# Shrine Eliminates MM Requirement on Arkansas



## My Freemasonry (Jul 1, 2013)

NEWS FLASH: The Shrine has eliminated the Master Mason requirement for membership in Arkansas. The slippery slope has begun.

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## widows son (Jul 1, 2013)

Wow.


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## dfreybur (Jul 1, 2013)

As it cascades to other jurisdictions at some point I will ask myself -

Is it time for me to start showing up at SR again instead of the Shrine?  I'm more active at the craft/blue lodge level than in any of the appendent bodies so they likely won't notice.

Is it time for me to demit from the Shrine in favor of some other appendent order?

Will the lodge I visit regularly need to find a different landlord?

None of these questions need to be answered to myself soon but they will all keep coming up whenever I drive by the Shrine center.


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## Brennan (Jul 1, 2013)

Just being raised in May everything is still new to me, but before I was raised I wanted to join the shrine. My roommate who is a very good friend of mine was horribly injured when he was born by the doctor (who was drunk at the time.) for the first 5 years of his life he could not use his left arm and his right was severely limited in what he could do. Then he was admitted to one of the shrine hospitals and now has a fully functioning right arm and a left arm which is only a little bit impaired. 
The work the shrine does is beyond simple charity. They give children a second chance, burning ate to see a schism like this occur and I'm not which path I will follow at present.


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## jimbo (Jul 1, 2013)

Appears more as a cliff than a slippery slope my brothers.  A sad day for sure.



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## dfreybur (Jul 1, 2013)

There are more than one sides to the topic.  Arkansas has been a mess for multiple years.

http://www.freemasoninformation.com...lodge-of-arkansas-continues-its-masonic-purge


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## jimbo (Jul 1, 2013)

Thanks for posting that defreybur, that sheds a whole new light on these unfortunate happenings.



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## RedTemplar (Jul 1, 2013)

The Shrine is a great organization. That being said, I still want to know who is sitting across the table from me. I want to know from whence he came.


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## PDX.Dale (Jul 1, 2013)

This is a cliff they don't want to go over.  Just do a search on the Reformed and Rectified Scottish Rite to see what a fiasco this can turn into. 

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## sands67 (Jul 1, 2013)

I am in total disbelief. Although I have defended the Shrine in many of the discussions about Arkansas, South Carolina and Michigan I cannot condone this act  by fellow Masons who are Shriners. My future in the Shrine is now in doubt. It should NEVER have come to this.

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## Bro_Vick (Jul 1, 2013)

PDX.Dale said:


> This is a cliff they don't want to go over.  Just do a search on the Reformed and Rectified Scottish Rite to see what a fiasco this can turn into.
> 
> Freemason Connect Mobile



Apples and oranges, apples and oranges.

S&F,
-Bro Vick


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## Bro_Vick (Jul 1, 2013)

News Bot said:


> NEWS FLASH: The Shrine has eliminated the Master Mason requirement for membership in Arkansas. The slippery slope has begun.
> 
> More...



The Shrine believes its own hype and has become victim of its own charities.  You want to have a fun, wear a fez and just hang out with Masons?  Join the Grotto.  No crushing overhead, no 200 clubs to join.  Just fun, and giving to fight tooth decay for special needs children.

The evolution of this will be the Shrine to allow Non-Masons and Masons to join its organization, if this is the case that it isn't really a Masonic organization anymore, and is another service club.  Grand Lodge can't forbid you to join it as it has no Masonic ties, and either they will fail worse than they have recently or they will thrive.  But given the attitude in America towards such institutions in this day and age, I don't think that their numbers will pick up at all.

S&F,
-Bro Vick


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## jaanthony (Jul 1, 2013)

I don't think it will come to that in Texas,  but it may. I've been a Shriner since 1987 and have been very active and not active at all over the years.  It will be a hard decision to make if non Masons are allowed to join in Texas because this was where I was going to focus my attention after retirement.  I think the other 10+ appendent and invitational bodies memberships should keep me busy, in any case.

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## Michael Hatley (Jul 2, 2013)

It seems to me Arkansas Grand Lodge put the Shrine in that state over a barrel.  How could they survive if the GL effectively banned it in the state?

I hope and pray that this has the opposite effect that people think it will.  Because now we will get to see the results, in numbers.  We'll see if they actually do gain a large influx of members.  And I think there is a large chance they will not.  And that will be the deciding factor in states where they are floating in the edges.

I'm equally Shriner as Mason, in my heart.  My lodge is within a Shrine center.  Charity is what drives me.  None of the bodies in Masonry gets that done right, in my opinion, like the Shrine does.  And none of the bodies are more couple friendly than the Shrine.  And at the end of the day, I'm a man about charity who travels this world with my wife physically at my side as often as possible.  We're a team.

So for me, if I had to choose between Blue Lodge and the Shrine - with deep sadness, I would walk away from Blue Lodge.  The Shrine simply needs me more, and when you get down to it I can do more good there - make more changes, do more real things for my fellow man, and so forth.  It just is what it is.

I thank God that, in Texas, the ties are very strong between Blue Lodge and the Shrine.  I hope that this division can be put off.  And I pray to God that we never have to make such a choice.

I fear though, as do others, that this will create a sense of inevitability among Shriners.  Those egomaniacs at the Grand Lodges in the respective states who tried to meddle in Shrine politics by way of Masonic charges, it just makes me very sad.  They created a snowball effect which has led us to this, and no matter what it will do for the Shrine - this _*will*_ hurt Blue Lodge if it spreads.  No doubt about it.  There is no "plus" side for us.

And Brethren, there is no good in sitting on the sidelines watching this happen.  We all ought to be at our Shrine meetings more, not less.  And speaking man to man with our Divan members.  Expressing our views, directly.  Apathy will really, really hurt us.  

_*Think of the children, brethren.*_


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## PDX.Dale (Jul 2, 2013)

Bro_Vick said:


> Apples and oranges, apples and oranges.
> 
> S&F,
> -Bro Vick



Not really.   In both cases they lost connection with their bases.  In the Reformed and Rectified Scottish Rite it was ego that caused the eventual downfall of the organization.   Here it is a loss of connection to the Masonic fraternity.   

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## LRG (Jul 2, 2013)

Shrinedom got pushed too far.  A good Brother of ours proposed an amendment to a resolution that was basically creating a " house " per say, which would have stopped any and all forms of tyranny from one individual with a huge gavel. I think all should be of such. 
But as well these same actions could have almost happened within our own state in the past. Thankfully it did not.


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