How does someone know online that another is truly a mason. Brothers I warn you to be careful with who you talk to and what you talk about. The only reason I am saying this is while working with my brother who raised me at Masonic Tips to build our lodges website My Lodge .
We would have to have the Grand Lodge of South Carolina approve it at the time we did have King Solomon's link on there but were told in order for site to be sanctioned and legitimate we were to take this off.
There are a lot of radical opinions and clandestine people claiming to be brothers.
My advice to my brothers out there is to be careful with whom you talk to and what you talk about.
My question to you is "How do you effectively try a supposed brother online to be a mason?". I really don't think there is such a way with out seeing them in person.
Becareful Be safe and god bless!
We would have to have the Grand Lodge of South Carolina approve it at the time we did have King Solomon's link on there but were told in order for site to be sanctioned and legitimate we were to take this off.
There are a lot of radical opinions and clandestine people claiming to be brothers.
My advice to my brothers out there is to be careful with whom you talk to and what you talk about.
My question to you is "How do you effectively try a supposed brother online to be a mason?". I really don't think there is such a way with out seeing them in person.
Becareful Be safe and god bless!
7 comments:
I don't think that it is as much worrying if someone you are talking to is a Mason as much as are you revealing a Masonic secret? I do not reveal any portion of the ritual to another person but I will talk to people about Freemasonry as long as I don't violate my obligations to tho Craft. It is important to clear up the misconceptions surrounding Freemasonry while maintaining those secrets that we are obliged to keep.
Nick
I agree,
I think that is very important. As long as we can spread masonic education without breaking obligation is the best way. I guess I posted this as a word of caution after the Grand Lodge told us. I thought it would be nice to give a friendly reminder. Thanks for your post
Interesting that you were asked to remove the link to KSL, as KSL doesn't claim that its articles are by Masons but only about Freemasonry, and Scottish Rite Journal included KSL in the current issue.
Perhaps you just didn't have it labeled clearly, i.e. "The following are unofficial links on the subject of Masonry, but are not affiliated with or endorsed by this or any other Lodge or Grand Lodge."
The Wikipedia article are of the same nature in that they are also not "by Masons" but about Masonry, so I wonder why they allowed you to keep those, unless it was really just a matter of avoiding current events.
When I set up my Lodge's website, I was careful to keep links to a minimum and, therefore, had little trouble in obtaining the sanctioning of the GL. I recommend the KISS method with no links to places that may take a viewer to places that display opinions that are in conflict w/ your Lodge or GL. Remember, it is your Lodge's website - not your website.
And, there is no way to really determine on the internet if a person is really a Mason. You can get a gut feeling, but you never really know.
I find it interesting that some GLs must approve web sites. That's not the case here; Lodges (and Masons) are free to do what they wish, so long as they follow the Constitution dealing with publishing Lodge proceedings and the Federal Privacy Act.
Justa Mason
Jeff...
...you are probably correct. As the one who created and submitted the original site design for Grand Lodge approval, I offered no distinction among the various links. Had I done so, the response might have been different.
In any case, I think it comes down to just what is the purpose of a Lodge site. Obviously, this can be very subjective, but I think in our case, our goal is to really just provide information about our lodge, local work, and Freemasonry in general. Keeping it simple and to the point really keeps things clean and easy to navigate. Our site really needs to reflect the lodge itself, and ultimately, the represented Grand Lodge.
I certainly don't want to be overly legalistic in this matter, however, we sometimes do need to separate personal interests from Lodge interests. A link to KSL happily appears on my site!
To BinaryBurn's original question, I agree that there really isn't any way to know that a man is truly a Mason over the 'net. The important thing to remember is that if we simply consider our obligation, we should never have any problem in what we discuss about Freemasonry--online or offline.
The Danish Order of Freemasons has an unofficial policy that no lodge may have its own website. This has yet to be challenged. Probably because the GL offers a sort of portal on their wewbsite, where each lodge can add their own info, pics etc., public and members only.
Personally I tend to believe, on a principle of trust, him/her when a person claims to be a freemason online. I still don't divulge anything that I wouldn't in other situations, ie. no specific ritual and symbolic discussion.
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