Freemason ball cap

Freemasons, the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world has a long history.

This group of like minded men have been around so long that way too many stories embellished with questionable circumstances have been circulated. From some of these imaginations we get the movie, National Treasure. So many books, both pro and con have been written about Freemasons that I can’t even think of covering all of the material here in one post. I will try and condense the material into a useful amount so that the reader can at least decide if they have an interest in becoming a member or becoming an empowered volunteer for one of the many groups associated with Freemasonry.

First off, Freemasonry is a fraternal organization.

It is different from civic groups like the Lions Club or the Kiwanis or Rotary International. The difference is more legal than anything. Fraternal groups can have closed memberships requiring votes for entry. Civic groups are much more open, with restrictions being limited to well defined sectors such as the Rotary and the business sectors represented for each section within the local club. Civic groups can’t legally exclude any sectors of the public for instance. There have been a few court cases that have settled this in the past.

Freemasons started in the current incarnation we see today in the year 1717 in England. The past beyond that for the group traditionally included the masons building the great Roman Catholic Churches and buildings going back several hundred years. Some claim masons go back to the times of the Crusades even. However, today’s groups can only trace their current form to the creation of Freemasons in 1717. Before that, so many things were different that the linage is very hard to prove and for our purposes we really don’t care.

Freemasons in the United States are open about their membership and members often openly wear the affiliated symbols openly and proudly. However, Masons are one of the most persecuted of groups in modern times. Freemasons were not welcome under dictatorships or in Germany under the Nazi party. It is a little known fact that masons were included in the rounded up groups sent to the concentration camps.

Jews, gypsies, gays, and masons were all included in the concentration camp round up in Germany prior to and during WWII.

Masons, fearing the hostile government of Germany took to wearing a small lapel pin of a forget me not, a purple flower to distinguish themselves to others in the groups, much like the fish symbol was used by Christians during the time after Jesus in Rome.

Freemasonry today is a wide branch of a tree containing many different sections of groups, all with a Masonic connection. Think of this collections of groups like a high school in the United States. For a member of the school to join associated groups is normal. But you can’t join the base ball group of another school if you don’t live there. You have to stay in your area. It is the same with Freemasons. Once you have petitioned and been fully initiated into the local lodge as a Master Mason, which is also called the third degree of Masonry, you are at the top of the ladder. You can go no higher, only adding other groups.

Like a high school has many clubs and groups, so does the Master Mason confront many potential groups who will happily put him to work for the cause they support. You can’t just skip to the supporting group and skip the process of becoming a mason though, just as you can’t attend a school group without belonging to that school, home schooled children exempted.

Order of the Eastern Star

Once you have joined the local Freemason’s lodge your are usually allowed to consider the other groups as you see fit. Such groups as the Shriners, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, the Order of the Eastern Star are all for adults. The Order of DeMolay is a boys youth group. Rainbow Girls is a youth group for girls. There are other groups associated with masons.

Eastern Star is for ladies as well as men, all the lady has to show is a relationship to a mason.

Shriners

The purpose of Freemasonry in today’s society is stated as, “To make good men better”. This is simple and yet very complicated. The voting process for membership entry is supposed to ensure that only men of high character are allowed to join. There is a group that meets with you and your spouse to ensure she will not be unhappy if you join. Masons promote harmony both in the lodge by banning any conversation regarding religion or politics, but also at home by ensuring that spouses are secure that their men are attending functions which reflect positively on their reputations and that of their respective families.

If you do a search engine request on Freemasonry you will get many replies. Some of them will not be positive. Some will claim that Freemasons are a “secrete” organization which is unChristian. This is simply false. I am a Freemason, I have been in the group in many different states for over 20 years now. I have been in several of the associated groups as well. We do not have any deep dark secretes like the movies show, nor do we do sinister things during our initiations. Lastly, we are completely compatible with most Christian and many other religions.

I will put it this way, the group that has issues with Freemasonry must base their objections on either false or misleading information in order to compromise Christian values as they view them in some way.

Religions for the most part are happily aligned with the tenants of Freemasonry, since most of the initiation wording comes straight from the Old Testament part of the Bible, specifically the part involving King Solomon in first and second Kings. The idea is to use the symbols from this story as a pattern for building one’s moral character. Very simple, easily remembered rules from Bible stories help teach the new Mason his requirements and expectations.

Freemasons use rules and symbols that are put into a kind of story surrounding the building of Kind Solomon’s temple as an allegory for every mason to build his own personal spiritual temple here on earth. In other words, take the many lessons from the Bible verses that are memorized and make yourself a better person.

Freemasons don’t preach salvation, we only claim that we live on after we die here on earth.

How that is done and the surrounding issues are left to the individual and his church if he attends one. In America, most Freemasons attend a church of their choice. Many attend on a regular basis. However Jews are also welcome along with many from the other major religions of the world.

The key is to believe in a Supreme Being, usually called God.

Many famous people were Freemasons. Here is a site which lists some of them. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/famous-freemasons.html

Some famous Masons are remembered for behavior which was not very Masonic, meaning not of good character. Likely the most memorable of these was Benedict Arnold, famous for betraying his Commander General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

Other memorable divisions between Masonic Brothers in American history involved Davy Crockett in his opposition to the Native American policies of President Andrew Jackson and the Korean War division between General Douglas MacArthur and then President Truman firing his general for insubordination.

These high profile episodes reflect and refute the notion that Masons will not enforce laws between themselves. Davy Crockett was so distraught with his treatment by his Brother Mason that he left his home and went to Texas to fight in their revolution, with several Brother Masons also involved and where he seemed to find better treatment as well.

The public perception that Masons will refuse to deal with fellow members as needed when in public office should now be dead from these examples.

The internet is full of stupid sites making so called historical claims that Freemasons do many creative and lowly things. I can tell you from personal experience they are simply not true. There are only a very few things which Freemasonry members promise not to reveal to the public. To that end, in 1723 a book was published which claimed to give out all of the secretes of the fraternity. To this day none of the so called secretes have been changed due to that violation of the authors oath when he published them.

It simply doesn’t matter if someone learns the hand grip or the gesture or whatever. To be a Mason starts in the heart with the right attitude and goes from there. It is not in gestures or hand shakes. So the liars on the internet can continue their negative crusade, but it will not stop good men from continuing their good works on behalf of society and in the name of the Holy Saint’s John.

To be a Mason you need to believe in a Supreme Being, usually called God. This allows the three religions stemming from Abraham of the Bible,including Jewish followers of most variations, Christian followers in most instances, and the followers of Mohammad as well as a few of the other religions of the world that are in alignment with the idea of a supreme being can apply to join Freemasonry.

Many famous Masons, such as Ben Franklin were Deists during the age of enlightenment, meaning that they were not Christian any longer, even if they were raised that way. George Washington was another Deist. Deists were not Christian, rather they believed God was a kind of watchmaker who wound up the universe and then stepped aside to let matters unwind. Since Deists believe in a Supreme Being or God, they too are welcome to join the ranks of Freemasonry. This is mentioned to set the example that very good men such as these were also Freemasons and history has not judged them harshly for either characteristic.

Atheists are not welcome to join Freemasonry.

If you take a look at some of the more famous Freemasons, you should be able to detect the true nature of the group as judged by the overall tone and character of the past members. Many of the more famous members were famous not for being masons but for their contributions to society. I will let you review the list for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

In the future I will write about many of the other Freemason groups and their respective traits.

For now, Freemasonry is a worthy group for the consideration of the empowered volunteer. It has a vast amount of space to enjoy and explore. Enjoy this group if you choose to spend your time in such good company. So mote it be!

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Group with the Optimist Creed

This sentence is found on the second line of the Optimists Creed. The Optimists are a group of individuals who promote children’s or youth activities in the community where the group meets.

Properly called Optimists International, they are focused on helping kids in communities. Their site is, http://www.optimist.org/.

I have the Optimists Creed on the wall in my office. I try and repeat it out loud as often as I remember. It is a wonderful set of positive sentences which when read aloud can help program your mind into a better area. I have done this off and on since I was a member of the group, back in Iowa in the late 80′s.

Back then after every weekly morning meeting, we would repeat the creed as a group, outloud. It really helped me kick off my day to see and visit with so many positive people. I really loved the atmosphere and the energy everyone brought to the breakfast meetings. Note, some clubs have evening or lunch meetings. I could not have worked my schedule as a Navy Recruiter around anything but a breakfast meeting so I am glad my group met early, around 7 AM.

There are many worthwhile youth groups in America. I have never found another which helps the members in this unique way though. The members gain through their associations with each other a great deal even before they apply their talents for helping the kids on community wide projects.

You can check out their website to see what the local Optimist group close to you is actively participating or sponsoring.

Optimists are very well known for their happy attitudes and attempt to bring this upbeat nature to their programs and activities for the youth in their communities. From the website the current numbers for Optimists International are 87,000 individual members who belong to 2,900 autonomous clubs. Optimists conduct 65,000 service projects each year, serving six million young people. Optimists also spend $78 million on their communities annually. These are some real good numbers reflecting extensive leverage of action for the size of the population doing this great work.

For the Empowered Volunteer to totally grasp the reality of these numbers, the membership in 2007 was 123,865 and club totals were 3,918.

The decline is dramatic over the last 6 years!

The decline of nearly 37,000 members and almost 1,000 clubs is reflective of the economic decline for sure, but also I submit it is due to the lack of knowledge of how much volunteering can do for the individual’s personal health and mental well being.

See the posts on this blog regarding the various health studies relating to social connections and social capital and increases in individual status for associated ideas and related data. If more people knew how much they gained from volunteering this and many other groups should see a steady increase in membership.

This is the purpose of the empowered volunteer, to get the message out for both the individual benefits as well as the incredible nature of many of these civic groups for the public to see.

I will reprint the Optimists Creed in full below to illustrate just how positive this groups creed really is. I don’t personally know of another group’s creed which even comes close to such positive thoughts.

The Optimist Creed
Promise Yourself …
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

I personally love this creed! It is a great way to start any day when you recite it out loud. I highly recommend doing so and then track your results. You will be surprised how effective this practice can be in making you a bit brighter for the rest of the day, with carry over to the next in many cases!

Being an Optimist was for me a pleasure and a fond memory. I networked my way into other groups from this initial membership and gained even more individual pleasure from extending my personal connections and relationships among adults. I stopped being just the local Navy Recruiter and became myself again. I really needed the balance of adult relationships after the total commitment needed to find worthy candidates for the US Navy.

This demanding job of finding sailors to man the expanding US Navy back in the late 80′s was all encompassing and all consuming. I needed a diversion from my duties and many of my “formal requests” from my command to join groups were denied. This group and the Freemasons were finally approved formerly by Navy Recruiting District Omaha. I was thrilled. I has already networked my way to meeting several Optimists and Freemasons at the local YMCA, so I was ready to petition.

Freemasons are often members of other worthy groups

I networked my way into joining the local Freemasons Lodge in Newton, Iowa next (you had to petition and then be initiated after you passed the famous voting process) and this combination of groups and the many friends I developed helped me tremendously with the stress and strain of Navy Recruiting which each military recruiter was dealing with back then. I owe a lot to both groups for keeping me sane during these very difficult times!

I also networked my way to visiting, in uniform a US Navy function with NATO! I was formerly invited by a Marine Major who liked my involvement with the Optimists, as he was also in his community of Va Beach, Va. So he invited me to join him as his guest for the Icelandic NATO celebration. I was delighted, but the stipulation was I had to do it in full dress uniform. He was dressed in his, so that was understandable.

I was by far the lowest ranking of Navy personnel there visible and several times I had to state I was a guest and not the help as one officer or another would try and hand me some plate to take away, they just could not allow an enlisted person to be a guest!

But the Icelandic food was great and I got a personal introduction to the U. S. Admiral in charge of the whole East Coast of the US. This is very rare experience for a junior enlisted sailor for those of you not familiar with military formalities. Enlisted folks only see such senior officers when they stand at attention at change of command ceremonies or when they serve meals.It is very rare to have a one on one private chat with one, especially at that officers request!

I was a Petty Officer 2nd Class at the time, MM2 (SS/SW) for those who know and care about the rate and warfare designations used in the Navy. It is very rare for a private conversation to take place between two individuals of such divergent ranks, which the admiral initiated when he saw my recruiting badge. He had an interest in where I was recruiting as well as how things were going in the recruiting world after the First Gulf War, particularly how the war had impacted our efforts.

This informal conversation played a huge part in my continued service in the Navy later on when the Admiral’s Chief of Staff called my command at NRD Omaha on my behalf. Literally within minutes of that call an unjust circumstance against me was straightened out and my new orders to stay in the Navy were arriving on the curly paper that was the fax machine back then. Such is the power of networking! My wife and I were trilled to move to my next assignment.

My point is that you never know when simply being in a very worthy group can change your whole life as this one event changed mine. If I had not sought out adult company to balance my work related needs I would never have been able to network my way to visiting with the senior most officer on the East Coast.

I also balanced my need for adult company with a new found Masonic brother who had been a POW during Viet Nam War. His stories helped me make sense of a world when I needed the help and I was and still am very grateful for his kind conversations.

I am sure many of you can find this youth group worthwhile today, even if you need to start one yourself. Consider helping this or another group of your choice by volunteering today. You never know when a small thing could change your life forever.

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Power horn replica with Freemason symbols from colonial times

Welcome to the official site of the Empowered Volunteer Rebuilds America!

The purpose of this site is to empower any passionate person who wants to learn how to build or in some cases rebuild memberships to various charitable groups or the groups who support the charities!

It would also help if this person has aspirations of deriving health benefits from his or her actions as well. In other words, by presenting your passion in a positive direction you will get more back in benefits than you put into the effort of helping the charity, according to many studies!

How about that for a change, you can get back more benefits for yourself than the cost of the effort you put into the organization.

To do this the empowered volunteer must be passionate about a specific charity first off. Finding the group who supports that charity or becoming passionate about the group supporting the charity will, studies have shown produce many health benefits for the passionate volunteer. This site will review the many studies and show how the various healthy benefits for the individual who volunteers are produced.

To sum it up, a passionate volunteer can positively impact their own health and happiness with very little money involved and minimal time allocations!

Now just joining a group, putting the membership card in your purse or wallet will NOT produce the health benefits I have been alluding to. You have to do a bit more than that. If you follow the Empowered Volunteer strategy you stand a great chance of maximizing your potential, again according to various studies. There is also the satisfaction of helping to make a worthy charity become better funded by building new members.

What a deal! Just for doing something you want to do anyway, you can increase the likely hood of living longer and in better health while helping your country rebuild its various volunteer infrastructure programs that have seen sharply dropping memberships over the last few decades. Fewer members mean less revenue for the charities they support in the end, so this empowerment can really make a difference in a huge way.

For instance, various civic, fraternal, or veterans groups conduct numerous events throughout their calender year to raise money for the charity they support. Other groups include religious, trade associations, and even children’s groups.

Shriners

An example of a fraternal group who specializes in helping a charity is the Shriners, properly known as Royal Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and their cause is Crippled and Burned Children’s Hospitals better known as Shriner’s Hospitals. Shriners are associated with Freemasonry.

FOE

Another fraternal group is the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and they are a Roman Catholic fraternity. They have become known for their support of the Ten Commandment monuments around court houses.

Knights of Pyhthias

There are many others such as the Fraternal Order of Elks, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pyhthias, Pilot International, Knights of Columbus, and Royal Neighbors of America, to list but a few. All of them need new members.

Fraternal groups differ from civic groups in a few ways, but one of the main ways is in how they control their membership. Fraternal groups are specific and closed, often requiring a vote by the existing membership via the famous “black ball” in order to gain membership. Note, in most instances the black ball is really shaped like a cube!

Lions Club

Civic groups on the other hand are not closed and are for the most part open to all members. Examples of well known civic groups include Lions Club International, United Methodist Women, Soroptimist International, Rotary International, United Way, Optimist International,and many others.

American Legion

Examples of veterans groups would include American Legion, Veterans Of Foreign Wars of the United States, Catholic War Veterans, National Association of Black Veterans, Navy Mutual Aid Association, and the Fleet Reserve Association. There are many more veterans groups too.

The aim of this site is to educate an individual on how to help a group who they are passionate about so that a charity will end up benefiting from more individuals joining and hopefully helping their cause. As an empowered volunteer does this they also accumulate real time individual health benefits which are both measurable and detectable in studies. Social benefits are also incurred according to many studies.

This is truly one of life’s win-win situations! One person, with the proper leverage as an empowered volunteer can make a huge impact on a group who in turn supports a charity, thus really magnifying their presence far beyond just joining and being one cog in a large wheel. That is the real impact one person, an empowered volunteer can and should have. Want to be an empowered volunteer?

With the proper mindset and a bit of training most people will find they can be an empowered volunteer.

Ready to find out the particulars? Let’s get rolling!

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