Masonry and the Media, by Paul Fisher
Masonry obviously wields enormous influence in world media.
Historian Mildred Headings said Masons influenced at least 47 periodicals
throughout France, off and on, during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
In the United States, in 1920, the Scottish Rite established a news service for
'furnishing accurate and gratuitous information to newspapers.
In 1924, the Grand Commander informed the Brethren: "Through the activities of
our state organizations, the New Age Magazine, our clip service and News
bureau, we are stimulating the public interest and furnishing much valuable material
to speakers and writers, and thereby can reasonably claim much credit" for the growing
interest in favor of compulsory education by the state.
Two years later, the Grand Commander was able to report to the Brethren: "...it is safe
to claim that the majority of daily publications seem very friendly in their attitude
toward the Craft."
It was not only small town newspapers which looked with approval on the Fraternity's activities.
The New Age reported that "many members of the National Press Club are Masons, not a
few of them very prominent Masons."
Also it was noted that a number of Christian Science officials have been Masons, and the
Christian Science Monitor "devotes considerable space to Masonic activities throughout
the world." Indeed, during the 1930s, the Monitor ran a regular column regarding Freemasonry's
routine activities.
Prominent Masons in the media included: Charles P. Taft, founder and publisher of the
Cincinnati Times Star; Roy W. Howard, chairman of Scripps-Howard newspapers, United
Press, and Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA); Ogden Reid, editor of the New York
Herald Tribune, Richard H. Amberg, publisher of the St. Louis Globe Democrat;
and James G. Stahlman, president of the National Banner.
In 1987, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial castigating Senator Patrick
Leahy (D., VT) for questioning Masonry's segregation policies in connection with membership
in the Fraternity by a prospective judicial candidate, Judge David Sentelle. The editorial
stated:
"The problem is that Sen. Leahy's smoking gun is loaded with blanks. One phone call
would have told Sen Leahy that the Masons don't discriminate against blacks. The Masonic
Services Association in Washington, D.C., says membership is open 'without regard to
race, color or religion.' Blacks founded their own lodges a century ago, but now
many belong to predominately white lodges, as Judge Sentelle said.
"The group also provides a membership list. This includes George Washington, both
Roosevelts, Harry Truman, a total of 15 of 40 presidents. Eight of nine justices
who signed Brown v. Board of Education were Masons, including Earl Warren
and William Douglas. About 75 congressmen also belong, including Mark Hatfield (Oregon
Pacific Lodge No. 50) and Arlen Specter (Pa. E. Coppe Mitchell Lodge No. 605)."
The present author wrote a letter to the Journal the next day to say the editorial
was "wide of the mark". The letter continued by making the following points:
"The fact is, a basic Masonic "landmark" (which cannot be repealed) stipulates that only
men who are neither crippled, slaves, nor born in slavery are eligible for membership
in the Masonic Fraternity. The later criterion has excluded Negroes from regular Masonry,
and prompted them to form their own 'clandestine' branch, known as Prince Hall Masonry,
to which Thurgood Marshall belongs."
The letter also noted that the Senator's challenge must be an historic first,
"or at least the first such legislative challenge to Masonic philosophy since
the early 19th century," when committees of the legislatures of New York, Pennsylvania
and Masssachusetts found Masonry to be a distict threat to both government and religion.
It was also observed that similar findings have been published over 200 times by
various Popes beginning in 1738. Moreover, the letter recalled that many other Christian
denominations have simlilarly indicted Freemasonry, as has Scotland Yard. In conclusion,
the letter said:
"Indeed, between 1941-1971, the Supreme court was dominated by Masons in ratios ranging
from 5 to 4 (1941-1946; 1969-1971) to 8 to 1 (1949-1956). During that 30-year-period,
the Court erected "a wall" seperating things religious from things secular. It was an
epoch when prayer and Bible reading were deracinated from public education and when
decision after decision succeeded in prohibiting any State financial assistance to
religious schools.
"Despite the facade of prominent national personalities who are boasted of by the Craft,
as well as parades, circuses and hospitals, Masons have succeeded in having their religion
dominate American society."
Although the letter contained information that is little known to the public at large,
it was never published; however, its receipt at the Journal was acknowledged privately
to the writer.
Almost two months later, The Washington Times ran an "op-ed" piece on the same
subject, which argued in support of Masonry along lines almost identical to the position
set forth earlier by the Journal. The article was written by a man named Blair
Dormney, a Washington, D.C. attorney and free-lance writer who was identified as a
non-mason.
On the very day the article appeared, this writer sent a letter to the editor of the
Times to make (more briefly) the same points as were made in reponse to the
Journal's editorial. Again, although receipt of the letter was acknowledged,
it was never published.
Of course, editors are free to choose which letter to print, but it seems strange
that both the Journal and the Times base their arguements largely on
what a Masonic organization says about its own Fraternity, and fail to report the
known history of the Brotherhood or facts set forth in counter arguements which are
readily verifiable.
And so men are attracted to Masonry by its favorable public image and by knowing
they are Brothers with Presidents, statesmen, justices, Congressmen, Senators, prime
ministers, generals, admirals, captains of industry, journalists and other shapers
and molders of history. Yet, some become disillusioned and separate themselves from
the Craft, only to find Masons often "retaliate against members who quit by
trying to get them fired from their jobs and otherwise harassing them." Several
former members of the Fraternity said they moved from their residences after leaving
the lodge, and some asked that their names not be used by newspaper reporters because
they feared reprisals."
One former Mason called attention to the oath of a Master Mason, which says in part:
"I futhermore promise and swear that I will not cheat, wrong or defraud a Lodge of
Master Masons, or a brother of this degree... I swear that I will not violate the
chastity of a Master Mason's wife, his mother, sister or daughter, knowing them
to be such..."
Anokan Reed, a former top-level York Rite Mason, pointed to the morality of such
an oath by commenting: "It's OK to seduce another man's daughter, or steal his car,
as long as he's not a Master Mason...In higher degrees, Masons deny the reality of evil."
Reed, a former 13th degree York Rite member, said he joined a lodge in Kokomo, Indiana
when he was in his 20s, because his boss, a Mason, guaranteed he would "move up in the
steel mill" if he joined. After becoming a Mason, Reed was promoted to a supervisory
position for which, he admits, he was not qualified.
The former York Rite Masons moved from Kokomo to avoid harassment after being expelled
from the Fraternity for challenging the Craft's secrecy.
Excerpt
Behind the Lodge Door
Paul Fisher