Membership in the Masons, by Father Edward McNamara

ROME, 6 FEB. 2007 (ZENIT)
http://www.ewtn.com/library/Liturgy/zlitur161.htm

Membership in the Masons

Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

Q: A member of the RCIA program was told by another member of the parish that if they were going to become Catholic they needed to terminate their involvement with the Masonic lodge before they could join. Is this still the case in the United States? — T.N., Howard City, Michigan

A: This question is more canonical than liturgical. The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed.

The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict." An interdict is an ecclesiastical penalty that deprives the person of the right to celebrate or receive the sacraments but is less harsh than excommunication.

This text greatly simplified the former code which had specifically mentioned the Masons. This change led some Masons to think that the Church no longer banned Catholics from being Masons, since, among other things, in many countries membership at a lodge was merely social and had nothing to do with plotting against the Church.

In order to clarify the issue the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a declaration on Nov. 26, 1983, shortly before the present Code of Canon Law came into effect. This declaration, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, states:

"It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church's decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.

"This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.

"Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.

"It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L'Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).

"In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation."

The congregation's judgment, therefore, was not so much based on whether the Masons as such or any specific group of Masons effectively plot against the Church today. This does not deny that some Masonic groups have historically combated the Church nor that even today, in some countries or at certain levels, the lodge remains at the forefront of those who oppose the Church's freedom of action.

Rather, the Vatican congregation above all stressed the incompatibility of some Masonic principles with those of the Catholic Church.

This incompatibility resides in some aspects of Masonic ritual, but more importantly in elements regarding the question of truth.

In its effort to bring together people of different provenances, Masonry requires that its members adhere to a minimal belief in a supreme architect of the universe and leave aside all other pretensions of truth, even revealed truth.

It is thus basically a relativistic doctrine, and no Catholic, nor indeed any convinced Christian, may ever adhere to a group that would require him, even as a mere intellectual exercise, to renounce the affirmation of such truths as Christ's divinity and the Trinitarian nature of God.

Of course, for many people active in Masonic lodges, the conversations and activities are more social in nature and rarely veer toward the realm of philosophical speculation. A Catholic, however, cannot ignore the fundamental principles behind an organization, no matter how innocuous its activities appear to be.

Jack Ruby and Freemasonry

What follows is a short interview of a Dallas Reporter contradicting the Warren Commission's Report on his testimony about Jack Ruby at Parklands Hospital. At minute 00:49 as Ruby is escorted into the courtroom for his Oswald Murder Arraignment he is directed by an escorting officer by a hand placed on his shoulder, a secret masonic recognition sign, towards two supporters sitting in the courtroom, upon which at minute 00:53 he exchanges 'funny' handshakes using a secret masonic 'grip'.




Of note Dealy Plaza in addition to being the site of the murder of President John F. Kennedy is also the 'historic' site of the first Masonic Temple in Dallas, which was of course 'commemorated' with a memorial obelisk under the guidance of Texas Masonic Leadership. To date 45 years and counting the only visible 'commemoration' at the site of the assassination of the 35th President of the United States consists of a pair of x's spray painted in the middle of the road.

Freemason Disinformation Agent Debates Freemason Agent Provocateur

A Television Debate on Freemasonry that appeared on a live call-in Christian Program in Britain recently.

The Lodge the self-declared 'Member of the Swedenborg Church' Freemason belongs to, Quator Corronati, is a big deal in British Freemasonry. The oaths the heavily rehearsed agent disinformator claims were removed never were, they are what Freemasons term 'exemplified', which means the Master of the Lodge reads them in front of the initiate. Martin Short and some other U.K. authors exposed this little piece of masonic deception some years ago, and a ex-mason caller to the show reminds him. Mason One says he left the Anglican Church around 1988, which is about the timeframe when the recent Church of England investigation of Freemasonry began issuing highly critical public reports on the incompatibility of Christianity and Freemasonry. There is a Swedenborg 'Rite' in Freemasonry, an 'advanced' series of highly occultic degrees, which the author-editor never bothers mentioning, even though he has written about the subject, his debating partner 'misses' this point as well.

The Circumabulating Irreverend, the supposed masonic critic in this warped little play about 'The Most Popular Religion in the World Today', the description he actually gives for Freemasonry in an early 'rebuttal', seems to be primarily trying to introduce uncritical freemason occult teachings under a wrapping of christiany sounding 'universal' masonic religious concepts to the Christian Audience while simultaneously attempting to coyly discredit/mock 'Fundamentalist Christians' to Secular and Masonic audiences using a heavily rehearsed agent provacateur buffoon act. Bro. Irreverend thought he was being craftily clever but thanks to the intervention of the Holy Spirit was unable to contain his evilmason smirking thereby illuminating one of the more twisted junior police-state techniques/tricks of 'active' freemasonry.

The Christian Host of the Program is real though - and excellent.



There is Seven Parts to this, after each part plays you should be able to navigate through the image boxes above to find the next segment. Incidently my view that both of these debaters are Freemasons comes from years of watching Freemasonry do this act on a wide number of forums and boards. 'Mason' number two starts out fairly conventionally but then quickly starts inserting pro-masonic propaganda inside the guise of a criticism. In fact if you listen carefully you will notice that he never actually disagrees, questions, or interupts anything Mason One is putting forth, he just offers some Freemasonry 'criticism' from Masonic writings that is actually an introduction of another warm and fuzzy freemasonry concept that sounds 'christian' which, 'oddly' enough, is how Freemasonry recruits new members inside the Church. How they both ended up on the same program is pure Masonry, probably through a member they have gotten placed inside the production chain. This kind of elaborate subterfuge is what the Lodge excells at and is why they are able to dominate the party system so thoroughly. Masonry will try and place members where there is any potential for political activity - or Opposition; Church & Parish Councils, Issue and Civic asscoiations, 'left' or 'right' political parties. 'Associate always associate...'

Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."

Co-Incidence Theory: The 2007 Australian T.V. Audio Loop Mystery

A repost of a story first linked to in 2007

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007/01/04/jesus-christ-help-us-all-lord/

On January 2nd, a major primetime television broadcast in Australia was interrupted by about 7 minutes (or 10, depending who you ask) of a bizarre audio loop. Our Australian correspondent on the ground, “astepoutside”, fills us in on the details:

It was a show about train disaster or something, then suddenly an audio loop that it says in the story was saying “Jesus Christ, one of the Navarines” started playing over and over again… for 6 minutes straight. The most surreal TV watchig experience i have ever had. The only thing is, I swear that it was saying “Jesus christ, god save us all now” when I head it..

The program was called “Mayday” or possibly “Mayday: Head On Collison.” Okay, here we go. “Mayday” is the name of a television series about disasters, also known as Air Emergency in the United States, and Air Crash Investigation in the rest of the world. Another source gives the synopsis for the “Head On Collision” episode as being:

“A calm trip through the Rocky Mountains ends in disaster when a VIA Rail train slams head-on into an enormous freight train; how did the two trains wind up on the same piece of track?; an inquiry makes shocking discoveries about freight train management.”

How did the two trains wind up on the same track indeed? How did audio from one program and video from another get broadcast together for such a long time on a major television station?

Official news reports on the subject are sketchy at best:

THE Seven Network has apologised to viewers after receiving complaints about a major technical glitch which interrupted a prime-time transmission tonight.

The program, Mayday Head on Collision, which began airing at 7.30pm, was interrupted for several minutes by an audio track.

“It was an unfortunate technical error which was rectified as quickly as possible,” a Seven Network spokeswoman said.

“It only went to air in NSW and Victoria and the program resumed as soon as the error was corrected.”

The spokeswoman said the program’s vision went to air with different audio, which included the words “Jesus Christ”.

“It’s up to interpretation of exactly what was said, but we are working on ensuring it doesn’t happen again,” the spokeswoman said.

“We apologise to any viewers that were watching at the time.”

The other news item I have seen about this has slightly more information but is equally as dodgy:

A Seven spokesman said a technical glitch was responsible for the religious message being broadcast in Victoria and NSW.

The spokesman said the network was always “spreading the good word”, but not in a biblical sense.

“It was a technical glitch due to an audio problem with the tape,” he said.

“The line actually is ‘Jesus Christ one of the Navarines’ and this is from the documentary.

“It was not a prank, but one of those things that happen from time to time. The tape was stuck or something glitched between 7.35pm and 7.41pm, and we did everything we could to fix the problem as quickly as possible. Once everything was sorted, the program continued.”

However, thanks to the power and glory of YouTube, you can evaluate the audio track for yourself. In my opinion, they are quite clearly saying “Jesus Christ, help us all Lord” (with maybe a “fuck” at the end)

Also see this shorter clip from another person:

What’s interesting is that apparently the audio source has been most probably identified. And it just so happens to be another video available on YouTube:

Go to minute 2:07 of this video and compare the two.

So we have a number of questions to follow:

1. Why did this happen at all?


2. Why did it happen for so long?


3. Why did it happen where and when it happened?


4. Is there any particular significance which can be drawn out of this?


5. Why did news reports of this clearly misrepresent what was being said in the audio?


6. Is it possible other people actually heard different audio wherein Jesus being a “Navarine” (Nazarene?) was heard?


7. What’s with the connection to the “Halliburton Ambush Iraq” video on YouTube?

Very intriguing media mystery!

Yup

Co-Incidence Theory: Writer Claims To Have Discovered The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel in Afghanistan Pakistan Border Region

A repost of a story first linked to in 2007. It is interesting that Pakistan has long referred to the area where these Lost Tribes of Israel are said to be located, and now known as the Pashtun, as the Tribal Area's. There is also a documentary on this topic filmed in the region just before 9/11 and available on Youtube.

http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-04/200704-Taliban.html
April 2007

Scouting for stories in Afghanistan’s hinterlands, a Jewish American reporter and her Muslim Pashtun interpreter, discover they may have ancestors in common…

Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban?

Ilene R. Prusher

It was Seder night in Kabul, and the bread most afflicting me was the pile of nan—Afghan flatbread—that our cook kept placing on the table just before the guests were due to arrive. I repeatedly removed the offending plate and explained to the cook—already baffled by my trying to give him the week off—that there would be no bread served with this meal. He’d nod to show he understood, but a few minutes later, I’d find the same pile of nan back in its usual place.

I had planned for this Seder even before leaving home on the second of what would be many reporting trips to Afghanistan, tucking a box of matzah in my suitcase and wrapping two Haggadot inside my flak jacket. But celebrating the Jewish people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt was proving more complicated than just setting a proper table. My attempt to banish the nan and the cook’s determination to return it was just one of many challenges.

This was 2002, after all, in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which until the U.S invasion only months earlier had been controlled by the fiercely repressive Islamist Taliban. Although driven from Kabul, the Taliban were hardly gone from the country and memories of their rigid rule—and their Ministry of Virtue and Vice—were fresh. A colleague who was co-hosting the Seder and I dared not reveal to our Afghani staff and guests—interpreters, drivers and guards—that they were actually helping us observe a Jewish holiday. Instead, we related the Passover story in metaphorical terms: Just as you here in Afghanistan are celebrating your freedom from the oppression of the Taliban and the terror of civil war, we commemorate the day of our freedom from slavery. This is a feast to show our love of liberty, our thanks to God.

The Afghanis ate it up—and reached for seconds of my charoset.

The only guest in on the secret was my guide and interpreter, Mashal, a member of Afghanistan’s prominent Pashtun people. Gentlemanly son of a judge, author of two books of Pashto poetry and master of four other languages, Mashal had been running an Internet café in Pakistan soon after 9/11 when a colleague of mine coaxed him into journalism.

A few days before the Seder, I found myself in an unexpected conversation with Mashal. He and I were on one of our long car trips through the ragged slate-gray Afghan hinterlands, scouting stories about Al Qaeda’s evasion of U.S. forces and local warlords who were besting America’s plans for the region. Somewhere between Khost and Kabul, Mashal raised a subject I had considered best to avoid in these precincts.

“I, I, I want to find out more about the Jews,” he said from the front seat, craning his neck to talk to me as we bounced over the rocky road like hot popcorn kernels. I didn’t respond; instead, I continued to stare out the window at the packed-mud buildings dotting the remote landscape, careful as ever to avoid direct eye contact with the men we passed. “Because I believe that they are related to us,” Mashal continued, “and that maybe we, we were once Jews.”

“What?” I asked, as if I hadn’t quite heard him, buying more time to think. I knew there were peoples, from remote pockets of Africa to the far corners of East Asia, who believe they are descended from the Israelites. I had not, though, heard this mentioned in regard to the Pashtuns, who claim a proud martial history in Central Asia that long predates Islam. Also called Pakhtuns or Pathans, they are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, whose populace also includes other Muslim groups like the Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks. More notoriously, Pashtuns make up the ranks of the Taliban.

Was I to believe that the likes of Mullah Omar—the Taliban luminary who ordered public executions and floggings, made burka-wearing law, and gave succor to Osama bin Laden—possessed even a molecule of Jewish ancestry?

“Once Jews?” I finally replied, turning to him and pulling up my ever-slipping head scarf. “What do you mean?”

“We have all kinds of traditions that no other Muslims have,” he said, “like Saturday was the rest day. And many of the words in our language are not related to any other language in the region. And I, I think maybe that’s because they are from Hebrew!” Mashal punctuated that last word with a pleasing emphasis. His love of poetry had a way of seeping into the sweet rhythms of his speech.

“Well, if there’s something you want to know, I might be able to help,” I said, half-shocked to hear myself utter these words to an Afghan. “I’m Jewish.”

“Really?” He was exuberant. “You?” Our driver turned to ask what had caused this sudden burst of enthusiasm, but Mashal dismissed him with a shake of the head and a vague smile. Lowering his tone a notch, he said, “Wow. That’s great. I want to ask you a lot of questions.”

Mashal’s discretion confirmed my instinct that I could trust him. Still, such confidence was not to be given lightly. This was hardly two months after the murder of Daniel Pearl in neighboring Pakistan, an event that shook many intrepid reporters to the core. Suddenly, to not hide one’s religious identity seemed reckless. Like the thousands of landmines still embedded in Afghanistan’s parched landscape, Jewishness could be hazardous to your survival.

Later that day, I gingerly walked over one such landmine-strewn plain of cracked earth, dry and gritty as nan. At regular intervals, we had driven past gaggles of bright fabric flapping flirtatiously in the wind. Tied to thin wooden poles in the ground, they looked from afar like sails attached to the masts of sunken schooners trying to catch the breeze and move on. Mashal said they marked graves, but I couldn’t see how that could be.

I asked our driver to stop so I could take a photograph. He shrugged and obliged, telling me to watch my step. As I neared the poles, my feet crunching the dirt beneath me, I could see that Mashal had been right. The flapping fabrics were head scarves from women who had buried loved ones here, colorful signs of remembrance for those they mourned.

Up close, I found something even more surprising: stones scattered on nearly every grave. A memory from early childhood rushed through my head—one hand in my mother’s, the other reaching down to place a pebble on my grandfather’s tombstone. I returned to the car in wonderment, retracing my footsteps as I’d learned to do in a land as rich in mines as more fortunate countries are in coffee beans.

I asked Mashal what the story was: Why the stones on the graves? This was a peculiar Pashtun way of marking a visit to the deceased, he said.

“But that’s what Jews do,” I told him quietly. In all my travels, I had never come across another people who preferred pebbles over flowers on a loved one’s grave.

“Really?” Mashal said, surprised, “I thought only we, we Pashtuns did that.”

Less than an hour later, we passed through a typically poor village on the road back toward Kabul. Paint markings on some of the buildings caught my eye. They resembled five-branch menorahs. I asked Mashal what they were.

“Oh, we call it nars,” he replied. “People in the countryside put this up to mark a celebration, such as a birth or wedding.”

“Do all the peoples in Afghanistan do that, or just the Pashtuns?” Iasked.

“This is only for the Pashtuns,” he said.

It seemed uncanny. Menorah…nars. They sounded as if they shared the same root. And unlike the Star of David, which did not originate with the Jews, the menorah symbol had never belonged to another people.

Mashal and I raised our eyebrows and looked at each other. In the weeks that followed, we were to come across further peculiarities of Pashtun customs that would ring familiar. There is the tradition among many rural women, for instance, of lighting candles on a Friday. They then hide them in a basket—perhaps to conceal their glow from censorious mullahs. There are wedding customs: Some Afghans marry under a cloth that is similar to the chuppa. Another Afghan cloth, the uniquely Pashtun shoulder drape for men that doubles as a ritual prayer mat, is called a tolia; Both its name and function, I told Mashal, reminded me of tallit.

From then on, Mashal and I made a point of paying visits to Afghanistan’s Jewish sites: Gardez, where it’s rumored that a Jewish warrior named Gabur built an ancient fortress; Ghazni Province, where Pashtuns make pilgrimages to the tomb of a “Jewish saint” called Zikria; and Balkh Province, an ancestral area and possible cradle of Pashtun culture that once boasted a large Jewish population that disappeared long before the country’s other Jewish communities in Herat and Kabul dwindled after 1948 and died out in the 1970s. Mashal thought the Pashtuns might have acquired their name from Balkh pronounced pakh-tu by most Afghans.

There are several stories about how the Pashtun people—spread throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan and India—came by their Jewish roots. Many Pashtun, Mashal pointed out, believe themselves to be descended from a legendary figure named Qais Abdu Rashid, who might have been from one of the Israelite tribes. Another theory is that Pashtuns are descended from Pithon, a tribal descendant mentioned in First Chronicles, 8:35.

Curiosity piqued, I spoke to experts and consulted every book I could find on Afghanistan and the lost tribes. It seems Mashal and I were far from the first to wonder. One can find Muslim and Jewish references from the 13th to the 18th centuries attesting to the presence of lost tribes of Israel in the Pashtun territories in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These include the 1612 classic called Makhzan-i-Afghani, which was translated into English in the early 19th century as History of the Afghans.

Hardly a contemporary academic or journalistic work—from Sir Olef Caroe’s The Pathans of 50 years ago to the most recent histories of Afghanistan—fails to mention it. British colonial official Mountstuart Elphinstone, writing in the early 19th century, compared Pashtu to Hebrew in his book, The Kingdom of Caubul. Israel’s second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, believed in the Jewish lineage of the Pashtuns, as did Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. Once, when asked about his ancestors, Shah claimed that the royal family descended from the Tribe of Benjamin.

Jews I spoke with who had grown up in Afghanistan also immediately identified with Pashtun-Jewish links. Their parents or grandparents, they would tell me, had always said, that of all Afghan peoples, they could expect Pashtuns to treat them well on account of their shared heritage. In Jerusalem, I met with Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, founder of Amishav (“My People Returns”), a group that brings supposed descendants of the lost tribes—such as the B’nei Menashe in India and the Shin-lung in Burma—to Israel. He flipped to the map on the back cover of his book, The Tribes of Israel, and with his finger traced for me the tribes’ putative path from Palestine into Iran, eastward across Afghanistan, and eventually into India and China.

Avichail’s claims brought to mind other intriguing details that Mashal had mentioned like some of the provisions of the complex Pashtun code of ethics, pashtunwali, which have no apparent connection to Islam and are not shared by other peoples of the region. These include exacting standards for hospitality and the requirement that a man marry his brother’s widow—a stipulation also found in the Torah.

Recently, I had a long phone conversation about Pashtun origins with Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Indian historian on a research fellowship this year at Tel Aviv University. He’s been studying Muslim groups in India that have traditions of Israelite descent. In one—a Pashtun tribe called the Bani Yisrael—everyone shares the last name of Yisraeli. According to Aafreedi, they believe that they are the descendants of a Jewish sahabi (“friend” in Arabic) of the Prophet Mohammed.

“Why do they claim Israelite origins, if there is nothing to support it?” he asked me. “Why do they take it seriously, and why are there others who take them seriously?”

Tudor Parfitt, a British professor of Jewish studies and author of The Lost Tribes of Israel, subjects the lost tribe theory to an unforgiving academic light apparent in his recent book’s subtitle: The History of a Myth. Parfitt argues that the last traces of the 10 northern tribes, who were exiled into Assyria and forced to assimilate, are Hebrew names recorded in Assyrian army documents from the 7th century. He has concluded that this is where the history of the lost tribes ends, and the myth of the lost tribes begins.

A perfectly reasonable explanation for the cultural overlap, according to naysayers, is that large numbers of Jews lived and traveled in the lands that are now Afghanistan well before the arrival of Islam. As far back as the 7th century, Chinese travel writer Hsuan Tsang noted a large number of Jewish communities there. Eventually, most converted to Islam.

Whatever the arguments for and against, many Pashtuns—my friend and colleague Mashal among them—remain convinced they are related to the Jews, or at least deeply curious to learn whether they truly are. Their belief has some interesting ramifications: In the ever-shifting power struggles among ethnic groups in this part of the world, the Israelite card is used both for and against the Pashtuns. Pakistanis in particular disparage the Pashtuns as Jews, while some Pashtuns use the possibility of Israelite heritage as evidence of having legitimate, ancient roots in the region. For the religious-minded, a connection to Judaism is proof of having been monotheistic even before the arrival of Islam. And unlike other groups that may or may not be descended from lost tribes, the issue isn’t about to get swept up into Israeli migration politics: the Pashtuns have no interest in emigrating to Israel.

At my nan-less Seder this year, I will recall how Jews, as the descendents of the Israelites, have probably wandered more than any other people. Deuteronomy 10:22 tells us that, before slavery, “Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy people, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” Where those stars shine today is anyone’s guess.

Ilene R. Prusher is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor, and is the Boston-based newspaper’s Jerusalem bureau chief. She has spent the last decade reporting from countries throughout the Middle East, East Asia and Africa. Her articles have also appeared in publications such as the The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Republic and The Jerusalem Report.

Barack Obama & Prince Hall Freemasonry

From a March 28, 2008 Post on the Democratic Party Website Blog

http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/MichaelsBlog/CcS9

Re: Moreover/Obama Muslim? Not Muslim Prince Hall Mason!!!

Mar 28th 2008 at 3:35 pm EDT

By LITTLE DINE' FOR RECALL ON COLUMBUS DAY

There is not one shred of evidence that he is Muslim. Grandpa told me that Barack Obama is a 32nd degree Prince Hall Mason, and goodstanding member of Royal Arch Masons,and Nights Templary.

Reverend Jesse Jackson is a 33rd degree Mason.

Reverend Jermiah Wright is also a 32nd degree mason. There are many very colorful high profile people that are Prince Hall Masons, to include Louis Farrakahn. I just can not understand why Louis Farakahn has been accepted as a high degree Mason, if he is totally contrary to most of the requirements and precepts for acceptability as a Mason in most of the Masonic Orders of the Nation and the International Masonic Orders known as Universal Masons..

The Prince Hall Masons belived to be of the Afro American Community are extremely prolific in the United States. There is a memebership of over 300,000, not including the Prince Hall Eastern Star Mason auxiliary composed by women only. Women can not be Masons.

There are hundreds of auxiliary orgs. that are under Prince Hall Masonry which is composed by huge numbers of members that could not rate accepted as masons due to requirements that were very scrutinized as to their background checks.

Reverend Al Sharpton being one a major activist in said organizations and member there of along with a huge number of Obama supporters and people in his campaign staffing....

Grandpa told me that Prince Hall Masonry is not exclusively for Blacks, he told me that a select group of people that are not of black heritage, but yet not anglo european caucasian, are Prince Hall Masons.

Grandpa is very learned on Masonoic Orders and high profile individuals that belong to many Masonic Theosophic Orders both Universal as well as international and Universal Masons Brotherhoods.

The enlightenment grandpa gave me on the subject makes me wonder if his control and knowledge of several languages and the inside intricacate trappings as to function of the Orders, might be related to the possibilty of him being of the masonic Universal Massons Orders.

However I guess that If and when he wants me to know he will clarify this to me. I do know for a fact he wears a peculiar ring with an eagle emblem and a diamond in the middle of the eagle in a triangular shape . The Eagle has its wings pointing downwards, and it is engraved on the sides with greek Character letters. The ring is really beautifull, made of Platinum and Yellow gold. He has different jewlry and rings which I thought were class rings.

Does anybody know what the Eagle ring might stand for?

I have never asked grandpa about it.

Peace to all here little Dine'

Palin's Freemason Recognition Sign Use

Some may have noticed Sarah Palin repeatedly placing one or both of her hands briefly on her thigh. This is a Masonic Recognition Sign. Here is a BBC Clip of one of her 'grand' entrances.

First Lady Laura Bush has been using this one also, here is a clip at 26:03 during Pope Benedicts arrival at the White House Lawn reception this summer and during the Andrews Airforce Base arrival at minute 33:22 of this clip . If you wish you can start the same clip from minute 28:19 and watch the head of Pope Benedicts Security repeatedly make Masonic Signs like the variety in the picture below of Sarah Palin and First Dude.



You may also observe both of these secret masonic recognition signs in official portraits of Lodge Officers and Grand Lodge Grand Masters on Masonic websites and compare them to line drawings in Duncans or other Masonic Ritual Work Books.

Obama Infomercial Freemasonry References

A Freemasons Blog Post has identified some Masonic innuendo in the Obama October 29 Infomercial broadcast on a number of U.S. television and cable networks. During minute 25 as the narrator makes a reference to Grandfathers we find a brief flash of a Shriner in a mini-go kart with two men in white shirts standing beside. If you freeze the video and advance it slowly you will also see the bottom of a long Shriner Fez Tassle some of them use. As the 'Grandfather' discussion continues you will see several Masonic style bearhug handshake embraces which are used in the 'five points of fellowship' grip. This is the one where the hands shaking are concealed by the bodies of the two men pressed together, with the other arm wrapped around each others back (Clip).

Why do we bother with this somewhat tiresome Freemason hint/handsign/handshake watch? Firstly because Freemason membership non admission/denials for various current(non horizontal) public figures are not to be believed, and to disprove the Masons claim that Freemasonry is not involved in politics and that Freemasons don't use their membership for gain and advantage.

Mr. Obama has not been as prolific in his Masonic 'Ring Knocking' as John the Masonic Sign Machine McCain but he has done so on occasion, most 'craft'ily during the rally where he announced Biden's VPship with Biden placing his hand horizontally in the middle of Obama's back after the masonic bearhug handhshake . Masons online have stated in posts that Obama is a Prince Hall Freemason along with the Rev. Wright and that they know he is a 'brother'(Regular or Prince Hall variety unstated) because they sat in 'Lodge' (i.e. during the closed ritual where the doors are guarded) with him.

Because Mr. Obama is a member of the 'Brotherhood' you can be sure if elected he will appoint and advance many Freemasons to positions in his administration in front, and behind, the scene. This is ultimately one of the key points with Freemasons, you are not electing or accepting just the individual Freemason, you are electing or accepting his entire extended masonic network. 'The Pillar of Mutual Support' of preference and mutual aid inside binding oaths of keeping their brother masons secrets.

In Summary Freemasonry is heavily involved in Politics, Freemasons use membership in Freemasonry for personal advantage and Freemasonry deceives non-Freemasons on the masonic membership of current prominent public figures. In other words Freemasonry is a Secret Society.

Obama Campaign & Uniformed Police Details

Received this tip from a usually reliable masonic source. It appears to be from a Michigan State Police email list discussion thread. My immediate thoughts on it I append at the bottom of the post.

From:
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008
To:
Subject: Fw: A Michigan Police Officer's take on Obama

FY info:-

To all,

I have read all of the emails from Law Enforcement & Military personnel about Barack Obama's rudeness and what seems to be disgust for basically anyone in uniform. Well, it's my turn to add to the list of emailers and here it is:

So members of the Calhoun County Sheriff's Department, Michigan State Police, (me included) and other local agencies inside Calhoun County are working with Secret Service in the security of Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama's bus arrives in Battle Creek and pulls into the stadium area. Before Mr. Obama exits the bus, he has the Secret Service get off and tell all Law Enforcement personnel in uniform that they now have to stand behind the bus so Mr. Obama is not seen with anyone in a Law Enforcement uniform before he gets off or while in the public view. So, everyone from Michigan State Police, Sheriff's Deptments and other agencies look at each other for a brief second, go and stand behind the bus out of sight so Mr. Obama does not have to see, or been seen with, what to him is 'undesirables' since he refuses to be seen , or even acknowledge Military or Law Enforcement personnel in uniform.

And he wants to be our commander-in-chief!

At a time of war and terrorism in our world, this presidental candidate who is being protected by various branches of the military & law enforcement at the tax payers expense, refuses to acknowledge, be seen with, have in his photographed background, any type of Military or Law Enforcement in uniform.

But this is not in the headlines or in the news or on TV. The TV news doesn't show us marching around behind the bus. In the future, look and see if you can see a single soldier or police officer in uniform when you see Obama. Why? I wonder what the story or media frenzy would be if it was Muslims, blacks, whites, Jews, or any other race, gender, religon, and/or occupation, that Mr. Obama refused to be seen with or have around him.

Why would I make this up? Everyone in Law Enforcement knows we have traditionally had more funding under Democrats.

Just food for thought leading up to November 4th.

[Name Redacted]
Michigan Tactical Officer's Association
Michigan State Police
Executive Board Member

---

FW's Musings in Reply:

Maybe assassination concerns? Seen the movie the Godfather one too many times I guess. But alot of cops are Masons, but on the other hand I believe he is Prince Hall and has quite a few liberal mason politicians supporting him. Strange.

Freemason Signs

A GRIPPING TALE

Cindy McCain is injured by a handshake

Letter from a soon to be ex-Freemason

God bless you and your work.
Sunday, April 27,
From: "M"
To: mason_stoppers@yahoo.com

I just want to say God Bless you.

I am a Freemason - soon to be an ex-Freemason.

I've been through the three degrees of the Blue Lodge. I've gone even further than that... I went through the Scottish Rite to obtain the 32° of Freemasonry. I was very proud of my membership in the fraternity in the short time I belonged, much to my current chagrin.

I have only been a member for a year. Before I joined, I was quite proud to be Catholic. Several years ago, I was even considering the priesthood before I left the Church for some time. I was quite bitter... not at the Church, but at myself, at my own sinfulness, and at my own pride. I joined Freemasonry knowing the Church's prohibition against the organization, and was familiar with your web page well before I was initiated into the first degree. I very much enjoyed being a Freemason. I made a lot of good friends and grew as a person due to my membership.

Yet, admittedly, something in my soul had been aching since that day I went through my very first initiation. I had certainly lapsed as a Catholic and had been deep in my sins well before I took that step, but something within masonry had been killing me spiritually and I certainly felt it.

Freemasonry is a subtle beast. The average person within its ranks has very little idea of the evil that lurks beneath its massive symbolism, but that evil is certainly there. Every aspect of masonry is cunningly designed to destroy men's souls by pulling them away from Christ. I was lucky - Christ Our Lord never allowed me to close my ears to individuals such as yourself whom spoke the truth of the organization. I am grateful for that beyond any words that I could possibly express.

Masonry, both directly and indirectly, is at the heart of all that is wrong with the world today. It breeds apathy to Christ and His Church. It is a doorway to evil spirits. When one goes through the degrees, one is divested of all metals, which especially includes holy sacramentals which might protect one from the demonic energies one comes into contact during the rituals. All prayer is directed to the "Grand Architect Of The Universe", whom assuredly is not the Christian God, for Christ is not to be acknowledged within the lodge as anything other than just a man. Christ is not mentioned lest the followers of other religions be offended, yet Masonic ritual refers explicitly to pagan gods whom ought to offend any faithful Christian. The nature of Masonry ought to be clear from this alone.

Freemasonry is the Luciferian religion shrouded in dark secrecy. Its subtleties are such that, unless one studies occult iconography apart from masonry, one cannot comprehend the totality of what is being taught. Freemasonry is the anti-Church and its spirit is most assuredly anti-Christ. Masons whom read this will certainly call me a bigot and accuse me of never being a Mason in the first place, but neither is true. It is not my fault that they never understood the essence of the "Craft" in the first place. I regret having a part in that "Craft" in the first place.

There is a far greater Brotherhood in the world than Masonry could ever hope to be. This is certainly a claim that most Masons would deny on its very face until I name it, after which they ought to be ashamed. The Brotherhood that is greater than Masonry is the Church of Jesus Christ, which no institution built by man or devil can possibly rival. Any Christian who requires a greater bond of fellowship than that which they gain through the grace of Christian baptism most certainly sells their Lord short, for He can bond men in a far greater manner through His Sacraments than any occult ritual could hope to do.

I am not expressing myself as fully as I wish I could, but it suffices to say that I regret having belonged to the Masonic Lodge despite any perceived good I might have gained through my membership. It profits us nothing to gain the world but to lose our souls.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email, God bless you, and keep up the good work.

In Christ,

--

M

Three Six's are Eighteen

What can one say about Freemasonry other than it is the "gift" that keeps on giving. Case in point I was listening to George Noory interview Alex Jones on Coast to Coast AM the other night about Bro. Ted Turner's recent illuminations on the Bro. Charlie Rose show. A caller made the observation that if one looked at the logo for the Trilateral Commission one could see that the three curved arrows could be seen as three six's. Now I already had the logo posted on the site seeing the organization was founded by one of the most 'powerful' Freemasons in the World - the Rockefeller brothers, but I had never picked up on that. Yes it is three six's.

Also on the three six's subject this past week saw some odd doings. We have the start of the trial of the 18 accused terrorists in Canada, the start trial of the 18 accused terrorists in the UK, and the seizure of 18 girls from the FLDS Church(Cult Compound with Armed Men as reported by TIMEWARNERAOLCNN's Bro. Anderson Cooper).

A spooky coincidence, or a coincidence of Spooky's? Perhaps we are witnessing some kind of elaborate psych-ops stunt to 'shape' public opinion on 'the war on terror' by the brotherhood-of-spooks. I guess the images coming from this weeks Bucharest Conference in Ceaucescu's former Palace under N.A.T.O.'s "cunningly concealed" 'embedded' masonic-occult swastika symbol flag wasn't considered 'all-powerful' enough.


'A career in G overnment...'

'Shriners of North America' vs. Vernon Hill

The "SLAPP" lawsuit against Shriner Whistleblower Vernon Hill is carrying on, despite Sandy Frost's investigation and the recent allegations against the Royal Order of Jesters, the secretive Shriner insider group. Here is a copy of an email update on the doings of Vernon's fight with the Shrine H.Q. in Tampa FLA. Vernon hooked up with a former IRS investigator a couple of years ago and started going through Shriner public financial records after having his complaints of fundraising irregularities first ignored and later taken notice of - by being removed from his volunteer position in a local Shrine unit. At one time Vernon and the Investigator had a website that contained quite a number of financial documents from their investigations, but it was taken offline shortly after the Shrine HQ launched their suit against them. Of note the endowment for the Shrine is something like $8 Billion Dollars, the largest in the U.S., so the battle is a somewhat unequal one financial resource wise. After the New York Times articles were published, which basically covered the same ground of Noble Vernons investigation, it remains unclear what continued purpose the suit by Shrine HQ still serves. Surely members of an organization like this should be able to bring their concerns to light.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill Young b.young1932@gmail.com
Date: Mar 12, 2008 3:51 PM
Subject: Noble Vernon Hill
To: blemieux@shrinenet.org

I and hundreds of other masons that are watching the progress of the lawsuit, 'Shriners of North America vs Vernon Hill," are very disgusted. New Yorks Times on March 19, 2007 exposed the Shrine in a front page article writtten by Stephanie Strom. If you are not aware of it, you can find it by going to www.nytimes.com. Then search for "Strom." The article will be about # 50, "In Shriner Spending, A Blurry Line Of Giving." Then go to http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com and to the Buffalo news paper of Sunday march 9, 2007. There you can read Sandy's 22 articles that tell all about the shriners and Jesters and the Jesters (Shriners) alleged violations. No one from the Shrine has rebutted any of those "alleged" violations. None of you have challenged those reporters. How can your lawyers say he defamed the Shrine organization if all of this has gone unchallenged by the Shrine? Whereas, your Tampa based law firm filed a lawsuit against Noble Vernon Hill in about September 2006 for defamation. Vernon Hill is a friend of mine. He was a cancer survivor and a member of Sudan Temple. Being very conscientious, he asked for transparency in the millions of dollars the Shrine collects and controls. Now as a result of a multi billion dollar organization bringing those charges, they have caused him to suffer a mild stroke and is now stricken with Bell's palsy. Has under gone recent operations for skin disorders and above and beyond all of this, he has to this date spent thousands of dollars fighing those charges. A lawsuit surely he could win but cannot out spend the endless funds your organization can use in an attempt to destroy him. it is like David and Goliath. They have already destroyed his health. What more do they want? What little assets he has for him and his wife to live the remainder of their lives on!!

You have almost absolute power over the Shrine Organization. Therefore, I beg you to intervene in this lawsuit immediately and stop it. Doctor/Imperial Potentate, you will do your organization a great service by not allowing this lawsuit to get into the media. If you have ever taken anything seriously and I suppose you have including the Master Mason's obligation, you can use that obligation and help this worthy brother. Believe me, this lawsuit will not go away unless you take charge. Your reply to your decision would be greatly appreciated.

--

Bill Young

Bro. Kenneth Copeland

'Believers Voice of Victory' Televangelist Freemason Kenneth Copeland speaking in front of his $20 million Ministry jet. Mr. Copeland is the former personal pilot for Pastor Oral Roberts, who is also believed to be a Freemason.

Controversial Theological Statements and Teachings by Mr. Copeland:
Biblical Discernment Ministries
God lives on a mother planet: “Heaven has a north and a south and an east and a west. Consequently, it must be a planet.”

Apologetics Coordination Team
"You don’t have a God in you. You are one!”

Berean Faith
"Well, they say, you need balance in this, get out there in that hyper faith, that name-it-and-claim-it, that blab-it-and-grab-it. YEAH! We named it and claimed it and got it. (crowd cheers) Blabbed it and grabbed it and still got it ! Hallelujah! And our bills are paid."

Kenneth Copeland (speaking at John Hagee's Church, August 18, 1999)






A Column of Mutual Support

1. On Copeland's daily television program Believer's Voice of Victory, 2008 Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee made six appearances on the program from Sunday November 25, 2007 through Friday November 30, 2007, discussing integrity of character. Mr. Huckabee is a Freemason.

2. A Frequent Guest on Mr. Copelands program is controversial Pastor John Hagee, who himself has been accused of Anti-Catholicsm and heretical teachings, including the recent video promotion for his latest book were he stated that 'Jesus did not come to be the Messiah'. Pastor Hagee hosted and endorsed Mike Huckabee at his Texas Megachurch during the 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary. Mr. Hagee is also believed to be a Freemason.



Hagee and Fmr. House Majority Leader Newt. Gingrich in a recent advertisment for a rally hosted by Mr. Hagee, which was also promoted during an appearance on 'Believers Voice of Victory', Mr. Copelands program, who also attended the rally. Mr. Gingrich is also believed to be a Freemason. (Update 04/10/08: Mr. Gingrich is said to have denied he was a Freemason when asked during a recent interview, as has Ron Paul.)




Hand-on-Shoulder is a Secret Recognition Sign used by Freemasons, taken from their Initiation Ritual.

Bro. Schwarzenegger & Bro. Bloomberg

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Blair and Schwarzenegger Global Warming Ceremony
Schwarzenneger & Bloomberg Global Warming Theatre

Freemasonry's Version of Democracy

Recently it has been drawn to my attention that the online 'encyclopedia' Wikipedia will not allow any links to articles on the Freemasonry Watch website to be posted to it's site. This appears to have been 'arranged' by Masonic Editors, who evidently control all the entries and pages on Wikipedia related to Freemasonry.

Today it was noticed that the search engine Yahoo! was not returning Freemasonry Watch in any of it's search results. Previously the site had been in the top three for a number of keywords. In fact on conducting a search using the keyword Freemasonry Watch the site itself did not return at all. In other words the largest website on the internet that has articles critical of Freemasonry has completely vanished. Quite impressive.

This is how Freemasonry operates, it does not tolerate criticism or dissent. A great many webpages critical of Freemasonry have disappeared over the years after continual organized complaint and intimidation campaigns by Masons. Don't believe, then try creating such a website sometime and see all the problems you have keeping it online. This is the reality of Masonic 'Liberty'. From the 1820's arson of Capt. William Morgan's print shop to the World Wide Web masonic thought police very little has changed when it comes to Masonry and it's critics.

National Treasure: The Senior Advisor to Google

Update December 21st:

Freemasonrywatch has been restored to it's previous place in the pagerank universe. Thank-you Google. May you and your employees and Senior Advisors have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays.

==================================================

I do believe Brother Al has been a visitor of this website, as has a number of other public/private Freemason politico's.

To wit Mr. Gores Masonic Signing performance at the Bali 'Planetary Emergency' Conference and also the Nobel Peace Prize Awards a few days before, which was a rather impressive display of 'Secret' Freemason Signals of both kinds, i.e. the Brother Napoleon and Mulroney Methods, as I shall term them for ease of illustration.

Masonry is extremely intolerant of criticism of itself. Enter the Senior Advisor to Google who appears singularly or in 'combination' with some of his brothers to have spiked the search engine results for this website on December 14, the night of the premier of the 'Christmas' Hollywood Blockbuster National Treasure: Book of Secrets and the Close of the Bali Conference, featuring Mr. Gore in full Masonic windmill mode.

Public Sector or Private Corporation, it makes little difference to this powerful occult 'religious' order. They call it Masonic Leadership, I call it an Oppressive Secret Society.

Wed, 19 Dec 2007
From: "FW"
Subject: Page Ranking
To: @google.com


Dear Sir,

I am not sure I am sending this to the correct
address, but here goes.

I believe that someone at Google, perhaps under the
influence of Al Gore, or other members of a 'frateral
group' may be suppressing the page rank results for
for the website freemasonrywatch.org. I believe this
commenced December 14 the day of the premier of the
movie National Treasure.

For seven years the Freemasonry Watch website has
consistently placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for the keywords
Freemasonry, Freemasons, or Freemason. After December
14 it dropped to 13th, 18th, and 18th. I don't
understand the reason for such a drop. The site gets a
quite long green bar on the google tool bar pagerank.

Could you or someone else look into this for me. I
don't think it is fair that powerful persons can
affect the google search engine results for sites they
dislike. There is a long history of members of this
organization trying to suppress it's critics,
including launching repetitive and malicious
complaints against webhosts and book publishers.


Thank-you for your time,


Freemasonry Watch
http://freemasonrywatch.org

Dune Buggy Hits Crowd at Shriners Parade

Eight people were injured including some children receiving broken legs by out of control Shriner 'mini' cars in a parade in Tennessee. The 'mini' cars don't appear to be so 'mini' from pics and video of the accident. One police officer interviewed didn't think the Shriner mini cars were very safe for the parade spectators.

Print and Video
http://wdef.com/news/dunebuggy_hits_crowd_at_shriners_parade/08/2007

Additional Recent News Items related to Freemasonry and Freemasons
http://freemasonrywatch.org/breaking_masonry_news.html


Technorati Profile

The Kiwi trying to break the Code

12.03.06

By Jonathan Milne


A black limousine is waved through the gate of London's Royal Courts of Justice and slides up to the door of the back courthouse, the grey concrete Thomas More Building.

A large bodyguard steps out first, and looks around warily. Gail Rebuck, of Random House, the most powerful woman in British publishing, emerges, followed by Steve Rubin, president of the US subsidiary Doubleday.

Finally, a small nervous-looking American with receding blond hair steps out. It's Dan Brown, 40, the unprepossessing Wizard of Oz behind The Da Vinci Code.

His 2003 thriller has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and he reportedly earned US$45 million ($70m) in royalties in the first year alone. And he looks worried.

Then a tall, slim New Zealander crosses the courtyard with his wife. They have just arrived on foot through the main entrance, like most other people. We know he is 58: Michael Baigent celebrated his birthday on the first day of this court case, in which he and Richard Leigh are suing Random House for plagiarism.

In 1982, the two men, with Englishman Henry Lincoln, wrote a piece of historical conjecture called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, in which they argued Jesus had been a claimant to the throne of Palestine - a mere mortal. After his crucifixion, his wife Mary Magdalene and their child fled to the south of France, where they founded a royal dynasty that survives to this day, to the fury of the Roman Catholic Church.

The book was controversial. They went head-to-head on television with the Bishop of Birmingham. But they never faced media scrums such as those outside court this month.

Random House may not be the Vatican but it is still a formidable opponent, especially two months out from the first screening of the $57m Da Vinci Code movie, starring Tom Hanks. The scheduled release of that movie and the millions Random House is earning every month from Brown's book, are jeopardised by this lawsuit. So when Michael Ferran Meritxell Baigent gave his name in the witness stand on Tuesday, and swore to tell the truth about the origin of Dan Brown's novel, it was with inevitable trepidation.

Through three days, the grey-haired Baigent twirled his glasses between thumb and index-finger and tired under cross-examination. Time and time again he was forced to politely acknowledge that his evidence of similarities between the books did not stack up: "I concede that, my Lord," he said, repeatedly.

Mr Justice Peter Smith toyed reflectively with his moustache. Random House barrister John Baldwin bristled with impatience.

Yet Baigent remained strangely composed. For, it would seem, he was after some far greater truth.

It was hard for those "trained in the Christian tradition" like him to disregard what they had learned in Sunday school, he said, but his research indicated Jesus was a mortal with a claim to the throne of Palestine.

As a child growing up in Wakefield, on the outskirts of Nelson, Baigent attended Catholic Church three times a week. His father was a "fervent Catholic" teacher, who ensured his son was taken out of school from the age of 5 to have private lessons in Catholic theology from either a priest or a monk. But gradually he came to doubt what he was being taught. "After realising I would never have the same beliefs as my father, I attended, in turn, every Christian church in our town, including Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian and Mormon churches," he says.

After watching Baigent's third gruelling day in the witness box, his English wife, Jane, and daughter Tansy, 20, agreed to venture across Fleet St to Daley's Wine Bar, to fill in some of the gaps in the life story of a very private man.

Baigent's father had left the family when his son was 8. His maternal grandfather, Lewis Baigent, became the man he looked up to. He took his grandfather's surname.

Jane says: "His grandfather answered intelligently all Michael's questions about everything he was interested in - his grandfather always rooted out answers."

Baigent went to Canterbury University but quickly gave up on the science courses he had thought would help him in his grandfather's timber mills and instead began a BA in comparative religion and philosophy, studying Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, and discovering Eastern religions and meditation.

He joined "The Builders of Adytum", an occult group following what could be defined as Christian Kabbalah. "He was interested in a history that New Zealand doesn't have, ancient civilisations," says Tansy. "New Zealand is very isolated and he left as soon as he could. He wished to see the world."

Baigent went to Australia and South-East Asia. But, in his determination to experience the world, he didn't take enough money, and, when he arrived in India, he had to survive without accommodation on "a potato and a bowl of soup".

"There was another homeless man lying on the street with his daughter, and he used to share an orange with this man each morning."

He returned to Auckland to complete his degree but continued his fascination with esoteric religious thought and "heretics" like the Knights Templar. In 1976, in London, he met the long-haired Richard Leigh, who shared his interest in the esoteric.

They shared a Camden flat and Leigh introduced him to France's Rennes-le-Chateau mystery - it took over his life. "With hindsight, I became obsessed with it," Baigent says in the court documents.

He sold his expensive cameras to fund their research, worked briefly in the BBC photographic department and worked night shifts at a soft-drinks factory.

Leigh and Lincoln followed the trail from Rennes-le-Chateau, through the Priory of Sion, the Merevingian dynasty, the Grail Romances - all the way back to Jesus and the child they claim he fathered to Mary Magdalene.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was published on January 18, 1982, the day after the authors' television clash with the Bishop of Birmingham. It shot up the bestseller lists, and Paramount bought the film rights. It has reportedly sold about two million copies since - not a patch on The Da Vinci Code, but still healthy. Indeed, sales of the former jumped 745 per cent in the first week of the court hearing - around 30,000 extra sales. If that continues through to the judgment, it will help offset the authors' legal costs a little - and also those of defendant Random House which, ironically, is also Dan Brown's publisher.

But the authors will need to win the case to make it worthwhile: experts estimate their legal costs at more than $1.3 million. Unconfirmed newspaper reports say they are seeking more than $25 million in damages.

"Brother Michael" Baigent's job as editor of the quarterly Freemasonry Today can hardly pay much, though that and his books force him to keep the family address in Somerset secret. Being a prominent Freemason and critic of the Catholic Church seems to attract strange and not necessarily friendly types, the family feels. Tansy says she once suggested her father use a nom de plume: "At the time he wrote Holy Blood Holy Grail, he got quite a lot of stigma. I think he had to face quite a few hostile people but he didn't want to hide away."

Jane adds: "Obviously the Pope and the Catholic Church got upset about him because he criticised the Catholic Church in his book The Inquisition. But if he thinks something needs to be exposed or brought into the public domain, he will say it."

And perhaps that is why Baigent seems so composed in the witness box. For him, it is not just a legal battle but also a philosophical one. He is playing for higher stakes.

Maybe that's why Dan Brown, a devout Christian, looks concerned.

Outside the court, the usually reclusive Brown insisted that he would never deny the crucifixion: "I am well aware of Christ's crucifixion and ultimate resurrection as the very core of the Christian faith," he said.

But Baigent believes his arguments about Jesus's mortality, if accepted, have the potential to mend fences between religions.

Islam already recognises Jesus as a prophet, Judaism is happy with Messianic contenders, and some strands of Christianity already accept Jesus's mortality - he argues it is just the Catholic Church that feels threatened.

His ordeal in the witness box is now over - but Brown's turn begins tomorrow. Baigent respects Brown, but he wants his work to be recognised, says wife Jane.

"He's not angry. It just seems unfair And this hasn't been an easy thing to do."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY

Fraternal Greetings From Robert Lomas

Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006
From: "Dr Robert Lomas" r.a.lomas@bradford.ac.uk
To: mason_stoppers@yahoo.com
Subject: Copyright Theft

*It has been drawn to my attention that you are using copyright
images stolen from the plates section of The Hiram Key without
permission

*Please remove these images at once

Failure to comply WILL result in a complaint to your Internet
Service Provider, which has 'Terms of Service' which copyright
theft violates. Don't risk losing your internet connection and your
reputation by being downright stupid!

You are quite free to critize Freemasonry and I defend your right
to do so. I do not defend your right to steal my images and use
them in a cause I do not support.

In case you have stolen so many images that you have trouble finding
these particular ones, they are at
http://freemasonrywatch.org/tracingboard.html

I look forward to the swift removal of the stolen images, as even on
the net few people will take the word of someone who can be shown
to be prepared to steal and misrepresent.

Robert Lomas

====================================

Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006
From: "FW" mason_stoppers@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Copyright Theft
To: "Dr Robert Lomas" r.a.lomas@bradford.ac.uk

Dear Dr. Lomas,


Thank-you for bringing to my attention this matter, I
have added the attribution, authorship, and
availablity to each of the images.

Your research and these images in particular as you
noted in your book revealed for the first time actual
photographs of a Masonic Ritual inside a Masonic
Temple, never before seen.

We feel here at the leading Masonic Research Facility
in the World - Freemasonry Watch, that we simply must
include this discovery as part of our educational and
academics efforts towards the general public on the
importance of Freemasonry, under the accepted 'Fair
Use' provisions.

We in no way intended or intend to breach your
copyright, in fact we have long promoted 'Hiram Key'
on this website via book reviews and prominent direct
Amazon.com links to it and other of your works.

We appreciate your affirmation of the right and
necessity of Freemasonry Watch to continue it's
'work', and wish you the very best of success with
your new book 'Turning the Hiram Key'.


S & F

Freemasonry Watch


====================================





The Official Website of Robert Lomas

=====================================

Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom, on the Internet, and the World Wide Web

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.html
http://www.eff.org/br/

E-M@sonry 'Stuff'

Just a short blurb on a few bits and pieces I thought I could post before I forgot them.

First a couple of new Pro-Masonic blogs and one Masonic-Critical one.

http://free-mason-alert.blogspot.com 'Free-Mason-Alert - Is there no Help for the Widows sons in Alabama?' A Mason in Alabama documents Klan activity in his Grand Lodge and his attempt, unsuccessfuly, to fight it. Reminds me of the series of alt.freemasonry post by a 'Brother' in the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma way back in 1999. In that case the Mason went so far as to get into letter flame war with the Supreme Council 33 in Washington DC. He got nowhere of course and ended up publically resigning. http://freemasonrywatch.org/racism.html (Hope that's the right page I filed it on, think you have to scroll down a bit.)

What else now.

http://masonictraveler.blogspot.com 'Masonic Traveler' is a Masonic Blogger that seems to be attempting to document the Masonic 'Blogosphere'. Not too many of the Geezers have bothered to pick up the Blog banner. Of course many of the Grand Lodges have recently called on the carpet their members for freelancing on the internet and have succeeded in shutting down a number of Masonic discussion boards. Not too surprised about that given the number of 'attacks' FW has been on the receiving end of over the years. Not too many in the last year though, maybe the 'Lightbringers' are finally getting used to the FW 'luminosity'. Let it all hang out Bro's...

Say if anyone is interested there is a link I posted yesterday on the 'FW Middle Chamber' to a new film about Freemasonry I found trolling around the net - 'The Lightbringers: The Emisarries of Jahbulon'. Lots of footage of inside some well known Masonic Temples including Great Queen Street in London and the Royal Arch Monstrosity in the 'City of Brotherlove' in Philly. Dug the three headed spider representation of 'that non-word' as one masonic net type phrased the infamous Royal Arch secret word for 'deity'.

Freemasonry in Christianity --- Is there room on the pew? is a blog post by a Christian Teacher who says he is teaching a course on cults and did a lecture or two on 'The Craft'. Could be an up and comer...

What else. Ah yes Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry" 'Freemasonry' and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Freemasonry 'Anti-Freemasonry' are the two main pages but there are probably a dozen or more side pages. The site is kinda a cross between the old alt.freemasonry and the bad old un-GL cabletowed M.A.S.O.N.. Need to be one part lawyer and one part software programmer to survive there. There are a group of dozen or more Masons who may or may not have succeeded in turning the site into another GL boiler room 'Difficult Questions about Freemasonry' site. Maybe someone will straighten it out, but it is purely a numbers game on whose version stays up and whose gets deleted. Calling all "Anti's"...

Blair Coven 'Channels' Luciferian Defeat...

Code: ZE06020406

Date: 2006-02-04

Religious-Hate Legislation Gets Toned Down

British Government Is Handed an Unusual Defeat

LONDON, FEB. 4, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A proposed hate law affecting religion was substantially watered down in a rare parliamentary defeat for Britain's Labor government on Tuesday. In two votes in the Commons the government lost; the first time by 10 votes, the second time by just one vote, reported the Independent newspaper the following day.

The Commons voted to accept some significant amendments along the lines of changes asked for when the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill was debated last October in the House of Lords. On that occasion the government's proposal was amended by an overwhelming majority of 149 votes.

The bill had proposed to make it an offense to stir up hatred against people on religious grounds; either spoken or written, in public or in private. Originally the law proposed by the government contemplated making insults and abuse an offense, as well as threatening words and behavior. The original proposal also made it an offense even if the person involved had not intended to stir up hatred.

The law as finally passed by Parliament stipulates that for a person to be charged it will have to be shown that "threatening" language or behavior was used, instead of the "threatening, insulting and abusive." It will also be necessary to prove that there was an intention to commit the offenses. The day Parliament voted on the law several hundred demonstrators gathered outside in protest against what they saw as an unjustified restriction on free speech.

The government had attempted to overcome opposition by accepting last-minute changes to the proposed law, the BBC reported Jan. 26. They accepted demands that incitement to religious hatred be covered by separate legislation rather than be joined to race-hate laws. And somebody could only be convicted if they intended or were reckless about inciting hatred. But the changes were not sufficient to placate critics.

Opposition to the law came from a wide variety of persons and groups. Comedians feared that it would no longer be possible for them to tell religious jokes. Civil rights activists were worried about restrictions on free speech. And a number of religious groups considered the law overly restrictive.

An editorial Tuesday in the Guardian newspaper noted this was the third attempt by the government since 2001 to pass a law on this subject. Its previous attempts had failed due to opposition in the House of Lords.

According to the editorial, the government's proposal "conflated threatening behavior and material, from which religious people deserve protection, with insult and abuse of religious belief, which is a necessary part of an open society."

Another problem was that it failed to "distinguish properly between the believer, who should not suffer for what he or she is, and the belief, which others must be entitled to attack, question and ridicule, even to the extent of causing offense to believers."

Defending free speech

The Christian Institute, an evangelical group, welcomed the changes made to the law. In a briefing last August it explained its opposition to the proposed law. The institute said the legislation would harm free speech and place governmental and judicial authorities in the position of judging people's religious beliefs.

As well, the institute noted that protection already exists for all people regardless of religion. Under British law it is already a criminal offense to incite a crime against another person, whether or not religion is the cause. And in 2001 Parliament passed laws establishing religiously-aggravated offenses. Another problem is that some religious groups are litigious, and they could hold the threat of prosecution over the heads of their detractors, the institute warned.

On Tuesday a group of humanists, secularists, Muslims and evangelical Christians wrote a letter published in the Telegraph newspaper, asking parliamentarians to vote against the law.

Among the signatories to the letter were two Muslims, Ghyasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament, and Manzoor Moghal, of the Muslim Forum. Their views contrasted with the stance of the Muslim Council of Britain. That council, generally seen as the country's most representative Islamic body, supported the legislation, according to the Telegraph.

Other signatories to the letter included Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, and representatives of the British Humanist Association, the Christian Institute and the Evangelical Alliance.

"As people with strong views on religion, we know how easy it is to offend those with whom you disagree and how easy it is to resent what others say, and see insult in it," the letter stated. "But we also recognize that a free society must have the scope to debate, criticize, proselytize, insult and even to ridicule belief and religious practices in order to ensure that there is full scope -- short of violence or inciting violence or other criminal offenses -- to tackle these issues."

When the bill was debated last October in the House of Lords, numerous press articles pointed out problems with the legislation. On Oct. 12 the Guardian reported that one Protestant evangelical group, Christian Voice, warned that it would consider using the new law to prosecute bookshops selling the Koran for inciting religious hatred.

Australia's experience

On Oct. 23 the Sunday Times reported that witches and Satanists could use it to trigger police investigations of their critics. This was no empty warning, the article reported, citing a case in Australia.

In fact, the Australian experiment with religious hate laws has been widely cited by opponents. In December 2003 the first case was heard in the state of Victoria under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001.

The Islamic Council of Victoria filed a complaint about statements made by evangelical pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot during a March 2002 seminar. In December 2003, Judge Michael Higgins found the two had made fun of Muslim beliefs.

Last June 22, the judge ordered the pastors to print public apologies in newspapers and on their Web site, the Herald-Sun reported the next day. The judge observed that the two pastors had passionate religious beliefs which he thought caused them to break the law. "That does not excuse their conduct," he said, "but does go some way to explain why they acted as they did."

In a commentary published July 4 in the Sydney Morning Herald, Emily Maguire noted that the group the pastors belong to, Catch the Fire, is undeniably hostile to Islam, and that the declarations made by them were deeply offensive to many Muslims.

Nevertheless, she argued that the freedom to criticize religion is important. Moreover, "silencing such speech creates martyrs, while giving the views a thorough airing allows response," Maguire wrote. The pastors later appealed the decision.

Following the judge's decision, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney also came out against the idea of religious-hate laws, in an article published July 3 in the Sunday Telegraph.

The archbishop welcomed the decision of the New South Wales state government not to support a proposal to introduce a law against religious vilification. "Such a law would undermine the freedom it seeks to protect, would be counterproductive and end up curtailing free speech as well as deepening the rifts between different religious groups," wrote Cardinal Pell.

The following month a senior Victorian judge called for changes to the state's law on religious vilification, the Herald-Sun reported Aug. 2. Judge Stuart Morris' comments came as he dismissed a lawsuit launched by a convicted sex offender and self-proclaimed witch. Robin Fletcher had claimed the Salvation Army's Alpha Christianity course, offered in jails, discriminated against him on the ground of his Wiccan religion. The volatile mix of free speech and religion might be bubbling for quite some time.

Pope: Church must influence political leaders

Chicago Sun-Times

January 26, 2006

BY NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI said in his first encyclical Wednesday that the Roman Catholic Church has a duty through its charitable work to influence political leaders to ease suffering and promote justice.

The document, ''God is Love,'' also warns against sex without unconditional love, which he said risked turning men and women into merchandise.

It had been eagerly anticipated because inaugural encyclicals offer clues about a pontiff's concerns.

The 71-page document can be seen as an effort by Benedict to stress the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith -- love -- and assert the church's duty to exercise love through its works of charity in an unjust world.

In the encyclical, Benedict rejected the criticism of charity found in Marxist thought, which holds that charity is merely an excuse by the rich to keep the poor in their place when the rich should be working for a more just society.

Opposes Marxist theology

That appeared to be an extension of the pope's firm rejection of the Marxist-inspired liberation theology, which he firmly denounced in his early years as the Vatican's chief doctrinal watchdog.

Liberation theology, which originated in Latin America, holds that criticizing the oppression of the poor and marginalized should be central to Christian theology, and that the Christian faith should be reinterpreted specifically to deliver oppressed people from injustice.

Benedict conceded that Marxist models of dealing with injustice by trying to provide for social needs did help the poor. But he said Marxism was a failed experiment because it could not respond to every human need.

''There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbor is indispensable,'' he said.

Cardinal George comments

Vatican and other church officials said earlier this week that Benedict's theme of ''God is Love'' is very much in line with his thinking, teaching and his pledge from the start of his papacy to be a peacemaker.

''This is the pope as theologian and now as universal pastor,'' Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, said. ''So it's a very pastoral theme -- it shows that side of him which was always there but perhaps not able to be expressed as easily in his former work.''


AP

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Freemasonry Watch!