{"id":746,"date":"2014-08-06T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/?p=746"},"modified":"2014-08-06T10:53:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T10:53:14","slug":"cbs-sunday-morning-runs-inside-the-secret-world-of-the-freemasons-piece-again-august-3-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/06\/cbs-sunday-morning-runs-inside-the-secret-world-of-the-freemasons-piece-again-august-3-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS Sunday Morning runs &#8216;Inside the Secret World of the Freemasons&#8217; piece again (August 3, 2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/inside-the-secret-world-of-the-freemasons-2\/\" title=\"cbs sunday morning freemasons story\">CBS<\/a><br \/>\nAugust 3, 2014<\/p>\n<p>Inside the secret world of the Freemasons<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kjFmSbaglTs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>(CBS News) The Square and Compasses are among the traditional tools of stonemasons. They also form the symbol of a group that has been misunderstood and even maligned for many centuries. This morning, Mo Rocca takes us inside.<\/p>\n<p>This story was originally broadcast on December 8, 2013.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the world&#8217;s most well-known secret society. Rich with symbols and ritual, it&#8217;s the source of legends . . . parodies . . . and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the world of Freemasonry.<\/p>\n<p>True or false? The Masons are a secret society. &#8220;No. That&#8217;s false,&#8221; said UCLA history professor Margaret Jacob, one of the world&#8217;s leading experts on Freemasonry.<\/p>\n<p>True or false? Freemasonry is a religion. No, said Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>True or false? Masons were behind the American Revolution. &#8220;False, false, false,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Okay, but what about on the dollar bill? The eye and pyramid?&#8221; asked Rocca.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, yeah, the eye, yeah,&#8221; said Jacob. &#8220;Everybody says it&#8217;s Masonic. In fact, it&#8217;s commonplace in the 18th century, that particular set of symbols.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>True! Freemasons laid the cornerstone of America &#8212; well, at least some of its most iconic structures, like the National Cathedral in Washington and the Statue of Liberty.<br \/>\n9 things you didn&#8217;t know about Freemasonry<\/p>\n<p>So what is Freemasonry? Simply put, it&#8217;s the world&#8217;s oldest and largest fraternity. Its membership is a Who&#8217;s Who of world history &#8212; George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, Mozart, Davy Crockett, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, Gerald Ford, Henry Ford, John Wayne, even Colonel Sanders.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to be a Mason, you can petition a local lodge for membership. You&#8217;ll need to demonstrate good character and belief in some sort of Supreme Being. Oh, and in almost all lodges, it&#8217;s men only.<\/p>\n<p>Next, you&#8217;re up for a vote, explains former New York State Grand Master James Sullivan. &#8220;The lodge votes to accept you, and then you have your three degrees that you go through.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Once you earn &#8220;the third degree&#8221; (and yes, that&#8217;s where the phrase comes from), you can join any number of Masonic off-shoots.<\/p>\n<p>Take Brent Morris. He&#8217;s a 33rd degree Mason and a historian at the House of the Temple for the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite of the Southern Jurisdiction. (It&#8217;s that big building in Washington, D.C.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t like the Masonic Vatican, but it&#8217;s an important building,&#8221; said Rocca.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an important building, absolutely right,&#8221; said Morris. &#8220;It&#8217;s one branch of Freemasonry in the United States, and that&#8217;s our headquarters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/inside-the-secret-world-of-the-freemasons-2\/\" title=\"cbs sunday morning freemasons story\">Article Continues<\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"CBS, Inside Secret World of the Freemasons, Masonic, Freemasons, Freemasonry\" src=\"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/pics\/cbs.insidesecretworld.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Abrams Tank, Military Marking, Gulf War, Freemasons, Freemasonry\" src=\"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/pics\/abrams_op.jpg\" width=\"175\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_counters\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-small.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:2px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_c=new Array(\"twitter\",\"facebook_like\",\"facebook_send\",\"pinterest\");var hupso_counters_lang = \"en_US\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_c=\"\";var hupso_title_c=\"CBS%20Sunday%20Morning%20runs%20%27Inside%20the%20Secret%20World%20of%20the%20Freemasons%27%20piece%20again%20%28August%203%2C%202014%29\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/counters.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(CBS News) The Square and Compasses are among the traditional tools of stonemasons. They also form the symbol of a group that has been misunderstood and even maligned for many centuries. This morning, Mo Rocca takes us inside. <\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_counters\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-small.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:2px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_c=new Array(\"twitter\",\"facebook_like\",\"facebook_send\",\"pinterest\");var hupso_counters_lang = \"en_US\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_c=\"\";var hupso_title_c=\"CBS%20Sunday%20Morning%20runs%20%27Inside%20the%20Secret%20World%20of%20the%20Freemasons%27%20piece%20again%20%28August%203%2C%202014%29\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/counters.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[448,48,7,39,87,250,259],"tags":[506,507,508,509],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-448","category-freemasonry","category-freemasons","category-masonic-gestures","category-masonic-symbols","category-media","category-u-s-history","tag-33rd-degree","tag-cbs-news","tag-house-of-the-temple-washington-dc","tag-scottish-rite-of-freemasonry",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}