To clarify, I am not a mason but I have done quite a bit of research on the topic. I think I know Freemasonry about as well as you can from the outside. In large part it's just a fraternity-a private club for men that you have to be invited into. Freemasonry definitely has a charter, specific goals they are working towards. The exact wording is confidential but you can get a pretty good idea from examining its roots.
How far back proto-freemasonry goes back is unknown. There is evidence that some form of it existed in the Middle Ages among stone masons who eventually started including the nobles they worked for. Modern Freemasonry traces its origins to the 1600s when local lodges opened up and was officially founded in London in 1717 with the first Grand Lodge of England. I think that we want to understand Freemasonry today the best thing to do is understand the climate it was born in. The 1600s was one of the worst centuries in Europe due to the Wars of Religion. Catholics and Protestants did not freaking get along. Off the top of my head you had the 30 Years War, the 80 Years War, the English Civil War, the Bishops War, the Three Kingdoms War and the Commonwealth, (technically the bit between wars and not an actual war not because there wasn't heavy religious persecution, but because it was one sided) and the persecution of the Huguenots (there was some fighting but mostly it was a one way blood bath.) Somewhere around half the population of Europe was killed fighting over religion.
The Enlightenment was also getting going about this time and people began to realize that we needed to stop using religion to divide us and use it to bring us together for the betterment of mankind. Out of this came concepts of democracy and freedom of religion that is reflected in our own Constitution. Both of those concepts are also very important to Masonry and are things they want to see spread around the world.
I became close friends with a Mason while working in Kentucky on oil rigs. Brother Jim was the baptist minister for some of my coworkers and I began to attend his sermons after I had finished my own meetings. Baptist services were run very differently than the LDS ones I grew with and the teachings were also different. The differences between the two theologies are to numerous to list but there was clear common ground. In the morning when I went to the LDS branch are heard of Jesus Christ's love and was encouraged to love my fellow man. When I went to the Baptist sermon I heard of Jesus's love and was encouraged to share that love with my fellow man. I was timid at first about talking to the minister because I have been warned about the counter-productivity of "bible bashing" with other faiths whole life. As I started to talk to Brother Jim we began to discuss a variety of religious topics and recognized that although we differed on most of the particulars we were both good Christian men trying our best to follow Him. I was shocked at how well we got along considering we both held some views the other considered wrong.
My employment in Kentucky ended abruptly when I found myself in the local ICU. It was about 10pm when I called my Bishop to ask for a Priesthood blessing. In addition to the late hour there was a tornado warning that caused every part of the hospital except the ICU to be relocated to shelter. I was 2000 miles from home, lucky to be alive but alone so I called Brother Jim for words of comfort. His words of comfort to me were "I am 45 minutes away so I'll be there in an hour." It was interesting because we had talked about the different notions of Priesthood our two faiths held. Most Christians believe in the "Priesthood of all believers" that originated with Martin Luther and I, as a Mormon, believe in a direct line of power and authority from Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith. I believe that the (Mormon) Melchizedek Priesthood has actual power to preform miracles. When Brother Jim got to me he frankly admitted that the best he could do was pray for me and ask Jesus Christ to use his power to heal me. Though not the same as the Priesthood blessing I would later receive I was truly grateful for Brother Jim's prayer. The last night we were together he told me he was a Mason and everything about him made sense. His attitude about focusing on similarities rather than differences was part of what he believed as a Mason.
But the greatest example of Freemasonry comes out of Nazi Germany. At a time when all Germany praised Hitler as the new Messiah (even though he despised Christianity) the Masons opposed him because they recognized his evil from the beginning. They stood against the persecution of the Jews and for their troubles were rounded up and sent to concentration camps alongside the Jews. When a nation cast aside its principals Masons stood firm.
There is a lot about the inner workings of Masonry I don't know (as it should be) but how bad can an organization that stood alone against Hitler be?
Showing posts with label Nazis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nazis. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Adolf Legalité
In 1923 Germany was in the throes of the volatile post-Great War period. In an attempt to keep up with war reparation payments to the victorious allies imposed in 1921 Germany hyper-inflated it’s Mark. Before the reparations it was four Marks to the US Dollar but by 1922 it was 400 Marks to the USD. In the Late summer of 1923 when the Mark was about 1,000,000,000 to the USD a former army corporal and head of the National Socialist Party Adolf Hitler announced he would hold a series of mass meetings in the City of Munich’s large beer halls starting on the 27 of September. Able to call up 15,000 of his loyal SA Stormtroopers Hitler was a force to be reckoned with; as a result Bavarian Prime Minister Eugene Knilling declared a state of emergency.
Following the example of Mussolini’s successful March on Rome, Hitler planned on bring in his SA and taking the leaders of Bavaria at gun point and forcing them to recognize Hitler, with Great War hero General von Ludendorff at his side, as their leader. Once in control of Bavaria the Nazis would move on the rest of the country. On November 8th, 1923 Hitler, Göring with his SA and others burst into a beer hall the local leaders were speaking at with guns drawn and shouts of “The National Revolution has begun!”
Over the next 24 hours the uprising unraveled culminating with Hitler, Ludendorff and Göring at the head of a column of SA numbering 2000 men. They ran right into a roadblock of 100 soldiers and police. In the ensuing skirmish 4 police and 16 Nazis were killed and Göring was severely wounded in the groin. While Ludendorff pressed forward under fire Hitler fled leading the Great War General to brand Hitler a coward.
It was while serving his five year prison sentence that Hitler and Rudolf Hess wrote Mein Kampf. Also during his imprisonment Hitler rethought his ideas on violent revolution. The sehr ordenlech German people were not comfortable with the rules being broken and reacted badly to it. So once Hitler got out of jail his rise to power was characterized by doing everything strictly legal. Hitler was so committed to exact legality that he became known as “Adolf the Legal One” or Adolf Legalité.
In our time we face many threats to our wealth, peace of mind, freedom and our very lives. Marching under foreign flag and wearing stormtroopers’ uniform, goose stepping in jack boots, evil is easy to see and defeat. While we must always watch for Hitler’s SA marching towards us there is another kind of evil we must fear and watch for most: The Fifth Column rallying around our flag!
They say all the right things; all they want is our best interest. They say they love everything we love; they will fight for our children. “Rally with me to our flag that our Nation might persevere!” they cry; but listen to them, look at their words and deeds of old and their private words with friends. All great nations that have fallen have fallen from the rot inside; evil was not at the doorstep but at the hearth!
In 1923 German soldiers saw evil marching on them and opened fire, smashing the evil that threatened their nation. Yet in 1933 Hitler was able to size full control of the government that had gunned down his followers less than ten years before. He used Germany’s own laws to destroy the very laws he was using.
We must always be vigilant that our own system is not used against us to destroy us and enslave us. We must always ask not how we would use a law, but how our worst enemy would use it. Be careful in who we let close to the halls of power, do not make hasty judgment in cave in a moment of passion to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Following the example of Mussolini’s successful March on Rome, Hitler planned on bring in his SA and taking the leaders of Bavaria at gun point and forcing them to recognize Hitler, with Great War hero General von Ludendorff at his side, as their leader. Once in control of Bavaria the Nazis would move on the rest of the country. On November 8th, 1923 Hitler, Göring with his SA and others burst into a beer hall the local leaders were speaking at with guns drawn and shouts of “The National Revolution has begun!”
Over the next 24 hours the uprising unraveled culminating with Hitler, Ludendorff and Göring at the head of a column of SA numbering 2000 men. They ran right into a roadblock of 100 soldiers and police. In the ensuing skirmish 4 police and 16 Nazis were killed and Göring was severely wounded in the groin. While Ludendorff pressed forward under fire Hitler fled leading the Great War General to brand Hitler a coward.
It was while serving his five year prison sentence that Hitler and Rudolf Hess wrote Mein Kampf. Also during his imprisonment Hitler rethought his ideas on violent revolution. The sehr ordenlech German people were not comfortable with the rules being broken and reacted badly to it. So once Hitler got out of jail his rise to power was characterized by doing everything strictly legal. Hitler was so committed to exact legality that he became known as “Adolf the Legal One” or Adolf Legalité.
In our time we face many threats to our wealth, peace of mind, freedom and our very lives. Marching under foreign flag and wearing stormtroopers’ uniform, goose stepping in jack boots, evil is easy to see and defeat. While we must always watch for Hitler’s SA marching towards us there is another kind of evil we must fear and watch for most: The Fifth Column rallying around our flag!
They say all the right things; all they want is our best interest. They say they love everything we love; they will fight for our children. “Rally with me to our flag that our Nation might persevere!” they cry; but listen to them, look at their words and deeds of old and their private words with friends. All great nations that have fallen have fallen from the rot inside; evil was not at the doorstep but at the hearth!
In 1923 German soldiers saw evil marching on them and opened fire, smashing the evil that threatened their nation. Yet in 1933 Hitler was able to size full control of the government that had gunned down his followers less than ten years before. He used Germany’s own laws to destroy the very laws he was using.
We must always be vigilant that our own system is not used against us to destroy us and enslave us. We must always ask not how we would use a law, but how our worst enemy would use it. Be careful in who we let close to the halls of power, do not make hasty judgment in cave in a moment of passion to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Friday, August 22, 2008
A Tale of Two Wars
I’d like to take a minute to look at the rise of the Nazis. I am going to try to look at what spawned their breeding ground in 1920s and ‘30s Germany. Please do not mistake that I like Nazism in the slightest. Visiting former concentration camps when I was young are among the more traumatic memories of my childhood.
By the end of World War One, Germany was completely ruined by their huge casualties, by shortages of everything and by the Treaty of Versailles which made Germany take full responsibility for the war and make huge repatriations to the Allies as well as a neutered military. In an attempt to get out of these payments the Germans tried to hyperinflate the Mark, making German money worthless so the victors would not want payments of worthless German Marks. This not only failed when the payments were demanded in other forms such as raw steel and other goods but also crushed what little was left of the German economy. Tales of the inflation are legendary, workers at factories were paid in the middle of the day and used small bags so they could throw it to their families to go buy bread before the money was worthless later in the day. German bills had their values crossed out and new ones written by the mint because buy the time they were done printing it the bill was worth less than toilet paper. Children made kites out of old bills rather than using them to buy paper. By the late 1920s the country was tearing itself apart. There was fighting and revolts in the streets, armed paramilitary gangs of unemployed veterans roamed the countryside and economic disaster.
Into this maelstrom stepped Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party. He had it all, a plan to rebuild the country by huge government projects such as the autobahn, a plan to rebuild the Army, an explanation for how they fell and it not being the fault of the German people by using the Jews as a scapegoat and most importantly, hope. Out of national crisis Hitler resurrected Germany and because of his message the German people voted to give him full control of the government in 1933. Hitler promised to take them down the path to becoming the greatest country on earth………well, we all know how that worked out.
After World War Two ended the victorious Allies did not make the same mistake twice. Under the Marshall Plan vast economic aid was sent to Europe to restore productive economies to war-torn nations. US troops were stationed in Germany to protect them from the Soviets and there are still US troops there. Because the US was able to win the peace Germany became a peaceful and prosperous country.
In 1990 Iraq invaded its southern neighbor Kuwait prompting international outrage. In February 1991 the US led coalition launched Operation Desert Storm, the ground invasion of Iraq. The ground war lasted 100 hours before the Iraqi Army, at the start of the war the 4th largest in the world, collapsed. After imposing aircraft no fly zones the US pulled out with Saddam still in power. One big reason was Iraqs neighbor Iran, a US hating country and state sponsor of terror. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard created Hezbollah the notorious terror group in Lebanon. Iraq and Iran had just bled each other white during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Taking out Saddam would leave a power vacuum and set Iran up to dominate the region. Also, taking out Saddam would force the US to stay in Iraq to form the new democratic government (a feat all its own in an Arab country), build a stable economy, train the new Army and keep an eye on Iran. It made much better sense to leave him there to balance out Iran and not get bogged down in another Vietnam-style quagmire. We also figured Saddam would soon be toppled by his own people as rebels uprose across the country to oust the Bath Party. During the peace treaty negations the terms of the no fly zones was being worked out General Schwarzkopf made the mistake of telling the Iraqis they could still fly armed helicopters. This unfortunate remark spelled doom for the large uprising taking place against Saddam and thousands of anti-Saddam Iraqis. As US forces helplessly watched from bases in Iraq Saddam's helicopter gunships crushed the rebellion. A rebel commander, after his request for support fighting the Republican Guard was turned down by the US 1st Cavalry Division shook hands and departed back to the fighting with “We are all dead men.” When the US invaded Iraq in 2003 all the anti-Saddam/pro-US Iraqis were long dead and buried in mass graves. Any survivors were understandably bitter and cynical, making occupation and reconstruction much more difficult.
Many Americans can’t understand why we are still in Iraq. Encouraged by politicians many think we can simply leave Iraq. After all, would leaving them pose an immediate threat to America? History is clear on the matter, gutting a nation and leaving them in ruin only leads to even worse enemies taking over and more, many more, Americans in black body bags.
By the end of World War One, Germany was completely ruined by their huge casualties, by shortages of everything and by the Treaty of Versailles which made Germany take full responsibility for the war and make huge repatriations to the Allies as well as a neutered military. In an attempt to get out of these payments the Germans tried to hyperinflate the Mark, making German money worthless so the victors would not want payments of worthless German Marks. This not only failed when the payments were demanded in other forms such as raw steel and other goods but also crushed what little was left of the German economy. Tales of the inflation are legendary, workers at factories were paid in the middle of the day and used small bags so they could throw it to their families to go buy bread before the money was worthless later in the day. German bills had their values crossed out and new ones written by the mint because buy the time they were done printing it the bill was worth less than toilet paper. Children made kites out of old bills rather than using them to buy paper. By the late 1920s the country was tearing itself apart. There was fighting and revolts in the streets, armed paramilitary gangs of unemployed veterans roamed the countryside and economic disaster.
Into this maelstrom stepped Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party. He had it all, a plan to rebuild the country by huge government projects such as the autobahn, a plan to rebuild the Army, an explanation for how they fell and it not being the fault of the German people by using the Jews as a scapegoat and most importantly, hope. Out of national crisis Hitler resurrected Germany and because of his message the German people voted to give him full control of the government in 1933. Hitler promised to take them down the path to becoming the greatest country on earth………well, we all know how that worked out.
After World War Two ended the victorious Allies did not make the same mistake twice. Under the Marshall Plan vast economic aid was sent to Europe to restore productive economies to war-torn nations. US troops were stationed in Germany to protect them from the Soviets and there are still US troops there. Because the US was able to win the peace Germany became a peaceful and prosperous country.
In 1990 Iraq invaded its southern neighbor Kuwait prompting international outrage. In February 1991 the US led coalition launched Operation Desert Storm, the ground invasion of Iraq. The ground war lasted 100 hours before the Iraqi Army, at the start of the war the 4th largest in the world, collapsed. After imposing aircraft no fly zones the US pulled out with Saddam still in power. One big reason was Iraqs neighbor Iran, a US hating country and state sponsor of terror. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard created Hezbollah the notorious terror group in Lebanon. Iraq and Iran had just bled each other white during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Taking out Saddam would leave a power vacuum and set Iran up to dominate the region. Also, taking out Saddam would force the US to stay in Iraq to form the new democratic government (a feat all its own in an Arab country), build a stable economy, train the new Army and keep an eye on Iran. It made much better sense to leave him there to balance out Iran and not get bogged down in another Vietnam-style quagmire. We also figured Saddam would soon be toppled by his own people as rebels uprose across the country to oust the Bath Party. During the peace treaty negations the terms of the no fly zones was being worked out General Schwarzkopf made the mistake of telling the Iraqis they could still fly armed helicopters. This unfortunate remark spelled doom for the large uprising taking place against Saddam and thousands of anti-Saddam Iraqis. As US forces helplessly watched from bases in Iraq Saddam's helicopter gunships crushed the rebellion. A rebel commander, after his request for support fighting the Republican Guard was turned down by the US 1st Cavalry Division shook hands and departed back to the fighting with “We are all dead men.” When the US invaded Iraq in 2003 all the anti-Saddam/pro-US Iraqis were long dead and buried in mass graves. Any survivors were understandably bitter and cynical, making occupation and reconstruction much more difficult.
Many Americans can’t understand why we are still in Iraq. Encouraged by politicians many think we can simply leave Iraq. After all, would leaving them pose an immediate threat to America? History is clear on the matter, gutting a nation and leaving them in ruin only leads to even worse enemies taking over and more, many more, Americans in black body bags.
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