Masons behind investigation
1 September 2007 - 19 אלול 5767 by Huw
Conspiracies abound. Are the Masons in Europe so different from the Masons in the USA that articles such this make sense?
Politicians say Masons behind investigation of the Church in Italy:
Clemente Mastella, Minister of Justice, said the suspicions of the European Commission were only a “pretext.” The Union of Christian Democrats and the Center said “radical and Masonic” groups were behind the actions in Brussels. The political party Forza Italia implicitly accused former government official Romano Prodi of the Radical Party, which is heavily Masonic, of being involved as well.
I remember when, back before all the mainline went eco-fem, most every Protestant parish was filled with WASPy Free Masons. Not one of them failed to vote Republican, support “family values”, and wear their little Compass-and-Square tie tacks. It’s still that way in many parts of the South.
Anything - even a Masonic Conspiracy - that gets various Christian ecclesial communities out of their adulterous marriage with the Kingdoms of this World seems a good thing to me. Or, to put it in a secular voice, anything - even a Masonic Conspiracy - that gets rid of the tax benefits that make it easier for religions to control culture seems a good thing to me. But are the Masons of Europe so vastly different from the boring, perfectly normal, Charity-raising, Middle-Class business men of the US? Heck! Sign me up!
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politics, roman catholicism, conspiracy, illuminati, europe
It is my understanding that European Masons are quite different from those in the US.
In brief (and drawn from a 3-part series of articles that I did in 2001 and 2002 for the Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project …
There are 3 main branches of Masonry.
1. The Masonry of the US, Great Britain, and Scandinavia is middle-class and Protestant. They may be anti-Catholic to varying degrees, but they are solidly bourgeois. More than 90% of the world’s Masons are in this group.
2. Grand Orient Masonry, which is dominant on the Continent and in Latin America, is avowedly atheistic and anticlerical. (This is a bone of contention for the first group of Masons, which insist that members believe in God.) Grand Orient Masons were active in (although I will not say they led) most of the revolts against the ancien regime, from 1789 to 1917. They hate the RCC, and the RCC reciprocates. They comprise less than 10% of the world’s Masons.
3. The third group of Masons are not recognized as “regular” Masons by the preceding two camps. They have co-ed Lodges (unlike the prior two camps, whose Lodges are all-male), and have strong New Age tendencies. There is a significant overlap between the Theosophical movement and this (irregular) branch of Masonry.
Lee
Lee - thank you! Interesting. I know of the Co-masonic Movement. I’ve also heard of the Grand Orient - although not the differences between the two streams. I’m confused: I’d always heard that the Founders were of that revolutionary Masonic movement.
There must be either (a) a story where by that American Revolutionary Freemasonry warped; or (b) a different history.
The American Masons who participated in our Revolution were in camp #1, the Protestant middle class Masonry of the UK. They were not “Grand Orient” atheists.
The US side in that war included prominent Masons, from Washington on down - but there were loyalist Masons, as well. In the Revolution as in the Civil War, Mason fought against Mason.
Lee
Mmm. Forgive me Lee, but it seems we have competing conspiracies and the Founders are either Illuminati or Normal Masons depending on who you ask.
But I guess then, that joining the normal regular ordinary Masonry shouldn’t be a problem for Roman Catholics, if only about 10% suffer from the Atheistic tinge?
I’m aware of cool stories of Masons supporting each other in the wars… those are some of my favourite sorts of stories.
Huw, you said, “we have competing conspiracies and the Founders are either Illuminati or Normal Masons depending on who you ask.”
:-)
Some Founders were Masons, some not. Some Founders were Deists, some not. And not all Masons were Deists.
The Illuminati are a different matter. That movement - as a real organization - was a Continental European venture. No Americans were involved. A radical, Weishaupt, tried to co-opt European Masonry into his own ideas of overthrowing Throne and Altar. His movement lasted no more than a decade, before getting busted up by the governments in Central Europe. The myth of the Illuminati lived on, however.
Lee