Anti-Masonry

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT Richard E. Fletcher, 1-301-588-4010

Anti-Masonry Heating Up

The Masonic Information Center has had a dramatic increase in the number of requests for information to respond to attacks from anti-Masonic critics. Particularly, attacks from the religious community.

In an attempt to try to understand why these attacks are increasing and what is behind the nature of them, the Masonic Information Center invited Chip Berlet, author of Right Wing Populism in America; Too Close for Comfort, to participate in a discussion at a recent Masonic Information Center Steering Committee Meeting.

Mr. Berlet brought with him a number of books on conspiracy thinking in contemporary America and several books, originally published in the 18th century, claiming that "the enlightenment was a conspiracy promulgated by the Freemasons to undermine established belief structures".

He then went on to discuss how religious extremists view the reading and interpretation of religious texts and how people fuel their religious philosophy around what is wrong in society. The concept is to define which organizations (in their view) create social and religious instability in the world, and then work to get rid of these organizations. Once a group is demonized, then it becomes the central focus of challenge between right and wrong. To the conspiracist, the hero becomes the person who sounds the alarm that a group is evil.

It was also pointed out that many religious extremist groups had very high hopes for a major catastrophic event to occur at the beginning of the new millennium. When nothing they had anticipated occurred, their anger, frustration, and disappointment were unleashed in the form of attacks on groups they label as anti-Christian or involved in a "worldwide conspiracy" to take over the world. When this happens, Freemasonry is almost always at the top of their "enemies" list.

The Masonic Information Center is deeply concerned about these new attacks and realizes that many Masons would like to have good information to help them respond locally. We have a variety of publications available to respond to the attacks from religious extremists and conspiracy theorists.

A listing of some of the publications available through the Masonic Information Center is included for your information.

For more information on anti-masonry, visit the site Anti-Masonry: Points of View.