The saying amongst Freemasons is that they are not a secret society — they are a society with secrets and techniques. Proper now, a few of these secrets and techniques are in danger. Whereas it is nothing that might make Dan Brown giggle like a schoolgirl, the data in query issues for those who care about private privateness. In line with The Guardian, the Premier Grand Lodge of England has filed an emergency injunction in opposition to London’s Metropolitan Police Service over a coverage that might drive law enforcement officials and civilian workers to disclose whether or not they’re Freemasons or members of any related orders.
The Freemasons filed papers in London on Christmas Eve and declare the Met’s coverage quantities to “spiritual discrimination” in opposition to Freemasons who’re additionally law enforcement officials.
They are saying the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, “is making up the legislation on the hoof” and accused his drive of “whipping up conspiracy theories” concerning the affect of Freemasons.
And truthfully, yeah: it does smack of spiritual intolerance. Whereas Freemasonry is not thought-about a church, turning into a Mason requires spiritual religion. Masons are sworn in service to the next energy, sometimes from the Abrahamic custom. A ‘Quantity of Sacred Regulation’ sits on the altar whereas a Lodge conducts its enterprise. For many Lodges, that is the 1611 King James Bible. But when a Lodge’s membership consists of, say, an Orthodox Jew, you are simply as more likely to discover a copy of the Torah sitting subsequent to it.
Who is aware of how this can play out or, with the madness of the present information cycle, whether or not we’ll ever hear the outcomes of this case. However this is my pondering: If nobody can ask which e-book you place your religion in — be it the Bible or The Hitchhiker’s Information to the Galaxy — anyplace else in English society, then they should not be capable of do it on this context both.
Freedom and privateness apply to everybody, or they are often taken from everybody.
