I think it is unfortunate that advocates of the Grand Lodge of England’s positions on regularity generally take an attitude on atheism and irreligion which, in various ways, smells of unnecessary condescension.
While the GLOE has been in a long-running dispute with the Grand Orient of France (the flagship advocacy organization for Liberal/Continental Freemasonry) for the last century and a half over the discussion of members’ religions and the status of women, those derivations of Freemasonry which do include the participation of women and the irreligious are scorned with heated fervor as displayed here. Atheism, in particular, is scorned by dedicated Freemasons as "immature" and lacking in "morality".
I’m not going to dispute their points of contention with atheists (or the validity thereof), but I also don’t want to fall into the trap of stereotyping Freemasonry’s approach to irreligion as an Enlightenment-era prejudice that arose out of a general lay fear of godless moral degradation during the period; at least Freemasons (both Regular and Liberal) have extensively contributed to the various separations of church and state (i.e., United States s.c.s. vs. France’s laicite). I just don’t think that the condescension towards irreligion is necessary in such volumes as are used by Freemasonry’s advocates on the Internet.
A gross misinterpretation
In your endeavor to support your particular ‘peeve of the day’, you’ve completely mischaracterized my website page about the so-called “Grand Orient of the United States”. While I made a passing remark about their lack of adherence to one of the core principles of Freemasonry, i.e., belief in a Supreme Being, that was such a small part of the problems I portray with your poster child for Atheism.
It’s quite obvious you didn’t read the posts on their former bulletin board which were very, very strongly supportive of an extreme right-wing Christian approach to many things while paradoxically eschewing religion. Those of a more moderate bent were shunned.
And, of course, it’s important to remember that this particular group has a membership of approximately 0.00001% of those calling themselves Freemasons today. Not a real good place to plant your flag – in my opinion at least.
Ed King, Webmaster
http://www.masonicinfo.com – Anti-Masonry: Points of View
Re: A gross misinterpretation
Hi Mr. King. No I didn’t read those forum posts, but I also wasn’t intending to write about the Grand Orient of the United States at any point in my post. There was no intent to make the GOUS a poster child of atheism, only a passing reference to those portions of your post which referred to the irreligion of GOUS and GODF members.
I’ve tried to find those links in your page, but I can’t find any such explicit mention.
Frankly, I have never been one to discredit a group or it’s practices based upon the size of the group’s membership, especially relative to the group’s ideological forebears, competitors or whatnot. That is why I have a high regard for neopaganism, Unitarian Universalism and the Universal Life Church, since the organizations of, or organizations promoted by, such faiths are typically smaller, more locally-intensive, less proselytization-focused and are much more expressive of individual worldviews than Christianity or Islam could ever be…
…in my opinion, at least.
Finally, Mr. King, I took exception with your page because the entire text is very shrill and over-the-top. In fact, much of the other “Fake Freemasonry” pages on your site give off similar impressions to me in their tone towards ideological variations and deviations, and I don’t see how non-regular lodge organizations pose such a threat (at 0.00001% of the Freemason population) to regular Freemasonry that they would elicit such a response from someone such as yourself (since I understand that you, otherwise, are one of the longest-running web-based defenders of Freemasonry’s person and tenets against constant religiously-motivated conspiracy theorization emanating from other ends of this vast medium. Not an easy task, I’ll assume).
Thanks for commenting.