he very rarely attends a lodge meeting. For the most part he and the rest of them were kindly drink sodden old duffers, however, and I swear on my sainted aunts bones this is true, He has inexplicably gotten off two drink driving charges, (the first due to 'incorrect procedural arrest' - basically he wasn't informed of his rights, and the second due to 'malfunction of equipment subsequent to arrest' - the breathalyser was found to have missed a scheduled battery change.). Both of these reversals happened within 24 hours of the incidents.
For what its worth, both the chief constable, my Dad and his solicitor were members of the same lodge.
I am a solicitor and cannot conceive of getting a client off like this.
 
ReverendClog said:
My old fella is a mason, and has been master of his lodge twice, although now he is retired and has moved abroad he very rarely attends a lodge meeting. For the most part he and the rest of them were kindly drink sodden old duffers, however, and I swear on my sainted aunts bones this is true, He has inexplicably gotten off two drink driving charges, (the first due to 'incorrect procedural arrest' - basically he wasn't informed of his rights, and the second due to 'malfunction of equipment subsequent to arrest' - the breathalyser was found to have missed a scheduled battery change.). Both of these reversals happened within 24 hours of the incidents.
For what its worth, both the chief constable, my Dad and his solicitor were members of the same lodge.
I am a solicitor and cannot conceive of getting a client off like this.
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Perhaps he was just innocent or there really were procedural errors? Those things do happen.

If the constable was involved in the case, was really a mason, and you believe there was favoritism - report it to the United Grand Lodge of England. Grand Lodges take these kinds of accusations extremely seriously and this is more than enough to be booted out.
 
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LightinDarkness said:
Can you please explain how you were "offered"? I hear this a lot, but there are strict traditions against "offering" anyone membership. Not that everyone keeps them, but in most jurisdictions if someone found out you were "invited" you would be blackballed by at least one person because its critical no one ever think they were invited.
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The memory is a bit vague - a coworker and I were chatting, and he said something along the lines of that I should join, it was fun, etc etc. No doubt there would be more involved, but as I said, I turned it down - my personal philosophy would not pass muster. This is Sweden, by the way, and I have absolutely no idea what the traditions are here.
 
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