NZ Mason jailed over sorcery claims
A New Zealand man spent a "wretched" night in a Fiji prison cell after frightened residents and police raided his Freemasons meeting, suspecting witchcraft and sorcery.The man, who didn't want to be named, blamed "dopey village people" for the raid in which 14 members of the Freemasons Lodge of Lautoka were herded into police cars and jailed for the night.
Police also seized lodge paraphernalia, including wands, compasses and a skull.
(Photo / Rotorua Daily Post)
Read the rest here.
As a side-note, a radio station here in Justa Land broadcast a condensed version of the story, and the following exchange went something like this:
Host 1: You know, I perform sorcery at every Lodge meeting I’m at.
Host 2: Really?
Host 1: Sure. I read the minutes and the members magically fall asleep.
Not-ready-for-Vegas humour notwithstanding, I was struck with the thought of how ignorant the villagers are at the centre of the story. Freemasonry’s been on Fiji since some time in the 19th Century; a couple of founding members of my Lodge were apparently members of a Lodge in Suva at one time over 100 years ago. How can anyone, therefore, not know a little bit about the fraternity, especially in a small village where, presumably, people know their neighbours?
This is not an isolated incident in Fiji. The Lodge Hall in Levuka was burned down by Lovoni villagers during the 2000 coup. Apparently some people believed there were various tunnels running underneath the building, including one going through the centre of the Earth to the Masonic headquarters in Scotland. Lodge Polynesia No.562 S.C. now meets in Suva. But, then again, misconceptions are not found only a small village in the South Pacific, are they? It doesn’t take more than a couple of seconds to go on-line and find ridiculous conspiracy theories and asinine talk about Baphomet and “Freemasonry is the tool of the Devil” coming from right here in North America where Lodges have been part of the local landscape since the 1730s.
One can chatter on about “Freemasonry needs to be more open” and use the tired buzz-phrase “society with secrets.” But the fact of the matter is Freemasonry is pretty open. If it weren’t, this blog, countless on-line forums, Grand Lodge websites and Dummies/Idiots books wouldn’t exist.
But some people seem to have a need to believe there’s some secret conspiracy going on around them. One that’s linked to the government. One that’s linked to Satan. They need to have a scapegoat. They need to have a bogeyman. So they take snippets of Masonic writings, ages-old made-up nonsense and use the working tools of paranoia to fashion it into some kind of “proof” Freemasonry is evil.
Is that ignorance on their part? Or ours?
I see Chris Hodapp’s blog has picked up the news story, and the respected Mark Koltko-Rivera has made the following comment on it:
Clearly, (1) the folks in Fiji do no better than (2) the typical American evangelical anti-Mason when it comes to not being able to distinguish between (A) ritual objects used for symbolic purposes and (b) the paraphernalia of sorcery.Mark’s comment really begs a question: does the average person understand the concept of “ritual objects used for symbolic purposes”?
Most of the people I know aren’t Masons. They drive to and from work, they hang out with their kids, watch TV or sports events, go the store or the pub, and indulge in the many mundane facets of day-to-day life. They don’t go around performing a ceremony with a skull pretending it means something else. How can they be expected to know what that’s about when someone else does it?
Is that ignorance on their part? Or ours?
A couple of weeks ago, a woman came by our Masonic hall with a view of renting it for a function. I was introduced to her as “one of the Masons here.” The woman then said: “I saw The Da Vinci Code and the new movie. It’s like that, right?” I had to explain to her the films were a work of fiction.
Is that ignorance on her part? Or ours?
Perhaps it boils down to this:
Years ago, many people could say they had a Mason in their immediate family. He would trundle off with his apron to a meeting, not really saying what he was doing. But he didn’t really need to. The man’s character spoke for him. And because of that Freemasonry was respected. We still hear echoes of this today from young men whose grandfathers were Freemasons and they want to join because of how highly they thought of their grandfather.
Because of the decades-long decline in Masonic membership, a lot of people aren’t exposed to Masons up close. So they don’t know anything about it.
Few (other than nutbars) would think there was some kooky Masonic conspiracy going on if their father or grandfather or best friend was a member of it. And, if that Mason could explain it to others. Knowledge begets knowledge.
I mentioned the radio newscast a little earlier. After the exchange, there was an off-the-air comment:
Host 2: I really don’t know what you do at your meetings.
Is that ignorance on their part? Or ours?
3 comments:
I read about this story today, and can't say that I am altogether suprised at some peoples re-actions, but to resort to jailing the 'offenders' struck me as very frightening. Also interesting is that it took the PM to expidite their release.
Well said. It definitely leads the question to be answered one way or another. Are we secret, or are we not? This riding the fence business doesn't seem to be helping in the bigger picture.
Let me start by saying that I am not a mason and in fact am more of a critic. That said, I think the nature of Freemasons secrecy is misunderstood. I know it creates a slippery slope, but masonry can't say in all honesty that it is not secret, it is just the nature or rather the purpose of the secrecy that is not understood. It tends to be peoples inclination to assume that secrecy automatically should be regarded as sinister. I have given this much though and it is my opinion at this time that masonry is alot like a school. If you already know your lessons, there is little reason to ever go. Another apsect is the depth of concepts. People ask what masonry is about expecting that it can be quickly summarized. While there are attempts at this with the whole "a peculiar system of morality", it is my opinion that the attempts make matters worse. Masonry cannot be summarized. If masonry can get beyond the "canned responses" and stick to more personal interpretations from the heart of its members, I think some of the enigma around the secrecy of masonry will deminish.
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