Jim Davidson, the UK comic whose 'comedy' routinesfilled with obscenities brought him tocelebrity status resigned as Master of Chelsea Lodge in England in July, 2002 after telling astring of off-color jokes at a ladies' night gala. The TV funnyman shocked 850 members and guests at the £70per person party with his blue routine. Davidson was hosting the star-studded event at London's HiltonHotel but his 20-minute performance, in which he used obscenities and poked funat blacks, Jews and the establishment, went down so badly that a string of
). So highlyrespected is Jim's work, that he has been honoured by the Queen as a member ofthe "Order of the British Empire" hence the OBE after his name. |
In 2007, the Grand Lodge of Maine and other charitable (non-Masonic) groups were shocked and dismayed to find that their member and a "model citizen"Robert Libby had embezzled more than $430,000 in what ultimately was the largest non-profit embezzlement in the state. A couple of Masons who are highly supportive of 'fake masonry' but don't have the moral courage to leave their membership in regular/recognized Freemasonry couldn't wait to express their glee and to share their ignorant thoughts on their blogs, explaining how this all could have been avoided. Yeah, right! Isn't hindsight wonderful? And obviously THEY never made a mistake in their lives.... (Oh, wait: they never had any authority for anything either....)
The Grand Master of Masons in Maine in both a letter and e-mail sent to all the Masons of Maine wrote this:
Whether it was the need to fund care for his disabled wife in order for them to stay together or whether he was, as a high school classmate asserted, "the biggest con man", it will probably never be possible to unravel why 76 year old Bob Libby did what he did. Is it Freemasonry's fault? Maybe it was the fault of, for example, the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, a non-Masonic group to which he belonged as well and which was also a victim? People sometimes do bad things - and sometimes those who do them are Masons. It's a fact. The story from the Portland Press Herald ishere.
Stopped by police for drunken driving in October, 1974, U.S. Congressman from Arkansas, Chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee and MasonWilburMills had as a companion in his car: a stripper named Fanne Fox who jumped into the nearby Washington Tidal Basin, an act that has been commented on and parodied a million times since. Although re-elected to his Congressional seat a month later, Mills lost all hope fora presidential bid and did not run for re-election in 1976. Mills was taken to task forhis unseemly behavior by his Masonic Lodge and admitted his long struggle with alcoholism. Heentered a rehabilitation program and recovered from a disease which had plagued him fordecades. From the heights of power, Brother Mills fell - but he admitted his shortcomingsand overcame them. He was welcomed back to the Fraternity.
In an event that at the time made headlines everywhere, comedianMichael Richards during a live comedy sketch in Los Angeles on November 17, 2006 engaged in a very offensive racist 'rant' (self-described as "rage"). The results of that action will reverberate for years to come. Unlike other actors and personalities who have immediately apologized and headed to "rehab", Richards has been alternatively apologetic and defensive. Many have said he was totally insincere in his apologies and the typical publicity rush has law suits flying, celebrity attorneys trying to gain attention, and a media tired of war looking for a new news story.
Richards had become a Masonic 'darling' of sorts: he was young and popular. In very sharp contrast to the television character that had brought him to stardom, he was intelligent and an avid reader. He was reportedly particularly interested in Masonic research and had obtained membership in several Masonic research groups. The Southern US Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite quickly awarded him their 33rd Degree Honor as is sometimes done by that group to, it is asserted by some including some Masons, capitalize on his celebrity status. This has, obviously, resulted in some very bad collateral publicity for Freemasonry as people form opinions based on press reports. It seems obvious that Richards' career has likely suffered a mortal wound.
AHollywood rumor magazine reports that his crisis-management publicist said "He doesn't practice Masonry anymore." Clearly, to Masons at least, the publicist is NOT a Mason! While it could definitively be stated that racist behavior is certainly NOT Masonic in nature, and that practicing charity and temperance are manifestations of a 'practicing' Mason, Freemasonry is a membership-based organization and there's no "practice" involved.
In April, 2006 former Governor of Illinois (USA)George Ryan was found guilty of racketeering and fraud. Prosecutors had accused him of steering big-money state contracts and leases, including a USD25 million IBM computer deal to friends and political insiders during his tenure as Secretary of State (of Illinois) in the 1990s and continuing as Governor starting in 1999. In return for his largesse, Ryan was rewarded with annual winter vacations in Jamaica, trips to Cancun, Mexico and Palm Springs, California, and gifts ranging from a golf bag to $145,000 in loans to his brother's business, prosecutors said. Ryan had achieved huge public acclaim when he had commuted the sentences of every prisoner on death row in Illinois and was a highly acclaimed and lauded politician. The corruption scandal that led to Ryan's downfall began over a decade ago with a federal investigation relating to a 1994 fiery van crash in Wisconsin that killed six children. During the investigation, it was found that unqualified truck drivers could obtain a driver's license through the Illinois Secretary of State's office through bribes. Prosecutors later argued that thousands of dollars of payoff money from the license sales went into a Ryan campaign fund. During the trial, however, a key point of the defense was that the defendant was never seen taking a bribe. In November, 2007, Ryan was imprisoned and is not expected to be released until 2013 when he will be 79 years of age.
In this 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' world, we also foundthe following comment on awebsitewhich commented about this particular page on our site as follows:
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For the record: we're nottrying to downplay or beg forgiveness for ANYTHING here and frankly, political correctness is FAR fromour minds. Take a look around the website where this comment was made and you'll quickly conclude that they'd be hard pressed to correctly name five Revolutionary War generals, battles, or even identify the years during which the war was fought. It's a slur designed to denigrate Freemasonry from a Masonophobe. Nothing more and nothing less.
We want the record to be fair and honest: it's what Freemasonry isall about! Besides, we could have just as easily not even published this page.... Anti-Masons, though, seek every opportunity to demean and debase the fraternity in any/every way possible.