Well said brother Freefall.
Ramsey, since you brought up two of the most pervasive falsehoods about Freemasonry; the Illuminati and the “New World Order”, let me briefly (because yes, we’ve already been over it hundreds of times on this site) address those.
First, the Illuminati - It has become a hugely popular idea that there is some underground secret societ called the Illuminati that controls everything. Heck, when I first read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, even I didn’t konw fact from fiction. A little homework, however, uncovered the truth about the illuminati. The concept that you are referring to is fiction, based loosely on an organization from the 1700s in Bavaria that existed for a span of about a decade. The name was convenient to use for thriller stories because you could look up that they actually DID exist at one time, but they were by no means some all powerful order controlling everhthing. Dan Brown didn’t create this idea at all. It actually originated from British Author John Robison in 1798.
The truth is much more innocuous than the fiction. A man by the name of Weishaupt in Germany who was a professor at the University of Ingolstadt formed a group in order to bring about change and challenge authoritarianism at the time. The group was formed in 1776 and evolved into a society called Illuminati. Their purposes were elightenment and fredom of though, and these concepts DID get incorporated into Masonic lodges at the time. That’s it. The Illuminati was brought to an end by edict between 1784 and 1787.
11 years later, enter John Robison and Abbe Augustin Barruel, who floated their ideas of conspiracy in two books that were released almost simultaneously. From those little books, the idea spread like wildfire, and those little fires are still burning today in the minds of conspiracy theorists. Fuel was added to this fire when in 1890, Leo Taxil wrote a bunch of publications charging Freemasonry with some sort of satanic involvement. Even though TAXIL HIMSELF later admitted that it was ALL A HOAX, the damage was done. The idea was repeated and spread.
As for the “New World Order” phrase, which often gets associated with Freemasonry - this was a phrase that was fairly common in the early 20th century to loosely refer to dramatic political change in the world. Of course that phrase can mean many things, and was used by everyone from Churchill to George H.W. Bush, mostly to describe the political climate of the world as it pertains to communist and post communist Europe.
This phrase only became “associated” with Freemasonry by a silly little game involving the dollar bill. The phrase “Novus Ordo Seclorum” on the dollar bill, which featurs some symbols that APPEAR to be Masonic in nature, has often been incorrectly translated to be “New Secular Order” or “New World Order”. However, bad latin translations aren’t anyone’s fault but those who falsely quote it. The phrase means “New Order of the Ages, a reference to the United states starting an era of independence.
For more on the silliness surrounding the dollar bill and its supposed ties to Freemasonry, we’ve beat that horse to death, so please read this page:
http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Masonry/Essays/eyepyr.html
So that brings us to today. All conspiracy tales and wild theories come about and are perpetuated by those who are either ignorant of, or chose to ignore these simple facts of history.
One final note that SHOULD drive a nail in the coffin for the idea of a global conspiracy…there IS not global governing body for Freemasonry. Heck, there isn’t even a single governing body in the United States! Each state has it’s own Grand Lodge, and that Grand Lodge reports to NO OTHER GRAND LODGE. In fact, these Grand Lodges quite often disagree on things, which is why each state has slightly different rules about Freemasonry. Furthermore, discussion of politics, as well as religion, are forbidden during lodge meetings.
So knowing all I’ve just told you, I’m sure you can see the history behind the conspiracy claimes, but tell me this. How can a group with no global organization that is forbidden from discussing politics even POSSIBLY have a shot at politically controlling the world? Answer…it can’t, nor does it want to. We are a fraternity of men dedicated to improving ourselves and helping others. Period. We just happen to be particularly entertaining targets for conspiracy due to the nature of our fraternity having simple secret methods of identifying each other (and you can find those as well if you look carefully). Nothing is really secret anymore.
I hope this helps in your understanding. Let us know if you have other questions.
Sources - Edward L. King, S. Brent Morris
