Originally posted by network dude
reply to post by Rockpuck
Rockpuck,
you are the one I was convinced was a sleeper cell disinfo agent trying to infiltrate the masons from ATS. Nice to hear from you but nobody has
answered my question yet. What led you to this path?
Have a great day sir.
Mike
I don't know if you meant to say Mason infiltrating ATS or ATS infiltrating Masonry lol.
But it was actually a member of ATS infiltrating Masonry.
I don't like to .. not know things. I like to know everything, or at the very least assume I know everything.
I didn't know what Freemasonry was.. I had joined ATS and I was quite convinced that the world was coming to an end.. nuclear war was around the
corner, the end of an age was coming, secret societies where everywhere! ..... But within a few weeks of joining I noticed the Freemasons of ATS spoke
with eloquence.. even when insulting.. and they had an air of knowledge and intelligence. The common Anti however came across slow, dimwitted and
ignorant.
I never really posted anything Anti-masonic.. I never really posted about Masonry at all, just read the forum, but I wanted to see what these men
where all about.
So I was at work, and by chance a women I worked with was talking about her husband getting his 32nd... I was like hey, I want to join .. I was only
19 and the law had just changed form 21 to 19 and apparently no one from my lodge went to that year communication because no one knew the law
changed.
So I was denied.
Then about 4 months later or so after talking to the same woman again and to Apak online here at ATS, I went to the lodge, took the tour, talked to
some Masons, made some instant friends and have had the same Masonic mentor since that day (the same woman's husband).
Now through my journey in Masonry, and coming into my own as an adult.. I can say that Masonry has shaped the way I am. Remember back to being 18-20
years old, your far from grown up. I believe Masonry has helped me grow in more ways then others, because I am growing up through Masonry it's self.
I may not attend every meeting, but I do my damnedest not to miss one.
I joined Freemasonry expecting something different, I learned that Masonry has never been duly explained on the Internet, I know that so many people
would benefit by joining and I feel that if more people practiced the TEACHINGS of Masonry, be it Mason or not, the world would be a better place.
And I like to think I give back to the Masonic community by making my posts with as much sincerity as possible, and I like to think that I have gained
the respect of other Freemasons on ATS. And while ATS may not allow recruiting, through members on ATS more and more are understanding Masonry is not
what the haters make it out to be, and more and more are joining their own local lodges and experiencing it for themselves.
I have no respect for a man who fears an institution and cannot gather the nerve to experience the unknown. I have no respect for those who preach
against the actions of others, their way of belief, or the institutions that they belong to .. without fully understanding WHY. But I do have respect
for those that when I say "speak to a lodge" and they do, and they join, and they learn everything they where wondering. There is a reason
Freemasonry does not advertise, and we do not ask members to join .. we look only for a certain caliber of man .. someone truly searching for the
light that Masonry offers.
To the actual reasons we all join, they are many and very complex. No one can say one reason or another above all others, so many are buried and
subconscious, a yearning for something more, something bigger, something ancient. I believe many search for the bonds between men that are broken in
the cold age we live in. I can say I wanted to join just to know what it is, but it is much more then that. Freemasonry is not the center of a
Masons life.. but the teachings are, and in the end, it's the teachings we all search for. Light.
Anyways, I hope that answers your question Brother Mike. Names Steve by the way, it's good to semi officially meet you.