Post by Tamrin on Jul 1, 2010 15:00:59 GMT 10
The secret we should
all be let in on
Freemasonry has a long - and far too shadowy - history in Australian politics
[/b][/size]all be let in on
Freemasonry has a long - and far too shadowy - history in Australian politics
[Excerpts - Article by Gerald Henderson, The Age, 2 September 2002 - Linked Above][/center]
In effect, the Masonic Lodge arrived in Australia around the time of the First Fleet. Freemasonry was a secret secular society that evolved in the Middle Ages and was opposed by most organised religions, especially the Catholic Church. Its influence was spread by colonisation, particularly in what became known as the British Empire.
In this increasingly transparent age, there are few secrets. Much is known about business, churches, the trade union movement, politics, the professions and more besides. However, we know all but nothing about the Masons. Moreover, it is only in recent years that Freemasonry has released information about itself. In Australia, this has been most evident in New South Wales due to media statements by the organisation and publications by the Masonic Historical Society of NSW (see uglnsw.freemasonry.org.au).
Without question, Freemasonry is not the organisation it once was in the 1950s, when membership peaked at close to 400,000. Yet, without doubt, the Lodge was once very influential indeed.
In this increasingly transparent age, there are few secrets. Much is known about business, churches, the trade union movement, politics, the professions and more besides. However, we know all but nothing about the Masons. Moreover, it is only in recent years that Freemasonry has released information about itself. In Australia, this has been most evident in New South Wales due to media statements by the organisation and publications by the Masonic Historical Society of NSW (see uglnsw.freemasonry.org.au).
Without question, Freemasonry is not the organisation it once was in the 1950s, when membership peaked at close to 400,000. Yet, without doubt, the Lodge was once very influential indeed.
There are numerous conspiracy theories about Freemasonry, often promulgated by the lunar right. All should be discussed. The Masons do not control the world and they are not responsible for communism, Nazism or whatever. If the Lodge had, or has, influence in democratic societies it is as a place for making contacts. You know, where a chap helps out another chap whom he has met at the Lodge, after a friendly (Masonic) handshake. It is only in the past few years that women have joined the Lodge.
In Britain in recent years some interest has been expressed about the role of the Freemasonry in the police force and judicial system. No skeletons have been unearthed. But the matter was considered serious enough to warrant examination by the House of Commons home affairs committee. This year the Brisbane Courier-Mail attempted a similar inquiry; it met a veritable wall of silence.
There seems little justification for this state of affairs. Australians are entitled to know more about Freemasonry, its past and present. There are more secrets down under than John Herron seems aware of. Perhaps the Irish will tell him.
In Britain in recent years some interest has been expressed about the role of the Freemasonry in the police force and judicial system. No skeletons have been unearthed. But the matter was considered serious enough to warrant examination by the House of Commons home affairs committee. This year the Brisbane Courier-Mail attempted a similar inquiry; it met a veritable wall of silence.
There seems little justification for this state of affairs. Australians are entitled to know more about Freemasonry, its past and present. There are more secrets down under than John Herron seems aware of. Perhaps the Irish will tell him.
When a respected journalist such as Gerard Henderson (executive director of the Sydney Institute) cannot see the bias in writing such an article, one may conclude that, whatever we do and whatever we do not do, we will be condemned. The "veritable wall of silence" of which he writes appears to be no more than than our failure to confirm (and indeed to actively deny) the worst suspicions of our critics. For most of our history, we have sought to communicate all things Masonic, except our modes of recognition (akin to our PINs). I guess our trouble is that the truth we wish to share is not salacious enough to satisfy profane interest.
