Anti-Gay, Fornication Edict Upheld by GL in Georgia

Well, Georgia did it. The Grand Lodge of Georgia met yesterday and the voting members upheld Grand Master Douglas McDonald's edict outlawing homosexuality, and throwing in fornication for good measure. After several impassioned speeches on the floor against the measure, it passed with a very close vote that probably should have been counted individually, but wasn't. The Grand Lodge now officially looks into a Freemason's private bedroom.

Thank God I live in Indiana where don't have such things, and we sure don't allow Past Masters the right to vote in Grand Lodge.

For background on this issue, CLICK HERE.

New Freemason Edition Commemorative Rifle

From the web today comes the announcement of this new Freemason edition rifle:

Henry Repeating Arms is pleased to introduce the newest rifle in its collection, The Henry Golden Boy Freemasons Tribute Edition. It recognizes the long history of this honorable fraternal order and rewards the work and dedication of Freemasons everywhere.

The rifle is crafted with the highest attention to detail. The select American walnut stock depicts our first President in full Masonic regalia, with apron, trowel, and Warden's column, standing on a "temple" floor in front of the Masonic staircase, in a painted tableau bordered by scrollwork in the same style as the receiver.

The left side carries the famous compass and square retained from the earliest days of Freemasonry, the mason's plumb and level, the letter "G" which stands for both God and Geometry, the All-Seeing Eye of God as the symbol of divine watchfulness, and the words BROTHERLY LOVE, RELIEF & TRUTH that the order considers its foundation, along with FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, emphasized in a Mason's First Point Ceremony, all in raised 24K gold relief against a background of classic floral engraving. 

On the right side, black and white mosaic squares represent the floor of King Solomon's Temple to illustrate "human life, checkered with good and evil." Ascending stairs remind a member of the path to higher levels of Freemasonry, with another "G" at the top as the ultimate goal. 

It's built with the same smooth action that all rifles in Henry's award-winning Golden Boy family are known for. This model features a nickel-plated finish and the receiver engravings are plated with 24K gold. The buttplate and barrel band are brass. The American Walnut stock is engraved and hand-painted.

It features a fully adjustable semi-buckhorn rear sight with a reversible white diamond insert and brass beaded front sight. It includes a blued octagonal barrel and is drilled and tapped for easy scope mounting. Offered in caliber .22 S/L/LR, capacity is 16 rounds of 22 Long Rifle and as much as 21 rounds of 22 Short.  

Anthony Imperato, President of Henry Repeating Arms explains, "Many of our customers are Freemasons and it's an honor to pay tribute to them with this rifle. Freemasonry dates back to the early 1700s, with one of its most notable members being our first American president, George Washington.

The retail price of this unique rifle is $1,200, and is available from licensed gun dealers. Visit their website for more photos and information. Click here.

New Book Makes Jack The Ripper A Freemason…Again

Here we go again. 

The tired old accusation that the infamous Jack the Ripper was a Freemason is back. The latest author to try to make this idiotic claim is Bruce Robinson in his new book, They All Love Jack: Busting The Ripper.

Read the interview with him in GQ-UK Magazine. From "How one man revealed Jack the Ripper's identity" by Robert Chalmers:

Robinson's research into the Ripper's atrocities gathered pace once he examined the murder of Catherine Eddowes, the second of two murders (known as the "double event") on the night of 30 September 1888. "He killed and mutilated her, then wrote this message on the wall: 'The Juwes are / The men that / Will not / Be blamed for nothing.' Sir Charles Warren, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is informed of this message by telegraph. He leaps out of bed at 4am and gets into a hansom cab, not in order to preserve the writing on the wall but to wipe it out. And erase it he did, even though fellow officers were urging him to have this evidence photographed. Right there you have the fulcrum on which the so-called mystery of Jack the Ripper lies."

The word "Juwes", Robinson argues, is a reference to Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, assassins central to Masonic legend. (Their full history and mythical significance is explained at some length in They All Love Jack.)

"Once I started researching Commissioner Warren, what emerged was that he was a very senior Freemason. He knew the message about 'Juwes' had to have been written by a Mason. Warren got his stupid arse out of bed that night to fulfil the spirit of the oath sworn by a senior Freemason, ie, 'I will protect any other Mason [from the consequences of their actions], murder and treason not excluded.'"

Robinson re-examined the forensic detail of other known Ripper murders. "Freemasonry  has denied any connection with the Ripper for 130 years," he says. "But these women were all murdered according to Masonic ritual. Throats cut across, abdomens ripped open, guts slung over their shoulders, every piece of metal taken off them and placed nearby. The whole affair is glaringly Masonic. That much I realised within a week."

Of course, the notion that Jack the Ripper was a Freemason is hardly innovative. Dozens of Ripperologists have examined the murders in this context…

Robinson's no slouch - he's the author of the award winning screenplay for the 1984 film The Killing Fields. But he uses the same, tired old "evidence" that they all use: namely, the "Juwes" nonsense. This theory was first promulgated in Stephen Knight's 1976 book, Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. The tale came to him from an informant named Joseph Sickert, son of a painter named Walter Sickert who supposedly knew all the juicy details firsthand and told them to his son before he died (Sickert had an axe to grind, since his father had been a suspect himself). Never mind that no one besides anti-Masonic conspiracy mongers, including any Mason, has ever referred to the three ruffians in Masonic ritual as "the Juwes". And the names of the ruffians were removed from English ritual in the early 1800s. It is very true that Sir Charles Warren, Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police and a Freemason, approved of having the message scrawled on the wall removed, but this was because there were rumors in the city that a Jew was responsible for the Ripper killings. There had, in fact, already been several near-riots and incidents of violence against Jews over the case, and Warren didn't want the graffiti seen out of fear that more would happen. 

As to the so-called Masonic ritual references to the killings themselves and the manner in which the bodies were arranged, many of the details are just plain wrong, or a total fabrication. If you want to read about it in great detail, see WBro. Dennis Stocks' very detailed essay, Freemasonry and the Ripper.

I have no idea if the UGLE's ritual in 1888 said that a Mason would protect a Brother, "murder and treason not excluded." Perhaps someone else knows. But I do know that my own jurisdiction goes out of its way in the ritual to specifically say "murder and treason excluded," and has for some time. Certainly, Robinson has no way of knowing. Masons are required to obey the laws of their nation, and there is absolutely no evidence of Masons concealing their crimes from the authorities for each other, despite many attempts to accuse them of it down through history. There is literally one instance in modern history of Masons accused of murder and covering it up (see the entry for William Morgan on Wikipedia), and the evidence of that so-called crime is shaky at best-it has never been proved, and no body was ever found. That's literally it.

This Ripper stuff is typical British anti-Masonic claptrap, and dragging it up again makes me suspect the rest of Mr. Robinson's theories. The entire Masonic theory originated with Joseph Sickert who introduced Stephen Knight to the story, and fabricated a whole Ripper hoax that spawned several books, magazine articles and documentaries. In the June 18th, 1978 edition of London's Sunday Times he confessed that he made the whole story up, or in his own words, "it was a hoax…a whopping fib." Masons included.

MSA South Carolina Flooding Disaster Appeal

The Masonic Service Association has established a Disaster Relief Fund for South Carolina, following a weeklong drenching of rain, causing rivers to overflow, dams to burst, roadways to flood , and home and businesses to be inundated with water, resulting in major damage or destruction.
Officials said billions of dollars of destruction has occurred to roadways and bridges, in addition to building damage, in this historic flooding.
In the Columbia area, one Lodge building has been virtually destroyed. It is a Lodge whose membership is heavily composed of active military personnel.  Other Lodges, plus homes of Masonic members, have been seriously damaged, and the toll to life and property is still growing and being assessed.
Please forward to the MSA such donations which you feel are appropriate to help our devastated Brothers, their families and others in this stricken jurisdiction. Read how you can donate online or by check by clicking here.