President Carter with Imperial Sir Gary Bergenske and Anne Bergenske,
was an honorary ambassador of Hasan Shriners. (Photo: Shriners)
was an honorary ambassador of Hasan Shriners. (Photo: Shriners)
(Thanks to Chris Ruli, author of The White House and the Freemasons for originally posting a story about this on Facebook.)
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter passed away over the weekend at the amazing age of 100. Almost immediately upon the announcement early Sunday morning of Carter’s death, several social media posts made the erroneous claim that he had been both a Freemason and a member of the Shriners.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter passed away over the weekend at the amazing age of 100. Almost immediately upon the announcement early Sunday morning of Carter’s death, several social media posts made the erroneous claim that he had been both a Freemason and a member of the Shriners.
Whatever your political opinions or historical estimations may have been of President Carter, there can be no denying his dedication to service and philanthropy, and his lifetime of living by the tenets of his faith. His single term of office in the White House between 1977-81 was merely the beginning of another four and a half decades of serving countless causes and missions, all over the world.
He took on one such cause in 2016. That year, Shriners Hospitals named Jimmy Carter as an honorary Shriner and an Ambassador for their program that operates 22 hospitals in North America for treating disabled children. In the photograph above, you can see Carter wearing the signature headgear of the Shriners, the red fez. But you can also see that the normally black tassel dangling from the fez of the Shriner on his right differs from Carter’s yellow/gold tassel, signifying his Honorary Ambassador position.
He took on one such cause in 2016. That year, Shriners Hospitals named Jimmy Carter as an honorary Shriner and an Ambassador for their program that operates 22 hospitals in North America for treating disabled children. In the photograph above, you can see Carter wearing the signature headgear of the Shriners, the red fez. But you can also see that the normally black tassel dangling from the fez of the Shriner on his right differs from Carter’s yellow/gold tassel, signifying his Honorary Ambassador position.
That same year, he appeared in a TV commercial for Shriners Hospitals, and continued to be an enthusiastic supporter for the rest of his lifetime (the press release can be seen below).
But Carter's association with the Shriners did not involve him being initiated, passed and raised as a Mason, nor was he ever made a Noble in the Shrine. Somewhere, someone made the claim online that he had been a member of our fraternity. And then A.I. algorithms immediately grabbed it and went to work.
There's a reason the Poe app is free. ALL of these statements are false.
But Carter's association with the Shriners did not involve him being initiated, passed and raised as a Mason, nor was he ever made a Noble in the Shrine. Somewhere, someone made the claim online that he had been a member of our fraternity. And then A.I. algorithms immediately grabbed it and went to work.
Several A.I.-generated posts circulated the misinformation, and even went so far as to embellish the story. 'Poe,' the A.I. assistant on the Quora site, stated that Carter had become a member of “Tatum Lodge 333 in Plains, Georgia" in 1946; that Freemasonry had been "part of his public persona throughout his presidency"; and that “Carter is one of the few U.S. presidents known to have been a Freemason.” (See image below.)
There's a reason the Poe app is free. ALL of these statements are false.
Jimmy Carter was neither a Freemason nor a Shriner; there is no “Tatum Lodge 333” in the state of Georgia, or anywhere else, for that matter*; and he is not among the 14 U.S. Presidents known to have been a member of the Masonic fraternity. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a Georgia Mason, but not his son Jimmy.
(For the non-Masons in the crowd, a man must first be elected into a local Masonic lodge and complete the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason before he can proceed to join the Shriners. There is no known record that Carter did any of this.)
By Sunday afternoon, numerous Masons were forwarding this incorrect story around social media, and A.I. – being a sophisticated, computerized plagiarist – went right on repeating it, “verifying” the story with its very own A.I.-generated story as its source.
By Sunday afternoon, numerous Masons were forwarding this incorrect story around social media, and A.I. – being a sophisticated, computerized plagiarist – went right on repeating it, “verifying” the story with its very own A.I.-generated story as its source.
To clarify, Jimmy Carter did meet with groups of state grand lodges and Prince Hall Masons during his presidency, just as all presidents meet officially or unofficially with hundreds of groups throughout out their terms in the Oval Office. But none of those groups of Masons ever claimed him as a member, nor did any grand lodge make him a Mason "at sight" (a controversial shortcut used by some jurisdictions to confer the lodge degrees on candidates – frequently celebrities).
None of this detracts from Jimmy Carter's lifetime of accomplishments, and as Masons we should both respect his devotion to his fellow men, and honor his memory. But it's important to keep the record straight when it comes to the true history of our fraternity. Gerald R. Ford, Carter's predecessor, is the last U.S. president at this time to have been a Freemason (and also a Shriner). Please don't rely on Artificial Intelligence to research factual information.
*Just to be as thorough as possible, there is a Tatum Lodge 1386 in the town of Tatum, Texas, not Georgia, and Jimmy Carter never joined it. Georgia has a lodge numbered 333 — Winder Lodge 333, located in the town of the same name. There’s no record of Carter joining it, either.
Despite many Masons attempting to correct Quora's Poe AI assistant, it continues to stubbornly allege that Carter was a Mason as of today, December 31 at 5:00PM EST, though it grudgingly admits the facts are disputed. Nobody seems to dispute it besides the AI bots.
Below are excerpts from a pair of long posts on the Shriners website that appeared yesterday. President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were both enthusiastic supporters of Shriners Hospitals and its mission of providing life-changing medical care for disabled children. The original posts can be seen HERE:
In 2016 the Carters appeared in a Valentine’s-themed public service announcement for the healthcare system, saying our greatest legacy is “what we can do to help the next generation” and encouraging viewers to refer children who could benefit from Shriners Children’s care. President Carter said then, “We have been following the philanthropic efforts of Shriners Hospitals for many years, and we look forward to helping people understand they are a resource available when seeking medical care for their children."
Gary Bergenske, former head of the fraternity and former CEO of Shriners Children’s, recalled that President Carter made the PSA because of his passionate belief in the mission. “He donated his time and image to do this for Shriners Children’s out of the goodness of his heart,” Bergenske said. “He did that because he wanted to help the children we take care of.”
Later the same year, members of the Carter Center traveled with a Shriners Children’s medical team for an outreach clinic at St. Boniface hospital in Haiti. The Carter Center helped organize the medical mission, working directly with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Disabilities of the Government of Haiti for approval.
President Carter began working with Shriners Children’s to expand access to medical care for children around the world, and he was named Honorary Ambassador of Hasan Shriners at a ceremony in Albany, Georgia, in 2014. The honor was particularly meaningful, President Carter said, because his father (James Earl Carter, Sr.) was a Mason and a Shriner.
In 2018, President Carter and the Carter Center assisted Shriners Children’s in transporting children who were critically injured in a volcanic eruption in Guatemala, helping to arrange military transport – the U.S. Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster III aircraft – and military medical teams to help transfer the children to our Galveston hospital.
Both the healthcare system and the fraternity honored President Carter in 2018. Shriners Children’s bestowed the Humanitarian Award in recognition of his service on behalf of our mission and patients. The award was presented by that year’s Imperial Potentate, Imperial Sir Bergenske, who also presented President Carter with one of the fraternity’s most special honors, the Imperial Potentate’s Medallion.
President Carter once said, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something... My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
Shriners Children’s and Shriners International are proud to have been singled out and supported by President Carter, and deeply appreciate his efforts to help the world’s children have access to the life-changing care that Shriners Children’s provides.
Former Imperial Potentate Shares Fond Memories of the Carters
Imperial Sir Gary Bergenske, who served as Imperial Potentate 2017-2018, was privileged to meet and work with President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, an association that he treasures.
Bergenske said he first met the Carters in 2014, when the former president supported the philanthropy by making a Valentine’s-themed public service announcement. Bergenske said he was struck by President Carter’s commitment to Shriners Children’s. “He did that out of the kindness of his heart, and he said we could use it anytime we wanted,” Bergenske recalled.
President Carter asked what he could do for Shriners Children’s, “and I gave him a whole wish list,” Bergenske said. The commercial was just the start of the association between the former president and the Shriners organizations. President Carter went on to fulfill nearly every item on Bergenske’s list, supporting an outreach clinic in Haiti, helping arrange military transport for volcano victims in Guatemala and more.
The only thing he was never able to do was accept an invitation to attend Imperial Session. So in 2018, Imperial Sir Bergenske went to the Carter home in Plains, Georgia, to present him with the Imperial Potentate’s Medallion and the Humanitarian Award from the philanthropy.
Bergenske and his wife, Lady Anne, visited with the Carters several times. “What an experience, to just sit and have dinner with them as friends,” Bergenske said. “It was our joint love of helping others that drew us together.”
Bergenske said that although the two men were very different, they had an important thing in common. “He wanted to help Shriners Children’s, and we wanted to help him and the Carter Center too. We were both working together to help kids. It was a really great relationship.”
Bergenske said he looked to President Carter as a mentor and an example. “He set the bar high, but he was very humble in what he did.”
