Kentucky

Was Kentucky’s expulsion all it was cracked up to be?

April 18, 2011 by Greg Stewart

Rhetoric or righteousness?

I was reanalyzing the expulsion of Kentucky Mason John Wright, and the thought occurred to me, was the gay issue in the charges or were they part of a means to color a (still) witch hunt based on otherwise slightly promiscuous behavior.

Reviewing the formal charge document, they read that the recipient “violated his oath and obligation, by his own admission, of having engaged in one or more relationships prior to the finalization of his divorce.

So no mention of his persuasion, but rather what seems to me an intrusion of his personal life.

Is it justifiable to questions a man’s oath and obligation on the grounds that he confesses pre-marital intercourse? And, if the answer is in the affirmative, is it reason to expell a member?

If we start to police with that kind of morality, how many others will be shown the door?

Maybe the conclusion that the issue was on the grounds of Wright being gay were premature, though its easy to lose the subtext to the overt finding.

But what does that say to the rest of the fraternity?

Are you guilty of premarital sex? Does that make you any less a “good man”?

Kentucky expells gay mason.

April 17, 2011 by Greg Stewart

No official press release has been forthcoming, but the website Kentucky.com is reporting:

An openly gay Mason from Kentucky has been suspended indefinitely from the fraternity after an April 8 Masonic trial found him guilty of “un-masonic conduct,” according to a letter from the group’s Grand Lodge of Kentucky in Jefferson County.

“It was tantamount to expulsion. I might as well be expelled,” said John Wright of Richmond.

Wright stood trial on charges leveled by five Masons from Central Kentucky that he deserted his wife due to his homosexuality and revealed Masonic information that was considered privileged.

This isn’t exactly new news, the trial was more than a week ago, but the story broke April 16th concluding, for now, the saga of the Masonic Trial of brother John Wright.

And yes, I said brother. You can expel the man from the fraternity, but can you really expel the teachings from his being?

Pending an appeal in ojne years time, Wright is quoted in the piece as believing there to be “a very strong anti-gay sentiment” within the fraternity in Kentucky.

The outcome, while a very tragic outcome to what was suppoed to be a very enlightened and modern society, was not unexpected. It seems that for a fraternity that loudly pronounces itself to not be a religion takes its moral ethics to the heights of a religious faith, when most faiths are opening its doors to the LGBT community.

What a shame, all around, for the fraternity.

More of the fight of Kentucky Masonic homophobia

March 24, 2011 by Greg Stewart

Back to the drawing board on the virtues and vices of Moral Turpitude, this time woven again with the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Masonry where it is being tangled in with the moral law.

“…these charges are retribution for speaking out about the discrimination that I experienced…”

Reported in late 2010, Kentucky Masons slapped down the open disdain for gay masons in a vote made in the Grand Lodge session. The vote would have, if passed, made Kentucky Masonry a pro-family state that recognized only marriages between a woman and a man. The proposal, you might remember read like this:

“Freemasonry is pro-family and recognizes marriage as between one man and one woman. Any other relationship is a violation of the moral law and therefore unmasonic conduct. Homosexual relationships, openly professed and practiced, are a violation of the moral law and therefore unmasonic conduct. No openly homosexual Freemason shall be allowed to retain membership in this grand jurisdiction.”

The change to the Grand Lodge constitution failed, and a more open and diverse Freemasonry prevailed.

Until now…

On the heels of the failed change, charges have been brought against the brother who was then Master of Right Angle Lodge in Winchester, Kentucky.

John Wright, the brother who was for a time at the heart of the storm, has a Masonic trial set for April 8th on Masonic charges that were filed against him in the weeks following the statewide Masonic same-sex marriage referendum.

The change sought in the constitution came in 2010 when Wright and his wife filed for divorce when he realized that he was gay. As Wright started to open up about what happened, he says, in an October 20th 2010 article on Kentucky.com article that “news of my sexual orientation spread … like wildfire,” which has lead to some Kentucky Masons to declare Homosexual relationships, openly professed and practiced,[as a] a violation of the moral law and therefore un-Masonic conduct. Saying further that no openly homosexual Freemason shall be allowed to retain membership in this grand jurisdiction. The measure failed, and things settled down.

Reported today, March 24th 2011, in Kentucky.com is that membership of openly gay Masons is again being challenged as charges have been brought against Wright on the claim that he “violated the sanctity of his marriage” and “deserted [his wife] due to his homosexuality.” with another charge which alleged that Wright “revealed privileged Masonic Communications” because he talked openly about it.

The one charge said to of had no probable cause was that Wright had violated the Grand Lodge constitution because “he had openly forsaken his belief in God … by refusing to obey the Moral Laws in declaring his homosexuality which the Moral law declares as an abomination to the law of God.”

What’s most interesting is that the charges were brought by fellow Masons of neighboring lodges, not Wrights home lodge of Right Angle.

When inquery was made at the Grand Lodge by the articles author, Grand Secretary Joseph R. Conway declined comment.

Back to the quote from the beginning, Wright says in the article:

“Personally, I feel these charges are retribution for speaking out about the discrimination that I experienced,”

“In my heart, I feel that if I had left my ex-wife for another woman, nothing would’ve been said to me about it, nor would I have been brought up on charges, I know of many Masons in Kentucky who have been divorced and re-married, some several times, and charges were never brought against them for abandoning their spouse by causing a divorce action to be filed,”

Wright’s penalty, if found guilty, could include admonishment, a reprimanded, suspension, or expulsion.

Named in the piece are the 5 Brothers who found his distant actions to be so reprehensible, one of whom is a detective of Jessamine County Sheriff’s Department.

Interestingly, Jessamine County lists the treating of all people with tolerance and dignity as one of their aspects of Law Enforcement professionalism. Apparently, that’s no so the case outside the agency when concerned with a Moral Law.

You can find a complete list of those individuals who brought the charges in the Kentucky.com article should you want to send them a note to reconsider their actions.

Or, better yet, send a note to the Grand Lodge of Kentucky to let them know how you feel about the validity of the charges. This could be a great learning opportunity shaped by the Fearless Campaign to shape LGBT rights going on right now in Congress. Maybe this is a small step that Masonic leadership can take to empower themselves with the moral courage to do the right thing.

In the mean time, how do you feel? Do you think the charges are in retribution to Wright’s coming out of the closet and his subsequent divorce, or do you agree that he violated some un-coded and multifaceted Moral Law that weaves itself invisibly through our being like smoke but surrounds our decisions like iron?

Whose has the case for the moral turpitude?

Kentucky holding despite splinter over Gay Masons.

October 20, 2010 by Masonic Traveler

The Grand Lodge of Kentucky is the latest battle ground in the fight to bring Freemasonry into the 21st century, where brothers are calling other brothers “a flaming faggot” in their sexual orientation.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader in the state of Kentucky, the W. Master of Winchester Masonic lodge was asked to resign because of his recent coming out as being gay. His admission was enough to cause some distraught brothers to walk out on the W. Master because of their distress.

Refusing the insistence of his resignation, Frankfort lodge drafted a petition to change the state’s fraternal constitution to prohibit openly Gay men from being Masons, the proposed change saying:

“Freemasonry is pro-family and recognizes marriage as between one man and one woman. Any other relationship is a violation of the moral law and therefore unmasonic conduct. Homosexual relationships, openly professed and practiced, are a violation of the moral law and therefore unmasonic conduct. No openly homosexual Freemason shall be allowed to retain membership in this grand jurisdiction.”

Taken at the annual meeting of the Kentucky Grand Lodge, the constitutional change was rejected, but not without rumblings that there would be more on this in the future.

You can read the whole story on the Herald-Leader.

The issues does open the door to a wider consideration, that as roughly 15% of the U.S. population is gay (see the Gallup Poll data and the Demographics of sexual orientation from Wikipedia statistics) it goes without saying that so too then would the Lodge have a similar percentage of gay members. And, as such, those brothers may or may not be out in the open, given the reaction of those around them. is it right then to discriminate against them?

In the article, it mentions that following the vote there was a degree of grumbling that lead some observers to say that the issue would manifest again in the future to try and amend the constitution to encompass some meaning of family values so as to prohibit gay men from becoming member, which would likely mean some test administered at petition to determine orientation.

All of this is absolutely absurd, given that the fraternity is secular and precipitated on the idea of equality and liberty. On the reverse, the Kentucky state constitution was amended to say “Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as legal in Kentucky”, but this issue goes beyond the recognition of marriage to a discrimination based on preference.

The argument is that homosexuality goes against the moral law, but as I’ve pointed out in the past, which Moral Law? As a Mason, I have to say, their argument does not wash and any man who is a just and upright individual can stand and be a Mason. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is not a valid argument to exclude from the organization, just as race (and gender) should not be either. To exclude by orientation like this is an undue control over someone in an area that has no consequence to their experience.

By accepting the reality that there are members who are gay, so too do we need to accept the idea of same sex partner widowers, who should be just as important in remembering as the heterosexual counterparts. Yes, this is a dramatic awakening to very real social issue and one that is not insurmountable or destructive towards the institution. To the contrary, to wall the Fraternity behind a morality test of pro-family/anti gay vitriol is a sure fire way to seal the future of the fraternity into a political abyss of social dis-unity. In other words, Freemasonry would no longer be an active participant in civil society becoming instead a political club house.

What do you think? Should Freemasonry be tolerant towards openly Gay members?