Originally posted by OnTheLevel213
My prayers are with the victims and their families, and I hate to use this tragedy to make a point*. However, it may be only in this moment that a point that should be made, can be made:
It's often alleged that certain men (and occasionally women) are Freemasons, but that their membership is concealed from the outside world, the better to cloak their machinations on behalf of the Craft towards its unspeakably evil and perpetually ill-defined agenda. To those who hold this position I ask these questions: if Barack Obama, George W. Bush and several world leaders who are controversial but hold substantial fan bases maintain sub rosa membership, why not a crazed gunman certain to become a black mark on whatever affiliations he held? Why, if it's entirely plausible for Freemasonry to limit major players on the world stage to split-second photography and awkward turns of phrase as outing their Masonic status, would the Craft voluntarily come forward and ruin its own good name?
I'm not sure what response I expect, but I felt like it needed asking.
*Speaking of which: it's often alleged that the Masonic attitude toward the misdeeds of a Mason range anywhere from apathetic silence to collusion. I believe my own post and the response of the Grand Master prove otherwise.
I think facile detractors would suggest that it was oversight (or hubris) that (once again) permitted the Craft's unseemly 'hidden' reality to be exposed. It sort of falls into the same logical fallacies that yet drive 9/11 Trutherism near a decade after the fact.
It would seem that Masonry has to admit fallibility in not disabusing a man of a vile mindset that is totally at odds with what Masonry worldwide aspires to. It's a fallibility that we as a fraternity share with whatever religious group heretofore claimed him.
It's an unfortunate reality of life that groups whose focus is the betterment of all regardless of creed, race or nation can be infiltrated, leached upon and used as social camouflage by those whose personal mindsets are at total odds with the group. Groups such as Freemasonry, Knights of Columbus, etc., all aimed at the betterment of society at large must continue to take at face value the profession of good intentions by those seeking admission; the alternative of defacto universal suspicion in the long run impoverishes and stratifies society in ways that those who've escaped or endured authoritarian regimes are only too well aware.
Along with yours and those of millions of others around the world, my thoughts and prayers are with the survivors and their families as well as those families who've had loved ones ripped from them by the actions of a madman.
Fitz
