My friend’s daughter has just joined this club. From what I have read on the Internet (just a basic info site), you can’t belong unless you are related to a Mason of high-standing. I know nothing about Masons. But I read on the JD’s site that their goal is to teach the girls “the virtues of a womanly life”. Yikes, that sounds scary. And it is my understanding that there are secret rituals involved. So you have an exclusionary, secretive cult-like setting where young women are taught womanly skills. Hmmm,
let’s get the girls out to play some soccer or maybe take them into
the community to do some charity work. My next question - are African Americans, native Americans, Hispanic, or Oriental people allowed into these clubs???
Any input will be greatly appreciated. Right now, I am just baffled by the concept, but perhaps someone can set me straight.
Only if they’re “related to a Mason of high standing”, I guess.
From the website. Overall, it sounds like the Girl Scouts, pre-about 1970. http://www.iojd.org/
Sounds fairly innocuous to me, although I’d have to question a mindset that considers sewing and arts ‘n’ crafts and all those nurturing, “helping” activities to be “womanly”. What, can’t boys sew and nurture, too? Can’t girls be non-nurturing, and play basketball?
When I saw the thread title, I thought it would be a question on the Biblical character Job and his daughters. (like I could explain them very well anyways, since they’re very minor Biblical characters) Since it’s not, then I’ll just move along.
When my first wife was in high school, she was in Job’s Daughters. Her dad, nor anybody else in her family was in the Masons.
They have programs every so often called “installations” or some such thing. As the dutifull boyfriend at the time, I went to one of her “installations”. Quite honestly, I can’t remember, at any time since then, EVER being as bored as at one of those things.
If I’m not mistaken, and I could very well be, I think that Job’s daughters is the female equivilant of the De Mo Lay.
I was recruited for them (didn’t join, though) and told that my only requirement was to have a relative who had been a mason. My great-uncle had been, and this made me eligible. I don’t recall his rank, but I don’t think he was particularly high up there, nor was my relation to him particularly close.
They took me bowling and showed me pictures of them in white dresses. It was a bit surrealistic.
I was in Rainbows, something like Jobs daughters. It was for the daughters of Masons, but upon invitation a friend of a daughter could join. We wore long white dresses to our meetings and had little speeches for each station. Stations included everything from being a color of the rainbow to Worth Advisor. I became a Worthy Advisor at 16, then dropped out because, let’s face it, long white dresses just ain’t cool when you’re 16.
It was fun. We did lots of charity work and had cool sleepovers at the Masonic lodge.
I didn’t see any girls of other races at any of our get-togethers, but there are plenty black Masons around here, so surely there are black Rainbow girls or Jobs Daughters around.
It was all very innocent. We didn’t sacrifice any goats like the Masons did.
I was invited to join Rainbow Girls when I was in high school. (My dad, both grandfathers, and a couple of uncles are all Masons.) I got an information packet in the mail, and noticed that all of their social activities seemed to take place in a church and some of them involve actual church services. I said, no thanks.
That being said, as long as there’s a sponsoring Mason, it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, brown, or whatever. It doesn’t even matter what your religion is (my family’s “home” lodge is a Jewish lodge in Los Angeles). I just didn’t feel comfortable being expected to go to church if I was going to be in this organization.
Got to admit, the whole idea of naming an organization “Job’s Daughters” (or “Job’s Sons” or “Job’s Children”, for that matter) is a bit surreal.
The main claim to fame of Job’s original children, in the Biblical story, is getting killed in a ‘natural’ disaster. Job, Ch.1:
Job of course loses everything and experiences great suffering, and eventually he is returned to his former state, including new children. Job, Ch.42:
Which was the number of his first set of children, in the story. This suggests that children are, well, fungible in this world view - one that we have thankfully moved beyond.
To name a youth organization after children who are fundamentally replaceable is kinda bizarre, IMHO.
My sister was in Job’s Daughters from about age 13-17 IIRC. For all their claims of non-sectarianism, it seemed very Protestant white-bread to me. They are the female equivalent to DeMolay or however that’s spelled, from what I understand.
Her chapter or whatever it was called did no charity work at all, and I don’t recall hearing about the other local groups doing any either. They had socials and their monthly meetings, which are closed to the general public. Only the installations, where everyone moves up a spot in the hierarchy, are open to non-JD and their parents. They had maybe 2 installations a year?
I did NOT care for the looks of it. It seemed rather cultish to me. Lots of inane memorization and ritual and secretive behavior, but that’s an outsider’s perspective.
Though my dad is a Mason, if my daughter wanted to join I’d forbid it. Lots of other, better, activities out there IMO that don’t involve long white robes.
[Simpsons]
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
Job’s Daughters! Job’s Daughters!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
Job’s Daughters! Job’s Daughters! [/Simpsons]
I am a master mason. My two sons are in Demolay, and my Daughter is a Job. The White Robe represents purity. This is not a cult of any sort. This is a place where young lady’s become respectable young woman. They are taught the proper way to act in public. School work is before anything in life. They are taught how to speak properly and never to judge another. Everything is done by memory in Maryland. Nothing is written down. It is passed from one job to another. These lady’s go to senior homes and visit all the time. They do performances for the elderly. Each Job in bethel 55 is assigned a elderly person at the senior home we sponsor. They spend lots of time with this person every month giving back to a generation who once supported them. The Demolay is a orginization of the same sort, but for young men. I would much rather have my kids learning the great values of life in a orginization like this. My kids are always with me, every parent is encouraged to come to every meeting. To see my kids travel through the chairs as I did being a master mason is very rewarding. The history that is given through the chairs is absolutely amazing. I have nothing against sports but it is nothing like it was when I was growing up. All it is now! Some coach who never was able to make it to the majors, and he or she wants to relive that through our kids. Please educate yourself before putting up a reply about Masons,Demolay,Jobs daughters. Most people are very sadly mistaken!
Haha, the first thing I thought of was, “Well, they got him really drunk and…wait, that was Lot’s daughters. Didn’t Job’s daughters just die horribly?”
I think what you probably read was “…related to a Mason in good standing”. In other words, a Mason known to the organisation, and known to be a good man (Masons that commit crimes, or have known moral or ethical problems may be expelled from Masonry.
It’s not cult-like. Masonry is a fraternity, and has secret rituals like any fraternity. Masonry’s appendant organizations, like Job’s Daughters and Rainbow Girls, are separate but have similar rituals, and at the core has similar values (making people better people through charity work and stuff like that). A bit old fashioned, yes, but there’s no nefarious intent there.
Yes, lets do just that. These organizations aren’t intended to be the single, all-encompassing activity of their members. They meet once or twice a month and typically organize activities focused around building character and things like that. Plenty of time for youth soccer around that.
In my Masonic circle of friends there are Jews, Muslims, Christins, black guys, white guys, Asian, Pakistani, old men like the two curmudgeons in the Muppet Show, young guys in the Marine Corps, cops, firefighters, Selectmen, doctors, lawyers, town sewer workers, etc. We don’t discriminate, and we don’t judge. Our core values are built around getting past superfluous things like the color of a man’s skin, his religion or vocation, and meeting as equals.
It’s a little old-fashioned. Well, maybe a lot old fashioned. If you can set aside cynicism and suspicion for a moment, you might find the message and teachings are actually refreshingly positive and good for the kids.
Welcome to the Dope, cginnemanj. In the future, before replying to a thread, check the date in the upper left corner of the posts. You just responded to a thread that’s almost ten years old. You should avoid posting in threads that old.
If you really really want to talk about a subject, start a new thread and include a link to the old one, but be sure to start with a fresh idea to talk about or the thread won’t get any replies.
Secondly, saying “Educate yourselves” in a thread titled “Please explain…” is kind of counter-productive. That’s precisely the goal of the entire message board- to fight ignorance.
Jobs daughters are all related to masons. They groups are typically small and well supervised by multiple adults (ladies). Yes the girls do perform various rituals and dress in white robes. This is what’s allows them to see themselves as a group. The girl scouts have uniforms, make promises and perform various ceremonies as well. So what. I have watched and observed many a jobs meeting. They are open to parents, masons and other adults. There is NOTHING secret being done with these girls. Outings are well supervised and are typically focused at teaching charity and kindness. There is plenty of time in a young ladies life to play soccer or whatever. Not all young ladies attend a house of worship and don’t always have family encouraging them to learn about great concepts in life such as charity, honesty, patience and other virtues and that is what jobs daughters does. Are they religious? Most meeting have a touch of Christianity attached to them. So what… But members of other faiths are not turned away or penalized for not being Christian. yes there are young ladies of all colors and faiths in Jobs daughters. People love to brand organization and churches as cults all the time. They do this because they just don’t know or maybe were rejected… who knows. My daughter is a jobs daughter… she enjoys the fact that she has a group of friends that have something in common. Yes could get that from another source, but this one works for her and our family.
