In reference to Cecil’s column on May Day and the Illuminati: As a freemason I have experienced just the sort of BIGOTRY and religious INTOLERANCE Cecil spoke of in his article of 4 February 1982. A neighbor and friend of mine (now deceased) once expressed great interest in becoming a freemason. When his parents found out they were aghast, claiming he would be joining a group of racist hate-mongers. The minister of a local church I no longer attend published a series of rather uninformed articles in his church bulletin. He attacked all fraternal and /or service organizations (such as the Optimists International, Boy Scouts of America, et cetera) but most particularly the Masonic fraternity. He claimed that to be a member of this group was to claim allegiance to something other than Almighty God. He also called it a religion. He went on to rant against spending either time or money on such fraternal activities since this ‘robbed God’. Funny thing - the Masonic fraternity has always supported religious tolerance, practiced independence of thought, supported those in need, spent millions to build hospitals, schools, and orphanages … all in the pursuit of peace and harmony among all peoples. Not much of a secret organiztion bent on world domination if you ask me.
First off, it’s considered polite to link to the column you’re referring to; but I guess giving the title is close enough for a first-timer. For everyone else, here it is.
Now then; I’m sorry that you’re feeling persecuted, but BIGOTRY? INTOLERANCE? CECIL? There are exactly three assertions regarding the Masons in that article; one says that that twit Weishaupt tried to get his Illuminati started by piggybacking on Freemasonry; hardly an accusation against the Masons. The second mention states that the Masons had a lot of freethinkers (not a bad thing), were all over Europe (not a bad thing, unless you’re paranoid), and were decentralized (not a bad thing). Finally Cecil mentions that the Masons were persecuted on account of the Illuminati; again, hardly an accusation.
Cecil has, in fact, stressed – repeatedly – the harmlessness of the Freemasons and the ridiculous paranoia of their accusers. Yes, he’s a bit dismissive, but what did you expect of a skeptic?
Welcome, bookmark , to this farflung group of interesting minds. I’m a mason myself, and I’ve been here awhile. While you’ll occasionally see some intolerance in somebody’s post here, the fool who brought it up invariably gets his ears boxed. A word of guidance; if somebody quotes or links to Jack Chick, it’s for the purpose of laughing at mad Jack, not agreeing with him. There will be the occasional thread that starts out asking if some damnfool allegation about the Freemasons is true. There are many voices of reason here, and we set 'em straight.
I gotta go eat. Seeyoulater.
Nametag - I don’t think Bookmark is implying that Cecil is displaying bogotry/intolerance. If anything he’s agreeing with Cecil’s point that the “Masons = anti-christian” charge is pretty much bunk.
Knowing a number of Masons here in HK (they mainly seem to be crusty old lawyers, old-style Brits and local wanabee old-style Brits), I must say I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy. The supposed secrecy, rituals and so on are virtually guaranteed to provoke either suspicion or (more likely in this day and age) derision. I know for a fact that they are having a big recruitment problem here.
It’s also very obvious here (don’t know about outside HK) that members are largely drawn from what you might call the second rank of society. The people who did “OK” career-wise, but never had a hope of getting to the top. Nice people, but a bit dull at times and just a tad mediocre. Not international conspiracy material. (Or maybe that’s what they WANT us to think…)
Eh, Nametag, think you got hold of the wrong end of the stick there, Pup. 
Cecil speaks of the bigotry and intolerance of other people. Bookmark is saying that he has experienced the bigotry and intolerance that Cecil refers to, not that Cecil himself is expressing his own bigotry and intolerance.
Oh, hell. Sorry about that. I must’ve had the wrong glasses on.
Hmm. I wonder if I can bribe an administrator into deleting that post…
No. We moderators are incorruptible.