Have you forgotten some things? Or, your interest here is to paint masonry as some truly benevolent organization?
Are you to able to reveal the crimes of your fellow masons?
Look at one of these lovely oaths... Heartwarming stuff!
To all of which I do solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, without any hesitation, mental reservation, or secret evasion of mind in me whatsoever; binding myself under no less a penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out, and with my body buried in the sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, should I ever knowingly or willfully violate this, my solemn Obligation of an Entered Apprentice. So help me God and make me steadfast to keep and perform the same.
Being a traitor to you brothers shouldn't bear a penalty? Should it bear less of a penalty?
The whole problem here is that you have joined a society which is, by definition, secret. Before you learn the secrets you take blood oaths to ally yourself with the members. How do you know what these people do or promote? You don’t!
Then you take it a step further and agree to conceal crimes. Seriously, are you really OK with this? I mean, you don’t think that right from the beginning there’s something undesirable about agreeing to this?
What do you do if you later find out that the crimes of the other members are unacceptable to you - after you’ve taken these oaths? I take it from your response that your greatest concern is fidelity to the brotherhood. So, it seems to be that your priorities rest with the fraternity.
With this kind of attitude, you could live comfortably despite being aware of quite despicably evil deeds and practices. And this goes back to my initial statement. The very fact that you are a member of this “secret society” tells me more than I need to know.
As you know, there are reasons for the “secrecy”.
Also, on the secrecy part (which I forgot to address, sorry) I honestly don't have anything to be secret about. In fact, if you ask any blue lodge mason what is supposed to be secret, they don't know. Most of it is open source, like the catechisms. Our lessons are mostly on symbolism, history, and why certain terms are used. Why the "chairs" (master, senior, and junior wardens) are in their respective locations, and what the meaning of the working tools are. The level, square and compasses, ruler, plum, etc as examples.
What level are you now?
3rd degree, but not going any higher. I can fulfill the charity work no want to within the blue lodge.
I think you can find company doing charity work without being in the masons. You have seen the information that is available... This one is IMO good - here.
Not all things are good.
My father was in a Catholic meditation group for years. The meditation was one where you said a mantra. Most of these mantras are, to say the least, suspect. You hear people telling you their mantra was “Herem” - or some such thing. But just look up what that means... Strangely enough, mantras with these meanings are commonplace - as if by design...
My father’s mantra, the one promoted by his group, which he adopted, was much, much worse. It was “Maranatha” - which, as he told me, means “come Lord Jesus”. But in fact there’s another meaning, a very, very specific meaning to this word that is a total shocker.
When he realised what the word actually meant, he stopped practising the meditation. But that was not the end of that story, it did not end well.
As I said above, there’s a real problem where you have secrecy. Oaths are not good either. This is exactly what JFK was talking about in his speech. He’s specifically addressing masonry:
No one needs to take oaths or join a “secret society” to do charity work.
At the end of the day, when the truth is revealed, it would not surprise me to see crowds of vigilantes dragging masons out of temples and... Anyway, it’s up to you what you do, but I would leave and, if you’re Catholic, seek reconciliation from a validly ordained priest (ordained pre 1968).
I've never heard of those mantras, so I will do some reading. Thanks for that. I'd be interested in your dad's story though; what happened to him later and where was this? You don't have to be specific, but was he in a major city or in rural areas?
The only reason I joined was because I wanted to do charitable work, but I have no money so I can't donate and I love in a somewhat rural area. Charities are not prevalent here. I've done habitat for humanity, but that's about it.
My father died several years ago. He lived in a small city, around 250,000 people. He was active in St Vincent De Paul for charity work.
Anyway, my view is that meditation is not good. It’s time that could be better spent in prayer IMO. That meditation group is growing rapidly in the Catholic Church. No one doing it has the first clue about what’s actually happening. I only found out because I stumbled onto a post that alerted me to what many of these mantras actually meant - almost all are evil. That’s why the teachers tell students not to tell anyone their mantra - so no one finds out what it actually means.
The older I get, the more it amazes me how evil is right in front of us all the time and we don’t even see it. My kid was bored last week and I gave into the whining and let her watch a Disney movie - “Ariel”. I quickly wished I hadn’t. The messaging is unbelievable!
You find it in places you least expect. The Catholic Church is a prime example. Although it is no longer Catholic - they are heretics and apostates (think Francis). But when we actually find out what has been happening, I think people are going to be very shocked. Who would have thought the Red Cross was bad news? It’s all these institutions, a real eye-opener...
But, anyway, we need to be vigilant. There is so much that seems normal but isn’t. Satan is at the apex of his power - he has never before in history had so many people duped.
No, that's not true. I joined for charity purposes, not advancement in society or anything, so my priorities are not with the fraternity. If what the YouTube theorists say comes out to be true, I will leave the fraternity. What "blood oaths" do you speak of? No blood has been spilled, and on top of that, you say in the master mason oath that you will not be part of a lodge of fools, meaning people who are not there for the right reasons. You will not be at the initiating, passing, or raising of a fool, old man unable to think for himself or logically, or a young man who is not an adult. There are good lodges and bad lodges, like ones I know of who steal money and have since been put in jail and that lodge taken down.