Grand Master Shuts Down Job's Daughters in Michigan

by Christopher Hodapp

The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan, MW Leonard K. Davis, has just issued an official edict that revokes all support and association with Job’s Daughters International, a Masonic-related youth group for girls within his jurisdiction. 

Edict 2022-2 reads, in part:

That no Master Mason within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Michigan can or will be allowed any office, station or place within any Guardian Council, Grand Guardian Council or Supreme Guardian Council, nor will any Michigan Mason be allowed to sponsor, advise, or associate with in any way Jobs Daughters International. Further, No Jobs Daughters International Bethels are allowed to meet in any Michigan Masonic Centers, Buildings, Halls or Temples. Further [sic], the Grand Lodge of Michigan nor any of its subsidiary corporations or lodges are allowed to financially support Jobs Daughters International. This edict will remain in place until such time as it is removed by the Grand Lodge of Michigan.”

 (Click images to enlarge, or view online at https://michiganmasons.org/news-events/)

The landing page of the Michigan Job's Daughters Grand Bethel has been scrubbed of information and directs all questions to their secretary. 

Some background: Job’s Daughters International is a Masonic Youth Group for girls, headquartered in Papillon, Nebraska.  When it was founded in the early 20th century, the organization required a girl to have a Masonic family relationship or sponsor, but that qualification was dropped several years ago. Job's is an international organization with individual chapters called ‘bethels’ in the US, Canada, Brazil, the Philippines and Australia. It is unique amongst the Masonic youth groups in that the adult leaders at all levels are elected and term limited. Based on the number of bethels in a state, some have their own elected Grand Bethel (daughters) and Grand Guardian Council (adults) that are in charge of running the state, while others simply fall under the international Supreme Guardian Council’s jurisdiction with a person designated by that body to oversee their the state.

There is a youth protection program run by the Job's Board of Trustees (who are also elected), and any adult involved with children must complete a background check and be a Certified Adult Volunteer (CAV). If there is an incident reported, there is supposed to be an investigation, and an appeals process is in place.

In Michigan recently there was an incident that resulted in one adult’s CAV designation being revoked; in this incident it was claimed an adult physically struck a child, there was a CAV violation report filed by an uninvolved party. But according to multiple sources, there are several witnesses who claim that the alleged event did not happen as reported (the adult is 21 and the Daughter was her own younger cousin). There was no investigation, neither the adult nor the youth were interviewed — the woman’s CAV was summarily revoked. (There have been rumblings that the complaint was filed in retribution for things that happened in the past — hard to verify in the light of flying email accounts and commentary.)

According to one insider, the Youth Protection program is specifically in place to protect members from harm, not to discipline adults for things unrelated to youth safety. Objections were immediately raised regarding not following the official process of Job’s Daughters — reportedly, the four adult leaders who questioned the process subsequently had their own CAV status revoked, including three elected state officers.

When Michigan Grand Master Davis got wind of all this rumpus, he requested a meeting with the state and national Job’s leadership. They reportedly agreed to meet, but never showed up. For whatever reason, they simply chose not to respond after that, and, according to sources, even dodged him at the Conference of Grand Masters in Alexandria, Virginia last month.

Two male members of the international Supreme Guardian Council were Michigan Masons, and the Grand Master apparently declared that if the Supreme Guardian Council wouldn’t meet with him, they would be suspended. He apparently asked for a review of the decisions and an assurance that they were made in accordance with their own internal policy. 

In the face of all this, the Supreme Guardian Council suspended the charter of the Grand Guardian Council of Michigan two weeks ago, eliminating all the elected officers of Michigan Job’s Daughters, both adults and youths.  According to the letter, if a state Grand Bethel is dissolved, its property and management reverts to the Supremes.

Supreme Guardian Maureen Wise issued a letter incorrectly claiming the GM had suspended these two Masons on March 13th, and that he had issued an "edict" that hadn't actually happened yet. (Click document below to enlarge)

For Michigan’s Job’s Daughters' charter to be returned, the Supreme Guardian demanded the Grand Master of Masons in Michigan revoke his "edict" in writing. Additionally, all appeals filed in accordance with the youth protection plan must be withdrawn, as should any filed lawsuits. 

Grand Master Davis responded to Wise's letter on March 20th, laying out the chain of events as he knew them, and contradicting much of what she had claimed:

Obviously, his questions and demands were not met over the last week, hence his very real edict issued today.

Unfortunately, when a youth group’s so-called adult leadership begins acting worse than a bunch of splenetic teenagers at a vindictive dodgeball grudge match, the children they’re supposed to be guiding and mentoring wind up the only real losers. No grand master anywhere wants to have a noisy internal donnybrook going on in his jurisdiction, especially when it’s in an appendant, concordant or other related organization. When these fights get escalated, it would be wise for appendant leaders to remember that GMs always hold the winning hand in their state and can kick the whole poker table over. Ignoring his communications is the quickest way to have that happen.