It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by Matyas
I am a little bit better today than when I did that other post
Certainly a group such as these Masons are that have earned so much criticism and vengeful ire must be onto something really hot.
In every civilization stretching all the way back to the dim past societies were formed and maintained that kept the fires. They called them the priesthood.
Now thanks to Dock6 and her ilk I have been inspired to join. Thank you Dock6, Derek, and all the others who have helped to give direction and meaning to my life. I owe you all a great deal!
Originally posted by Dock6
Why not cut to the core of this?
The central tenet of masonry demands that members support their fellow masons, even if it requires committing perjury. There can be no debating this: it's public knowledge.
Yet in above posts, the self-claimed masons here and their sycophants have been at pains to paint masonry as 'ethical', 'honourable', upright.
So on one one hand we have the biblical instruction: ' Thou shalt not bear false witness' (bearing false witness being an apt description of perjury).
On the other we have masonic edict demanding members commit perjury to get other masons off the hook. If masons do not agree to this from the get-go, they cannot become masons.
The two instructions are incompatible. Either you ARE prepared to lie/commit perjury (which is not and never will be 'ethical' or 'honourable') or you will NOT commit perjury/bear false witness even if it means a fellow mason will be sentenced to death row.
So which are you: a mason or an honest individual?
Clearly, you cannot be both: you cannot serve two masters at once.
Originally posted by Dock6
The central tenet of masonry demands that members support their fellow masons
even if it requires committing perjury. There can be no debating this: it's public knowledge.
On the other we have masonic edict demanding members commit perjury to get other masons off the hook. If masons do not agree to this from the get-go, they cannot become masons.
The two instructions are incompatible. Either you ARE prepared to lie/commit perjury
or you will NOT commit perjury/bear false witness even if it means a fellow mason will be sentenced to death row.
So which are you: a mason or an honest individual?
Clearly, you cannot be both: you cannot serve two masters at once.
Originally posted by Appak
Originally posted by Dock6
The central tenet of masonry demands that members support their fellow masons
Clearly you have no clue what you're talking about.
You really shouldn't be posting about Freemasonry. It's obviously beyond the realm of your comprehension.
I can hardly wait for your next post of "brilliant scholarship" (read: "B.S.") or whatever else you or those like you happen to dream up.
[edit on 25-3-2007 by Appak]
All this playing to the gallery !
The grandstanding (that means old-fashioned 'showing off')
The desperate need to impress other low-level masons.
Very recently, I read an article entitled: Are Masons mentally unstable? The article suggested a certain type of male is attracted to Masonry. Men suffering arrested-development, for example -- wannabe actors (those desperate for an audience) entranced by ritual & fantasy --- men who harbor deep feelings of inadequacy, etc.
Discovering the article was serendipitous, because early in this thread, I'd suggested the very same thing, based on mere casual observation.
It's disturbing to read the responses from what are clearly low-level Masons in this and other threads and forums, for what becomes clear is that Masonry has become perilously debased.
It makes perfect sense that so many religious, legal and law-enforcement agencies are taking a harsh stand against masons at this particular time.
I suspect it's the masonic heirarchy themselves who initiated this culling of rank and file masons. They would be sickened and dismayed by the 'calibre' of response from those purporting to act as the Voice of Masonry in this thread alone.
Have any of you bothered even to read Pike's exhortations regarding the standard expected of even low-level masons? Clearly not.
Originally posted by Dock6
I suspect it's the masonic heirarchy themselves who initiated this culling of rank and file masons. They would be sickened and dismayed by the 'calibre' of response from those purporting to act as the Voice of Masonry in this thread alone.
Have any of you bothered even to read Pike's exhortations regarding the standard expected of even low-level masons? Clearly not.
Originally posted by Trinityman
This all hinges on your belief that freemasonry instructs masons to lie for each other, even commit perjury. Would you agree that if that argument is proven false, then your whole 'hypothesis' is void?
Grand Lodge Masonry
Progress becomes easier for the candidate after he passes the first three degrees, or the "Blue Lodge." There are no examinations to learn, and he can take whole blocks of degrees at one time. In fact, one brother in the Church related to me that he took all the degrees from the fourth through to the thirty-second in four days.
In the case of the brother above, he and a group of Master Masons received the fourth through the fourteenth degree the first day after arriving in the city in which the Grand Lodge was located. After a night of fun and revelry (and very little sleep), they went through the conferring of the "Chapter of Rose Croix," which is the fifteenth through the eighteenth degrees for the Scottish rite (Southern Jurisdiction). After another night similar to the first, he received the Council of Kadosh, or the nineteenth through the thirtieth degrees.
Finally, on the fourth day, he received the "Consistory," or the thirty-first and the thirty-second degrees. The fact that they received little sleep at night seemed to be planned on the part of the officials, perhaps for the purpose of dulling the candidate's senses during the rituals. A clear head would seem inappropriate for receipt of these "honorable mysteries." The brother related that he had a hard time even remaining awake.
After a man has reached the thirty-second degree, he can, if he chooses, become a Shriner.
The Shrine, then, is a side order of the thirty-second degree. There remains only one degree higher than the thirty-second: that is the thirty-third or "Inspector General," which is honorary. It can only be conferred for some act of benevolence, endeavor, or esteem far and above the line of duty. It is usually conferred on presidents and kings and certain other dignitaries.
Originally posted by Dock6
Fourth through to thirty-second degrees in FOUR days !
Gee, some people take longer than that just to wash their car !
MASONIC MORALS
Master Masons promise not to cheat, defraud, or do violence to a Master Mason. They promise not to commit adultery with the wife of a Master Mason or seduce his sister, daughter, or other female relative. These promises only apply to fellow Master Masons.
They do not protect non-Masons, Entered Apprentices, or Fellow Crafts and their families.
Masons are required to tell lies and even perjure themselves to protect other Masons. They are also required to obey even orders which they know to be immoral:
"You must conceal all the crimes of your brother Masons, except murder and treason, and these only at your own option, and should you be summoned as a witness against a brother Mason be always sure to shield him. Prevaricate [falsify], don't tell the whole truth in his case, keep his secrets, forget the most important points. It may be perjury to do this, it is true, but you're keeping your obligations, and remember if you live up to your obligation strictly, you'll be free from sin." (Edmond Ronayne, "Masonic Handbook," page 183)
"Right or wrong his very existence as a Mason hangs upon obedience to the powers immediately set above him. The one unpardonable crime in a Mason is contumacy [insubordination] or disobedience." (Robert Morris, "Webb's Monitor of Freemasonry," page 169)
If a Mason is a defendant in court, Masonic partiality extends to the witness stand. In the Masonic Hand Book we read:
“You must conceal all the crimes of your brother Masons, except murder and treason, and these only at your own option, and should you be summoned as a witness against a brother Mason, be always sure to shield him. Prevaricate, don’t tell the whole truth in this case, keep his secrets, forget the most important points. It may be perjury to do this, it is true, but you’re keeping your obligations, and remember if you live up to your obligations strictly, you’ll be free from sin.”
Worshipful Master: “What makes you a Mason?”
Senior Warden: “My Obligation.”
(- question and answer, The Entered Apprentice Degree Ritual)