Is Freemasonry Secular Humanism?

T.T.G.O.T.G.A.O.T.U.

What is the position of Liberal European Freemasonry regarding religion? When the Grand Orient of France decided in 1877 to remove the requirement that a candidate profess a belief in God this is how they defined their position:

"Whereas Freemasonry is not a religion and has therefore no
doctrine or dogma to affirm in its constitution, this Assembly has
decided and decreed that the second paragraph of Article 1, of the
Constitution (requiring a belief in Deity) shall be erased, and that for the words
of the said article the following shall be substituted:

"Being an Institution essentially philanthropic, philosophic, and
progressive, Freemasonry has for its object, search after truth,
study of universal morality, science and arts, and the practice of
benevolence. It has for its principles absolute liberty of
conscience and human solidarity. It excludes no person on account
of his belief, and its motto is 'Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity."

The following statement is attributed to a member of the Grand Orient of France in the article, "The Grand Orient of France and the Three Great Lights" published in the Builder, January, 1918:

"The Grand Orient of France, while it respects all philosophical
beliefs, insists upon absolute liberty of belief. This does not
mean that we banish from our lodges the belief in God. The United
Grand Lodge of England on the contrary desires to make a belief in
God in some manner compulsory. The Grand Orient of France is much
more liberal, since in proclaiming the absolute liberty of belief
it permits to each one of its members the liberty to believe or not
to believe in God, and by so doing desires to respect its members
in their convictions, their doctrines and their beliefs."

From these statements do we draw the conclusion that the Grand Orient of France is an atheistic, or secular humanist institution? I think not.

There has been a trend of late in some quarters of Liberal Freemasonry here in the United States to equate Freemasonry with secular humanism, and to celebrate the participation of well-known atheists with the order. It is my personal belief that this is a mistaken policy, one which will eventually come back to haunt those that are encouraging it.

Religion, or the lack thereof, has absolutely no place in Freemasonry. Whether a candidate is a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or a Wiccan, is irrelevant to that persons becoming a Mason, joining the Navy, or being a member of the PTA. Most Liberal Masons would agree with this position. Why then do some insist that Freemasonry and Secular Humanism are natural allies?

According to the American Humanist Association, one of their principles is to be:

"Without theism and free of supernaturalism"

According to the Council for Secular Humanism, it is committed:

"to the use of critical reason, factual evidence, and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions."

For those Brothers and Sisters that are theists, faith, and even forms of mysticism (depending on the particular faith) are valid means of seeking solutions to "important human questions".

As a Freemason in the tradition of the Grand Orient of France, I support any brother that wholeheartedly subscribes to the positions of the AHA and the CSH. He has the right to his belief.

By the same token, I fully support the right of a sister to pray the rosary each day because she believes that is an action pleasing to God. It is her right to believe that.

When any jurisdiction takes an official stance in support of Atheism or Secular Humanism, that obedience is walking on thin ice; it is departing from the traditional position of Liberal, European Freemasonry in my opinion. This is unwise, deters people of faith from approaching the order, and gives further ammunition to the mainstream Grand Lodges who have always contended that Grand Orient Freemasonry is hostile to religion. Freemasonry "excludes no person on account of his belief". I wonder how comfortable a devoutly religious brother would feel seeing another brother publicly ridicule (or blaspheme) his beliefs?

Very poor judgment I think.

Freemasonry for Women

I hope that everyone is enjoying the preparations for the coming holidays. Loge Art et Lumiere recently held their annual Family Banquet and other seasonal activities are soon to be held by other lodges in Los Angeles.

As a result of repeated attempts by bogus groups to infiltrate respectable masonic forums on facebook, I have created, what I hope will be an informative site, dedicated to informing prospective candidates of the options that are available to women in legitimate Freemasonry.

The site is "Freemasonry for Women" and is located at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freemasonry-for-Women/178436995516642?v=app_2309869772&ref=ts#!/pages/Freemasonry-for-Women/178436995516642?v=info

I trust that this will be a useful resource for potential sisters that are seeking the Light that Freemasonry offers.

Happy holidays to all/Joyeuses Fêtes/Felices Fiestas!

Le Grand Orient de France devient mixte (The Grand Orient of France becomes Mixed)

I recently received the following news regarding our sister Obedience, the Grand Orient of France:

"The Largest masonic obedience in France changed this Thursday evening its operating rules to authorize the members of its lodges to initiate women. The Grand Orient of France also elected a new Grand Master in the person of Guy Arcizet."

At last year's annual Convent, the Grand Orient of France narrowly voted against allowing it's lodges to accept women as members. Of course, as with other liberal Masonic obediences, women Masons have always been welcome as visitors.

Under the new rules, each lodge will be able to decide whether or not to actually accept women as members of the lodge. Women members of the Grand Orient of France will be eligible to hold elected office in the Obedience.

This is historic news. The Grand Orient of France, the oldest Masonic body in that country, founded in 1733, will now have women as members after 267 years of existence.

Congratulations to our Brothers (and soon, Sisters) in the Grand Orient of France!

Can a Woman Be a Freemason?

There are many in the mainstream Masonic community, as well as most members in the wider society, that believe a woman cannot be made a Mason. Many supporters of Women's Freemasonry point out examples in the past of women that have been made Masons, and, of course, there are many Masonic jurisdictions today that consist either exclusively of women, or accept women as equal members, my own jurisdiction included.

In reviewing the obligation taken by mainstream Masons, the following is particularly relevant:

"I will not aid, or be present at, the initiation,passing,or raising of a woman..."

If a woman could not be a Freemason, then this statement is irrelevant. A Minister cannot unite two two cats in Holy Matrimony, (regardless of the owners desire) since a marriage between two pets is an impossibility and illogical.

If it is an impossibility for a woman to become a Freemason, then this part of the obligation is nonsensical and serves no purpose whatsoever.

In their own obligation, mainstream Masons state that it is possible for a woman to be made a Mason; their members are sworn not to assist, or be involved in such an action.

Increasingly I am aware of the value and necessity of women belonging to Freemasonry. As a member of a mixed lodge, I could not imagine practicing Masonry without the insight that my Sisters bring to the work, nor the balance that they offer to the lodge.

Many mainstream Masons claim that the involvement of women would result in Masonry no longer being Masonry. In the United States and England, Freemasonry, for the most part, has already ceased to be Masonry, instead evolving into a charitable social club. As a men's club to hang out and discuss sports and socialize, I can see where they are coming from. The Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes and the International Order of Friendly Sons of the Raccoons of Television fame served a similar purpose.

Lodge Circumspect

Dear Readers,

Several days ago it came to my attention that what was formerly Lodge Circumspect of the "1613 Nation," had left that group, and is now an independent lodge of Women Freemasons.

It is sad, but inevitable, that when people see the truth behind an organization, those that respect honesty and transparency will feel the need to disassociate themselves from its practices.

According to WM June Lennon, after traveling to Belgium in an attempt to meet with members of 1613's supposed Loge Liberte Cherie, she was able to establish that what had been reported on many Masonic forums was true, namely that Liberte Cherie was fraudulent.

For those that read French, more about the bogus lodge can be found here:

http://www.hiram.be/Une-fausse-Loge-Liberte-cherie-et-d-autres-pseudo-Loges_a3675.html

While there is an attempt by the "1613 Nation" to claim that Lodge Circumspect is being reorganized within their group, the WM and her Sisters are in the process of continuing with the real work of Freemasonry in Lodge Circumspect, now minus the stigma of involvement with the 1613 crowd.

I wish them well in their efforts to get back on track as they practice the work of Freemasonry purged of the negative influence of the "Post-modern masonry" espoused by their previous associates.

At present, Lodge Circumspect's original website and blog are in the hands of the Grand Master of the 1613. The original Lodge Circumspect can be reached for the moment through their facebook page located here:

http://www.facebook.com/june.lennon?v=wall&ref=sgm#!/group.php?gid=111260272241449

Again, I wish these Sisters well as they rebuild and recover from their trying, and disillusioning experience with the "1613 Nation".

Lodge Athena

Mixed Masonry has been a part of the American scene for many decades now. Many of my readers are familiar with my own jurisdiction, the George Washington Union, as well as of the American Federation of Le Droit Humain.

One jurisdiction that others may not be as familiar with, is the International Masonic Order Delphi, which was originally a part of Le Droit Humain and became an independent jurisdiction in 1996.

While the Delphi Order is headquartered in Greece, the Obedience does have lodges in Romania, Bulgaria, and the United States. The Right Worshipful Lodge Athena, No.2009 works in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has been a beacon of Masonic light in that region for a number of years now.

Lodge Athena, like the other lodges in the Delphi Order, is a member of the international association known as CLIPSAS which consists of the Grand Orient of Belgium,Le Droit Humain, the Grand Lodge of Italy, the George Washington Union, The Women's Grand Lodge of Belgium, and many other adogmatic, progressive Grand Lodges and Grand Orients around the world.

I applaud the dedication, work, and example of Lodge Athena, and send my heartfelt greetings to the Brothers and Sisters of Lodge Athena in Salt Lake City. Lodge Athena of the Delphi Order, the lodges of the George Washington Union, and the lodges of the American Federation of Le Droit Humain in the United States work the European forms of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

For those men and women in the Salt Lake area that would like to learn more about legitimate Freemasonry, Lodge Athena can be contacted through their website at:

http://lodgeathena.us/US/

The Mother Obedience of Lodge Athena, The International Masonic Order Delphi can be reached at:

http://www.delphiorder.org/eng/index.htm

Emeth Lodge & Rose of Venus

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Brothers at Emeth Lodge in Phoenix, Arizona. Several years ago Emeth Lodge was formed as a constituent lodge of the Grand Orient of the United States of America. Today Emeth Lodge is a member of an association of independent lodges and has recently sponsored the formation of a Co-Masonic lodge, Rose of Venus, also in Phoenix.

I am familiar with the WM of Emeth, as is my own WM at Lodge New Isis of the George Washington Union in Los Angeles, and we both greatly respect him as a fine Freemason and a man of integrity.

I wish both lodges well and I am happy to see a new Co-Masonic lodge so close to San Diego. Congratulations to the Sisters at Rose of Venus!

The Inventor

My good friend and fellow Freemason Willy Gutman recently has published another book, "The Inventor". I hope to write a review in the near future but until then I would like to post this review of Willy's work from one of the Central American papers to which Willy is a frequent contributor:

Review by Marco Cáceres

I remember the first time I picked up a Harry Potter novel. I read about thirty or forty pages, and then I put it down. There were so many characters, and the plot did not emerge fast enough to hold my attention. Ultimately, I rented the first Harry Potter movie and immediately became so enamored with the characters and the story that I ended up reading each of the seven books in the series twice. My initial experience with W. E. Gutman's The Inventor was similar... although I'm not sure a movie is in the offing.

The Inventor is elegantly written. Through his protagonist and a colorful melding of artists and other notable personalities plucked from the past, Mr. Gutman weaves an intriguing journey within the dark history of the Catholic Church, which has as much a surreal and fantastic texture to it as Harry Potter. This is a book with which you must dine. It does not allow you to consume it in a hurry. It is as if Mr. Gutman dares you to read on and simply accept that the aim of his work is not primarily to entertain you, but rather to provoke you to think and struggle and savor.

There is a cynical undertone to The Inventor, but it is reasonable and even courageous, given the target of that cynicism -- the Papacy and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. And now with the Church wallowing in the early stages of yet another crisis involving the sexual abuse of children by priests and the cover up of these crimes by their superiors, it almost makes Mr. Gutman appear visionary. The book is timely and certainly relevant to the conversation about the increasingly uncomfortable relationship between the Church and secular society.

At a minimum, The Inventor serves to remind us that the Church has traditionally been the predator, not the victim, as its apologists disingenuously claim. It is a kind of blunt testament which challenges those who are ignorant of the Church's history or prefer to downplay the more unsavory aspects of it.

Be it the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the persecution of Galileo or the silence of Pope Pius XII during the Jewish Holocaust, Pope John Paul II's efforts to squash Liberation Theology in Latin America, and Honduran Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez's attempts to tie accusations of priestly pedophilia to a "worldwide Jewish conspiracy", there is ample justification for the kind of eclectic mix of history, fiction, and social commentary that is so well crafted by Mr. Gutman.

Note: The author of The Inventor is a regular contributor to Honduras Weekly. His book is published by CCB Publishing of British Columbia, Canada. The book is available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

Busy Weekend

I have not posted recently but I do have posts on the way that I am working on. I returned from a meeting of Lodge New Isis in Los Angeles less than an hour ago and enjoyed participating in the initiation of a new brother.

Quite a lot of work was accomplished and I had the honor of reading an architecture that I wrote recently. Several guests were on hand from the Women's Grand Lodge of Belgium, OITOR (L'Ordre Initiatique et Traditionnel de L'Art Royal), and Le Droit Humain.

A truly wonderful afternoon of masonic fellowship. I will have new posts up in the next few days.

Roger Williams

In the M.A. program in History I am currently taking, we are studying early America, specifically the Puritans. As part of my research I have discovered not just how intolerant the Puritans were (they hanged three men and and a woman for being Quakers), but also about a man that I feel represents much that we as masons can identify with.

Roger Williams was a Puritan who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts Colony,in 1631. His sermons, particularly those that advocated fair treatment of the Native Americans, won him the animosity of the ruling establishment. Williams was also opposed to the government punishing people on religious grounds, advocating instead freedom of conscience.

Williams was exiled from the colony in 1635 and founded what eventually became Rhode Island. In 1652 Rhode Island became the first colony to outlaw slavery, more than 200 years before it was outlawed in the U.S. Jews, Baptists, Quakers, all were welcome to practice their faiths according to their own consciences.

Roger Williams was a pioneer in advocating the separation of Church and State, something that did not exist in Europe at the time, or in the other colonies. Roger Williams, not the Puritans, was a forerunner of what our founding fathers established in the United States. While not a mason, we can admire the man for his tolerance of others, and his respect for individual liberty. In Rhode Island today there is even a lodge named Roger Williams Lodge, No.32, in his memory.

Haiti: As the dust settles, questions, suspicions mount

My good friend Willy Gutman forwarded another one of his perceptive articles that I thought I would share.





Haiti: As the dust settles, questions, suspicions mount


W. E. Gutman

US troops made their habitually flamboyant entrance in the earthquake-ravaged Haitian capital to distribute aid and provide security in one of America’s most spirited military deployments since the 2003 Battlestar Galactica-style invasion of Iraq.

Hundreds of soldiers belonging to the US Army’s 82nd Airborne rappelled from helicopters in Port-au-Prince as US Marines waded ashore.

There are now some 11,000 US troops in Haiti. US Ambassador to the UN, Alejandro Wolff, said “We are there for the long term.” Total US military presence in Haiti is expected to reach 20,000 troops.

Washington insists that their role is strictly humanitarian.

But in a recent commentary titled, “The US Military in Haiti: A Compassionate Invasion,” TIME magazine says that “Haiti … became the 51st state… if not a state, then at least a ward of the United States.”

There is growing concern that this de facto federalization may go beyond “good-neighbor” philanthropy, that the earthquake could be used to exploit, yet again, a chronically impoverished country teetering back from the brink.

The presence of US military, which has taken over command of the distribution of humanitarian aid, has raised questions. The US and the France-based aid group Doctors Without Borders have exchanged very public words. The group says one of its planes carrying medical equipment was yet again turned away from the Port-au-Prince airport – the fifth such instance in the past two weeks. Medics from other nations have accused US air traffic controllers of turning away essential medical supplies that could have saved lives, with priority going to US military flights.

Although the US military is now overstretched, it clearly has the capacity to carry out an effective occupation of Haiti should it so desire. The way in which the US has responded to this latest disaster is reminiscent of its historical legacy of interference in Haiti. The country was occupied by the US between 1915 and 1934. Former President Bill Clinton dispatched troops to Haiti in 1994. In 2004, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed, abducted and deported at gunpoint by US-backed military.

These forays were rationalized as “legitimate actions to protect US assets.” Some called theme an extension of the Manifest Destiny doctrine.

Critics have also accused Washington of destabilizing Haiti’s economy by imposing neo-liberal policies that forced it to lift its rice tariffs in the 1990s and led to the creation of sweatshops, both of which undermined its economic autonomy and are seen as causes of an ailing infrastructure and poverty.

It’s no secret that deep in the seismically fickle bowels of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, there are significant and heretofore untapped deposits of oil. Scientists have also detected the presence of Uranium 238 and 235, and zirconium. Have these sites been designated by the US as strategic reserves?

Shortly before his downfall in 1986, “president-for-life” Jean-Claude “Bébé Doc” Duvalier acknowledged the existence of a major oil field in the Bay of Port-au-Prince.

Earlier still, in the 1950s, the Knappen-Tippen-Abbet company drilled in Haiti. The drillings proved promising and the results beyond expectations. However, multinational oil companies saw no need to exploit these riches. Haiti was neither Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait. At a time when a barrel of crude sold for about a dollar, and the Persian Gulf gushed with crude, there was not reason to invest in oil fields deemed less profitable.

The prevailing attitude at the time was, “We’ll keep the Haiti deposits in reserve until the Middle East bonanza runs dry.” The Knappen-Tippen-Abbet wells were carefully numbered, sealed with cement and “forgotten.”

The results of the drilling, it turns out, were not for public consumption. It was feared that they would encourage Haitians to work toward their own economic emancipation. When they learned of the riches buried under their feet, they asked a simple question:

“If the big oil companies are not interested in our oil, maybe we should ask our Cuban neighbors to come help us exploit it.”

Ooooops.

No one denies the superb work done by US non-governmental organizations and individual volunteers in Haiti. But when a nation requires 20,000 armed troops to “oversee” what is being described as a slapdash and hit-and-miss relief operation, it looks, sounds and smells like an occupation.

Vested Geo-strategic interests, not altruism, often drive charity.

One can’t help but wonder whether the US would have acted with the same alacrity and panache had an earthquake of similar magnitude struck Congo, Sudan or Namibia.

And would Pat Robertson have claimed, as he did in the case of Haiti, that natural disasters are brought on by men consorting with the devil?

___

W. E. Gutman is a veteran journalist and author. His column reflects his own views.

Once upon a time in Haiti

The following was written by my good friend and fellow Freemason, Willy Gutman. I hope his observations make as much of an impression on my readers as they did on me.

Once upon a time in Haiti


W. E. Gutman

I first visited Haiti in 1960. I had left New York on a dismal gray January morning and arrived in Port-au-Prince a week later aboard a cruise ship. Mesmerized by the emerald profusion of tropical greenery that stretched before me, rapt by the turquoise sea that shimmered like liquid gemstones, I noticed little as a taxi whisked me away from the wharf up to the opulent hilltop Castel Haiti Hotel.

During lunch, I crossed paths with bejeweled women, most of them painted to camouflage the ravages of time. I mingled among sweet-smelling, self-important men in crème safari suits and white suede shoes. I engaged in small talk and endured the frivolous banter common to carefree, urbane vacationers. Wealth, influence, power, all vied for attention as fragrant wines and succulent meat and seafood dishes traveled on silver trays balanced by white-gloved black lackeys. Such ostentation, I remarked, must be evidence of great virtue, the well-deserved entitlements of the just, the righteous, the uncorrupted.

I was 23.

A second visit a year later put an end to the idyllic portrait my unfocused young eyes had hastily painted. Instead of taking a taxi, I walked to town. At the end of the quay, where the uncorrupted never venture, I was accosted by a mob of half-naked, pint-sized beggars -- children with bloated bellies, herniated navels and runny noses. With one hand stretched for a hand-out, the other fanning away swarms of flies, they tugged at my sleeves, hung by my shoulders like grapes from a trellis and wailed in unison:

“Mister, penny, bread, please?”

In the stifling shade of an abandoned building, young boys in tatters sniffed glue. Further on, resting on a bed of filthy rags near an open sewer, a woman slept with an infant at her breast while an older child, disheveled, wiping an ever-running nose on her sleeve, begged for scraps of food. A few meters away, under a clear sky black with vultures, I found toddlers and young teens feeding on garbage. Knee-deep in steaming mountains of waste and competing with the odious birds of death, another group of youngsters rummaged for a meal, a shoe, a discarded article of clothing.

Up the road, in some narrow, windswept slop-splattered alley that hugs the flanks of a church, a man writhed in drug- or booze-induced agony. Frothing at the mouth, his eyes on fire, he crumbled to the ground and let out a blood-curdling shriek. Wallowing in waste, he clawed at the demons that tormented him. Thrashing about, he rolled into the gutter and narrowly missed being hit by a passing car. Safe in their pews, the faithful were being treated to the grand spectacle of a mid-day mass. Dominus vobiscum, said the priest. Et cum spiritu tuo, the faithful responded, unmindful of the pervading godlessness that surrounded them.

Around the corner, a group of cripples flaunted their grotesque infirmities. Unruffled, passers-by stepped over them like so much debris. Across the street, a young woman breast-fed her newborn as three older daughters plied the beggar’s trade.

Alien to this netherworld, I wondered what monstrous sins its denizens had committed to be cursed with such inexplicable fate. Who are the mad, I reflected, and who are the meek who inherit the wind? As I pondered the question, I suddenly found myself in a world of pastel mansions, neatly manicured lawns and late-model American cars driven by elegantly attired light-skinned Haitians.

The distance between Gehenna and paradise, I would later learn as I began to cover Central America and the Caribbean Basin, is short and littered with galling incongruities, shameful disparities. Here the crinoline and batiste and gabardine of a small elite of ruling families; there the rags and tatters and empty stomachs of an indigent and superfluous majority.

An attractive, fashionably dressed elderly creole woman sporting a Parisian accent with whom I had struck a conversation whispered parenthetically, “You know, many of us believe we were better off under the French.”

I could not have been more outraged had an African American claimed that his people had been better off under Jim Crow.

Fifty years later -- twenty of them spent reporting from the beast’s entrails -- nothing has changed. Don’t look for justice, I kept telling myself all that time. Don’t look for civility. All you will find are nature, cruel and unmoved, and the aggregate interests and tirelessly replenished assets of the dominant power base.

Last I heard, the eight-story Castel Haiti , once the romper room of the rich and famous is now a pile of rubble. And, once again, nature, unpredictable and impartial, made short shrift of the aristocracy and the rabble in one blind, raging merciless and devastating blow from which this, the poorest nation in our hemisphere, is unlikely to recover.

____
W. E. Gutman is a widely published veteran journalist and author. He lives in Southern California

Update on Haiti

Yesterday I was in Los Angeles attending a meeting of Worshipful Lodge Aletheia. As usual, it was a memorable day and I had the pleasure of meeting three recent initiates to the lodge, one of whom I was present at her blind-fold interview last September. At the meeting the Almoner's collection was entirely set aside for Haitian relief. Again, our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti.

The following is from an email that I received regarding assistance to Haiti since the recent earthquake:


T.T.G.O.T.G.A.O.T.U.

OFFICIAL NOTICE FROM
GRAND LODGE OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, INC.
SUPREME COUNCIL 33RD DEGREE, INC.
MASONIC CENTER FOR COLLECTION OF
HUMANITARIAN AID FOR HAITI

Starting January 13, 2010, the Masonic Center for Collection of Humanitarian Aid for Haiti is established at the building of the Grand Lodge of the Dominican Republic, Inc., where brethren and the public-at-large may deliver their donations of non-perishable foodstuffs (rice, beans and other grains), canned food, bottled water, medicine and clothing. This contribution will be delivered through the corresponding official institutions to the needy population in our sister Republic of Haiti.

Donations may be delivered at:

Gran Logia de la República Dominicana, Inc.
Calle Arzobispo Portes No. 554 esquina Las Carreras
Ciudad Nueva, Santo Domingo, D.N.
Tel. 809-682-4173
Email: info@granlogiard.org

(Publication authorized by M. Wor. Bro. Edy Federico PEÑA BARET, Grand Master, and Ill. and P. Bro. Eduardo MEJÍA JABID, Sovereign Grand Commander)

SOME IDEAS FOR YOUR DONATION FOR HAITI:

FOODSTUFFS:

* Beans (canned)
* Sausages (canned)
* Sardines (canned)
* Tuna (canned)
* Soda crackers
* Milk in tetrapack
* Fruit juice in tetrapack
* Other non-perishable food items

MEDICINES

* Oral rehydration Serum
* Gauzes
* Cotton
* Analgesics (acetaminophen, ibuprofen)
* Slings
* Elastic bandages
* Antibiotics (amoxicifiline, in suspension and/or tablets)
* Antiseptics (iodine type or chlorhexidine soap)
* Sanitary napkins

Haiti

For those readers that are interested, our sister obedience, the Grande Loge Haitienne de St.-Jean will be receiving assistance from the brothers and sisters of the George Washington Union. During this time of great tragedy for the people of Haiti, our thoughts and our prayers go out to our fellow Masons and their families. I have been informed that the Vice-President of CLIPSAS will be coordinating relief efforts on the part of CLIPSAS and its member obedience's with the International Red Cross. I will post more as it becomes available.

The Grande Loge Haitienne website in the U.S. can be reached here:

http://www.gdlghdstj.org/Acceuill.html

The Mote

One of the comments that I received recently called on me to to "remove the mote from my own eye."

This refers to a passage from the Bible, (Matthew, Chapter 7) in which Jesus says:

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

I prefer the New International Version translation:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

It was not my intention to infer that I am without fault. In fact, I doubt that many of us can truly say that we are living up to our standards of Masonic behavior.

There is a difference however to making mistakes and changing course, and knowingly perpetuating falsehoods and deceptions.

If someone, through their actions, has demonstrated time and again that their word does not amount to much, and that they will always take the expedient course in pursuit of their goals, how then do we consider that person to be part of the Masonic community?

Talk is cheap. So is how long someone has been recognized as being a Mason. I have seen a lot of un-masonic behavior recently. It saddens me. If my behavior has caused a brother or sister to question their involvement in Freemasonry, then I sincerely apologize.

I will continue to seek Masonic light, to the best of my ability, and let those that pretend to be Masons follow their own paths.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to discover what the ethics and values of Freemasonry are.

It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to distinguish between those who try to live by those values, and those that don't.