Some quick excerpts from the article on Belienet.com titled New Dan Brown Novel Means Extra Scrutiny for Masons. You’ll notice a few comments from our friends and brothers Br. Mark Koltko-Rivera, and Br. Chris Hodapp.
As members of a secretive brotherhood, Freemasons are no strangers to conspiracy theories. They’ve heard it all before: that they’re child-sacrificing cult members, or religious zealots plotting aNew World Order with the Jews, or satanic anti-religious alien spies.
With Dan Brown’s newest novel, “The Lost Symbol,” hitting bookstores on Sept. 15, — much of it rumored to center around Masonic myths — the Masons are in preemptive damage-control mode. Even though Brown (of “The Da Vinci Code” fame) and his publisher, Doubleday, are being tight-lipped about the book’s contents, some Masons are preparing for an onslaught of negative press. And because Brown is known for tying religious themes to his thrillers’ plots, Masons are carefully addressing common misconceptions about their religious affiliations.
You can read the entire article on Beliefnet.com here.
Reading the article made me wonder if its “scrutiny” that Freemasonry is really what comes to mind or concern of the results of that scrutiny.
I’m not sure its so much a concern on how Freemasonry will be treated, but how Brown will approach the fraternity. He villinazed the Illuminait in the last film (even if it was just a minor plot point), so is it the Fraternity that he plans to leverage the story on, or a character who happens to be a Mason.
A very common misconception is that Freemasonry acts and breaths as one voice, when in reality, it has one principal philosophy of initiation (inner awakening) but comprised by many different blocks (cubes) of common members of society. In other words, being a Mason does not imply that each and every one acts under a particular rule as say those of a particular faith, but rather Freemasons are taught to live and contribute to society as they can or able, keeping in mind (and heart) a philosophy of why they do so. Like individual contractors each with a role in life.
I do hope Brown’s book bodes well for the fraternity, otherwise, he may do it more of a disservice and cause the still living and breathing institution irreparable harm.