Templar Globe

Out-there researchers discuss the impending … something

The broadcast-quality lilt of Coast to Coast AM radio host George Noory wafted over a packed conference room at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn last Saturday night as he a moderated a panel of out-there researchers engaged in a radical examination of Hollywood’s covert use of occult symbolism and alien agendas — the same week that the Vatican’s chief astronomer told an interviewer that belief in alien life does not contradict belief in God. As Noory told the audience, “There’s definitely a sense of an impending … something.”

Noory is the successor to radio’s legendary Art Bell, who stoked a particular millennial Zeitgeist with his fireside chats on UFOs, the paranormal and all manner of conspiracy theories with his syndicated radio program, before passing the mike to Noory in 2002. Coast to Coast AM remains a cultural touchstone, and Noory — personable and mustachioed — continues to bring so-called fringe ideas front and center.

We’re at “an extraordinary crossroads, with the way life is unfolding,” commented panelist Whitley Strieber, whose most recent novel is based on the doomsday/consciousness-shifting 2012 mythos, and who believes he was “implanted” with a device by his “visitors.” He recalled a bit of the aliens’ verbiage: “We will come from within you.”

According to panelist/abduction therapist Yvonne Smith, 17 functional-growth characteristics in humans born between 1947 and 1987 have been accelerated by 60 to 80 percent. “It’s not environment, it’s not evolution,” she asserted.

A “mutation of society” is under way, and “the skeptic community is getting quieter and quieter,” remarked Dr. Roger Leir, a Valley-based podiatrist, who removes alleged alien implants.

Jordan Maxwell, an expert in occult symbolism and secret societies, likened Americans to Alec Guinness’ blindly megalomaniacal lieutenant colonel in The Bridge on the River Kwai once he realizes he’s been working for the enemy: “What have I done? There is no way out.”

“Jordan’s been looking down the barrel of the New World Order for nearly 50 years,” Noory said.

Maxwell, expounding upon the secret fraternal orders to which our government and religious leaders are bound, remarked, “The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure are teasers. The powers behind Hollywood are Knights Templars, showing you what they can do.”

“What does Hollywood know that we don’t?” asked panelist Jay Weidner, producer of the documentary 2012: The Odyssey. Was Eyes Wide Shut a representation of a sex cult for rich perverts, or a portrait of the Illuminati? Subversive director Stanley Kubrick died two hours after bringing a rough cut of the film to Warner Bros. “Like the Zapruder film, you can see what he was trying to say by what’s missing,” said Weidner, who believes Kubrick fled for England in the ’60s after experiencing events depicted in the film. (Scientologists Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, he said, were simply cast as part of “an inside joke.”)

In Rosemary’s Baby, John Cassavetes’ character eagerly permits the devil to impregnate his wife to ensure his Broadway stardom. “He’s the spitting image of Jack Parsons [black magician and co-founder of Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory],” claimed Mike Bara, co-author with Richard C. Hoagland of the recent best-seller Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA. “It’s the magical ritual known as the Babylon Working. Rosemary becomes the mother of the antichrist.”

A question came from the audience: “There’s so much to dissect from entertainment now — Iron Man, Battlestar Galactica, The Mist, Marvel’s Sons of the Serpent. There’s even a conspiracy theorist in Justice League of America.” The bearded young man echoed the sentiments of many assembled: “Why now?”

“They release little bits of truth, so that in the future they can say, ‘We said that years ago,’” Maxwell answered. “You’ve got to read between the lines.” Entertainment is used to indoctrinate or spread disinformation. Case in point: Universal’s recent optioning of the “period” action script The Knights Templar. “Each time you get a bigger sense of how the game is being played, you are less manipulated by it.” Maxwell asked the audience to verify his contentions — Rome is still in control, a powerful occult system has dominated consensus reality for thousands of years — by forcing us to pay attention to “their” symbols: words, flags, coats of arms. “Once you see [it] organized, it’s frightening.”

“The Gnostic belief is that we must have an apocalypse to bring about the golden age,” Weidner commented. “But is that apocalypse the death of all of us, or the death of consciousness as we know it?”

The Mayan calendar, which runs out at midnight on December 12, 2012, is expected to take us out, whether by mass extinction, interplanetary invasion or a total paradigm shift — a metaphysical bang or a cosmic whimper. With four years and counting, Maxwell advised, “always trust those who are looking for the truth.”

But what the bleep is it?

BY SKYLAIRE ALFVEGREN

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Note: the OSMTHU does not endorse said “conspiracy theories”, but our editors tought that the article was interesting and provocative enough to be brought to the attention of our readers.

 Today, we usually view paranoid people as mentally unstable, particularly those who think “everyone” is out to get them. The more they talk about conspiracies and secret plots to kill them, overthrow the government, and so on, the more we think they should be committed to a mental institution as suffering from the disease of paranoid schizophrenia.

So it might surprise us to discover that many of our founding fathers in the decades surrounding the American Revolution believed a number of conspiracy theories. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Edmund Burke and others considered their ability to identify plots and conspiracies a sign of their enlightened intellect and keen insight into world affairs. They did not view such paranoid fantasies as irrational psychoses, but as rational explanations formed by their superior thinking abilities.

Although America’s leaders saw conspiracy theories as the height of rationality, in retrospect, we can now see them as only one step removed from a religious view of the cosmos that saw both nature and human society under God’s control.

During the early Reformation, from the 16th to the 17th centuries, Protestants believed the course of human society was under God’s control. God had a Plan, a great design of salvation, and He implemented it through individuals, events, and other means. While people could see God’s hand in local events, often working though individual leaders, the vast realm of human history beyond that was unknowable, part of the mysterious workings of the Divine.

When the Enlightenment arose in Europe and America in the 18th century, it removed God from His place as the controller of human actions and taught that human beings, not God, were in charge of their own society. This meant that there was no unknowable controlling hand of the Divine; instead, all could be understood by rational thought since everything stemmed from human actions.

The early Enlightenment may have dethroned God, but it did not get rid of the idea that events were controlled. If God did not control events, then humans did. That vast realm of unexplained human activity once thought to have been caused by God’s implementation of His Plan was now seen as under the control of particular individuals or groups. From this belief, conspiracy theories and imagined plots were only a short step, particularly when events stymied one’s own plans and intentions.

The British actions in attempting to control their difficult American colonies in the 1760s and 1770s, for example, were seen by Thomas Jefferson as “a deliberate systematical plan for reducing us to slavery.” As Jefferson and his compatriots sought political participation and representation in Britain, they saw British actions as a plot to deprive the colonists of any sort of self-rule.

Conspiracy theories often blamed foreign governments. The Americans blamed the British, the British blamed the French, the French blamed the British or the Germans, and so on. But often the blame went to religious groups. Masons, Templars, Jews and Catholics were often imagined as the supposed nefarious and secret opposition.

Religious groups were useful, imaginary plotters for their supposed religious beliefs could account both for their secrecy (since there was no visible evidence of their conspiracy) and their allegiance to the leaders whose orders their members supposedly carried out.

By the 20th century, it became clear that no humans, whether individuals or groups, secret or not, could control the course of human events. Human society is simply too complex. Today, universities have numerous disciplines that study the variety of human activity ranging from anthropology to sociology and political science, from departments that study literature and language to those that address the traditional arts of painting, sculpture and music as well as the modern arts found in film, TV and the Internet.

Despite decades of serious analysis, these approaches are only beginning to chart the complexities of human action and interaction.

The personalized investigation of “who did it?” may play on the nightly news shows, but the more important question of “how did it happen?” requires sustained study from a variety of perspectives and methods. The conspiracy theory as an encompassing mode of explanation has fallen from its intellectual pinnacle and has largely been relegated to the asylum.

By Paul V.M. Flesher, University of Wyoming

I’m at a crossroads. Is it possible to really like a movie but not have anything substantially positive to say about it? Some movies, it appears, are not wholly a sum of their parts. National Treasure (2004) has been released again to DVD, this time on a 2-Disc Collector’s Edition. I knew I had enjoyed the movie on its first DVD release in 2005 but couldn’t remember why as I sat down with this new release.

To start, this is a Jerry Bruckheimer production. His previous collaborations with Nicolas Cage (The Rock and Con Air) had both been entertaining but lackluster performances for an actor that once gave us Leaving Las Vegas. I like Bruckheimer’s television productions (CSI and The Amazing Race) and he hit the sweet spot with Pirates Of The Caribbean but his resume is filled with more style than substance.

The film starts with one of the plot devices that will instantly take all the momentum out of a movie. The movie starts in a flashback to 1977 and almost immediately flashes back within the flashback to 1832. If starting an action-adventure film is like starting a race, this is the equivalent of running five minutes in the wrong direction before turning around to start running in the correct direction. There’s quite a bit of history to be conveyed to solve the clues to this treasure hunt, but most of them are explained without flashback (like the prop of the $100 bill in Philadelphia). This device only accomplishes two minor points. First, we here the “Charlotte” clue that perplexes treasure hunters for 172 years. Well, it’s only a mystery for the viewer until the next scene after the credits when we discover that “Charlotte” is a ship. Secondly, the initial flashback to 1977 sets up Benjamin Gates’ (Nicolas Cage) passion for hunting this treasure based on a story from his grandfather. This scene would serve as a better marker when he arrives at his father’s (Jon Voight) house after stealing the Declaration. There’s already a characterization there of the doubting father vs. the faithful grandfather. And it would help explain Dr. Abigail’s (Diane Kruger) turn to see him as a romantic figure.

The first scene after the credits serves as real start of the action. Ben, his computer nerd sidekick Riley (Justin Bartha), and his money sponsor, Ian (Sean Bean), are in the Arctic about to find the long-lost Charlotte. Conveniently, the ship is located only inches below the snow. Looking for the treasure in the ship allows for lots of exposition, including Knights Templar history for those that haven’t read or seen The DaVinci Code. Ben and friends don’t find the treasure but another clue that tells of a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Like the opening scene of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, here we have Ben’s partner, Ian turning on him to steal the clue and leave Ben for dead in the Arctic. This is a classic way to set up a rivalry and yet I feel like we never had time to see them as friends/partners so there isn’t the same betrayal when Ian turns on him.

This introduction to the plot and characters leads nicely into Act 1: stealing the Declaration of Independence. Ben and Riley are backed into a corner where stealing it is their only choice. No one believes their story. The scene where Ben and Riley are at the National Archives telling Dr. Abigail Chase that the Declaration is going to be stolen is one of the best quiet moments of the film. The chemistry between the three shines through, Riley’s “voice of reason” is set up, and Dr. Chase’s initial reluctance to believe their story still shows a passion for history that will later allow her to change.

Act 1 comes to a close with the first tent pole of the film. The chase through the streets of Washington D.C. as Ian pursues Ben with Abigail caught in-between is wonderfully constructed but it’s heartless. It feels too much like a computer-generated, generic chase. Maybe we don’t care enough about Abigail yet or that the plot device of the second Declaration is way too obvious that we aren’t concerned about the outcome of the chase.

Act 2 starts with the possession of the Declaration. The fact that Special Agent Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel) has started his investigation gives the plot a bit of a boost. Now, we have a second group to keep track of and stay ahead of. The Declaration sends them to Philadelphia in search of more clues. I like the way the clues build upon themselves, forcing the group to take along the previous clues in order to use future tools. The clue on the back of the $100 bill gives them a time constraint, always a good thing in an action film. The last clue in Philadelphia sends the groups to New York City.

This Act ends with the second tent pole of the film. There’s a long chase through the streets of Philadelphia that feels strangely like an on-foot replication of the chase scene in D.C. Once again, the chase seems placed here just to mark the end of the Act, not as a necessary plot device. In fact, I’d argue that after finding the glasses that gave us the last clue to head to Wall Street, that the movie didn’t need a chase scene. Let each group figure out where to go and have the race be to the treasure.

The final Act takes place as everyone races to the treasure. The sets are beautifully constructed, if not too influenced by the Indiana Jones series. We’ve got all of the important characters back together as we approach the end. When it looks like the treasure isn’t there, we discover the “real treasure” - the father’s pride in his son. This is where I think the scene back at the father’s house is wasted. If we build up the son’s want of acceptance by his father, then this last scene is a much bigger payoff. Once they discover their family pride, then they are allowed to discover the real treasure of the Knights Templar.

The DVD includes the usual suspects of extras - deleted scenes, on location, on the set, featurettes and an alternate ending that is better than the actual ending in many ways. The actual ending has Ben and Dr. Abigail at their new home talking to Riley about the treasure. The alternate ending builds upon a “new” relationship between Ben and his father. Here they’re at the National Archives and hint at more treasure-hunting together. This familial message puts a nice bow on the plot. It was dropped because it felt too much like a set-up for a sequel. What? Since when has that been a problem for a movie? Whether you’re planning one or not, it’s always good if you can leave yourself that opening.

So, I’m not sold on the producer. I don’t think that the lead actor gave his best performance. I think that the main theme of father/son family pride was buried. The chase scenes felt dull and uninspired. And I often felt like it was borrowing liberally from the Indiana Jones series. Yet, I was with the story the whole time. The mystery saves the day. One clue leads logically to another and the clues build upon the knowledge of the previous ones. No blood, no sex, and no foul language allowed me to watch this with my younger children. You can’t always put your finger on what makes you like a movie. I find it hard to say anything other than fun.

Written by Musgo Del Jefe

While in America, box office returns show that we’re awash in aliens, predators, chipmunks, secrets and a self-made legend, Swedish cinema lovers supported one of their own when it opened on Christmas Day. Variety reports that Arn: The Knight Templar has earned a robust $2.2 million in its first two days of release. That breaks down to a per-screen average of $10,821 at 207 engagements and is the “biggest opening ever” for a Swedish film in its homeland.

As I reported in August, Arn is the most expensive film and TV project ever made in Scandanavia, budgeted at $30 million to adapt the trilogy by Jan Guillou into two movies and a TV series. The books revolve around a fictional character forced into service as a Knight Templar during the Crusades. Variety says that local reviews “ranged from positive to negative with the majority falling somewhere in-between,” but producer Valdemar Bergendahl gave the mixed reaction a positive spin: “It was expected. But I’m happy with all the copy that has been written about the film. It has shown what great interest there is in it.” There’s a good producer for you: any news is good news!

Arn will expand from Sweden and Norway into Denmark and Finland in the next two months, with the second feature film scheduled for release next fall. In the meantime, an international version will be stitched together from the two features; already it’s been sold in 10 territories. With a cast that includes Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves), Mads Mikkelsen (After the Wedding), Vincent Perez (Queen Margot), Bibi Andersson (Persona), Simon Callow (A Room with a View) and Michael Nyqvist (Next Door), we’ll wait to see if any US festivals or distributors display an interest.

By Peter Martin

At a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club of Washington, DC, Rear Admiral [Ret.] James J. Carey announced the completion of Phase I of the formation requirements for The Admiral James J. Carey Foundation. The organization has been formally incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the request for approval as a private foundation has been filed with the U. S. Internal Revenue Service, and Admiral Carey has been named Chairman of the Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to endow organizations, programs, and projects that are educational, charitable, scientific, or religious in nature and which are supportive of future generations who will hopefully lead America and the world as civilization progresses on Planet Earth.

Asked why he was taking this action now, Admiral Carey responded, “Actually I’ve been working on this effort for the past four years. It has involved a tremendous amount of time in estate planning and legal work to first establish the trust in which to hold my assets in order to provide for my wife and daughters should anything untoward cause my early demise. That effort took over three years to research, develop, structure, and establish as a legal entity and then transfer my assets and holdings into that structure. I finished that late last year and then we went through an extensive similar program to develop and structure the foundation and provide for it’s funding by my trust once my family has been cared for and no longer has need of those assets. That effort is almost completed and now we’re beginning to determine what organizations the foundation will endow, and that is, in part, the reason why the foundation met today”.

Admiral Carey continued, “The foundation’s initial focus is going to be on those organizations and programs that I have been involved with and supportive of during my lifetime. I have over 40 years of service on organization boards of directors, with some of those experiences I consider as good, and some not so good. Indeed, there is nothing like years of board service to learn the inner workings of an organization. You see it all. Which are fiscally sound and prudent and which are not. Which treat their members with dignity and respect and which do not. Which have effective programs that you want to use your lifetime of earnings to support and continue, and which you do not want your money to be used for because you have seen first hand that all too many program “do not do what they say they will do”. Quite frankly, I’m looking forward to using that 40+ years of experience to ensure that what gets funded by this foundation is truly worthy of being funded and can be counted on to provide a true service to the nation or to mankind and civilization in future generations and for centuries to come”.

Documents were circulated at today’s meeting indicating that among the organizations under consideration for endowment are a university, several fraternal organizations, several knighthood Orders, a broad range of youth groups, a equally broad range of national public policy organizations, and several religious Orders.

Endowment plans are structured based upon each individual organization and subject to restrictions as to how the foundation wants it’s endowment to be used. All Admiral James J. Carey Foundation endowments are structured so as to continue annual funding in perpetuity, so long as the restrictions on the endowment are strictly adhered to. Each endowed organization will be required to furnish an annual audit by an independent Certified Public Accounting firm to certify their adherence to the requirements and restrictions of the endowment. Those that do not adhere are subject to having their endowment cancelled and those funds split evenly among the remaining endowees that, in fact, do adhere to the endowment requirements and restrictions.

In closing today’s meeting of the Foundation, Admiral Carey stated, “I’ve been particularly fortunate during my lifetime to have had numerous mentors and organizations that have taken an active interest in my life and whatever talents I may have been born with or taught by my parents and teachers over the years.

One of the reasons I have decided to dedicate my entire estate to this foundation is, in part, to pay back to society in recognition of those who helped me succeed in life, since I am unable to repay these mentors individually as almost all are no longer living. In recognizing them, and in endowing deserving organizations and programs that will serve society and our culture in future centuries, hopefully I will be providing for future generations to have some of the same successes in life that have come to me. I truly hope so, and take these steps today as the beginning of the process to bring these endowments to fruition.

I thank everyone that has agreed to help me bring these efforts to a successful and worthwhile achievement. Together, we can do much good for America, and today we begin that effort”.

The Admiral James J. Carey Foundation will operate in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is Admiral Carey’s intent to spend the remainder of his life managing the assets and programs of the foundation, aided by his two daughters, Lynn Margaret Carey of Denver, Colorado, and Sarah Ann Carey Cancel of San Diego, California, who will succeed him as Trustees of the Foundation should he become infirmed or when he dies. It is the intent of the foundation to establish a web site once final Internal Revenue Service approval is received of the foundation’s 501.c.3 private foundation application. In the interim, the foundation may be contacted via e-mail at RADMCarey@aol.com

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Why is the Templar Globe associating with an iniciative by the Grand Master of a different branch of the Order?

The Templar Globe is indeed the official bulletin of the OSMTHU, edited by the Chancellery. And Rear Admiral James J. Carey is indeed Grand Master of the OSMTH, another branch - or obedience - of the Order.

We are aware that we live in a world full of so called templar orders that can’t trace their origins beyond a daydream last week, all of them exclusive angry rivals, throwing anathema at each other. For that reason, the Templar Globe does not report on their activities and sudden spurs of fame.

However our obedience and the one presided over by Admiral James Carey can trace their history in detail for several decades if not centuries and in the distant past shared the same origin, coming from the same Order. None of them claims to be the only true Templar Order suspended by Rome and now born from the ashes, owner of some secret revelation that could sell millions of books, though.

The fact that our obedience has its statutes deposited near the European Commission and has completed the registration as an International Organization and the fact that the obedience presided by Admiral James Carey has been granted ONG status by the United Nations - the first, and up to this moment only, Templar organization to be distinguished with such a honour - tells volumes about what sets both organizations apart from the world of petty rivalry of common so called templar circles.

The fact that we are now two different branches from the same original tree is circumstantial and is more a reflex of recent history than of any real rivalry. We keep our individual characteristics, our own leadership and follow our democratic will serving our members and the community, living Templar ideals to the fullest in our daily lives. So, when the OSMTH has something to report such as the creation of this new Foundation we feel naturally compelled to associate with the initiative and support it as much as we can.

We want the Templar Globe to be the source of relevant, credible news about the Templars past and present. But when it comes to the present, we’re sorry if we are very picky…

One last word about Admiral James Carey. It’s common to hear scholars, leaders, researchers, students, simple amateurs, committed fans of Templar history and values, comment at length on all sorts of details about the virtues of Charity and Beneficence. It is however rare to find someone whose character has been so deeply carved by the Templar spirit that he decides to take the ultimate step and dedicate the last (let’s hope long) stage of his presence among us to put all that he gathered, all that God directed his way, all that remained after a full accomplished life, place it all at the service of others. You can close all your Templar books now and you can cease all preaching. Example is the ultimate Templar weapon.

Thank you for not putting on your sleepers and selfishly fade away, brother Carey. I hope to be listening and have the same strength and clarity of mind when God whispers in my hear.

Luis de Matos

Chancellor

OSMTHU

Those who have read Dan Brown’s best-selling novel “The Da Vinci Code” are already familiar with some of the mystique surrounding the Knights Templar, a medieval organization formed in 1120.

Thursday, two days shy of the 700th anniversary of the Templars’ arrest by French King Philip IV, California University of Pennsylvania will stage a daylong series of events, open to the public, meant to explore some of the truths and falsehoods of this fascinating but often misunderstood order.

“The Templars, a fusion of the monastic impulse and chivalry, were not monks,” said Paul Crawford, the event coordinator and Cal U assistant professor of ancient and medieval history. “Rather, they were what’s best termed ‘fighting religious.’”

Besides a series of afternoon and evening lectures by academic experts, Cal U’s exploration of the Templars will include demonstrations of broadsword and rapier-style sword fighting by John Lennox, a historical combat specialist and doctoral candidate from Wayne State University in Michigan. The event will also include a viewing of Friesian horses, the closest living descendants of the medieval war horses used by the order’s knights.

“The Templars were originally formed to protect pilgrims on the route from Jaffa, the area around present day Haifa and Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem,” said Dr. Crawford. “They then quickly became a part of the army of Jerusalem and lasted almost 200 years until their arrest by the French king and subsequent suppression by Pope Clement V in 1312.”

At dawn on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, Philip the Fair arrested the Templars residing in his kingdom and charged them with a long list of reprehensible crimes. After a long and muddled trial, some were burned at the stake, and an elaborate mythology grew up around the order.

“While we know a lot about what happened to the Templars in general, we’re not sure about what happened to them as individuals, which accounts for the subsequent legends,” said Dr. Crawford.

To dispel some of the erroneous notions about the Templars, three speakers will address the audience starting at 12:30 p.m. when professor Constance Bouchard of the University of Akron will discuss medieval Catholic religious orders in general. Professor Bouchard will again take to the podium at 2 p.m. to deliver a talk on medieval chivalry.

At 3:30 p.m., professor Jochen Burgtorf of California State University-Fullerton will speak on the general history of the Templars, while Malcolm Barber of the University of Reading in England and one of the world’s foremost experts on the Templars, will deliver the keynote speech at 7:30 p.m.

All talks, free and open to the public, will take place in the Performance Center of the Natali Student Center.

“Dr. Barber, author of the authoritative book, ‘The Trial of the Templars,’ will speak at a total of eight universities in the U.S. during this anniversary year, including California University of Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Crawford, an ancient history and medieval scholar selected as one of the commentators by the History Channel for the production of its 2006 documentary on the Templars.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, phone 724-938-4054.

in the post-gazette

Practically every major city in America has a Masonic temple, often a grand structure featuring an ornate stone facade, towering columns and a sprawling interior. However, exactly what goes on behind closed doors remains a mystery to most outsiders. The Freemasons, an international fraternal organization, are known for keeping their activities secret.

For centuries, that penchant for secrecy has fueled countless conspiracy theories — Masons have been accused of everything from plotting world domination to acting as an agent of the pope. In recent years, the novelist Dan Brown has drawn heavily on Masonic lore and symbolism in his best-selling novels “Angels and Demons” and “The Da Vinci Code.”

Although the organization maintains no particular religious affiliation, its largely aging male membership — there are a few women, too — does espouse certain ideals of a metaphysical nature. Masons live by a moral code that emphasizes charity and community service.

Dustin Erwin, a 26-year-old graduate student at the University of San Francisco, is a member of the Freemasons in San Francisco. I interviewed him by e-mail last week.

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Why did you decide to join the Freemasons?
I joined for a number of reasons. For one, I’ve always been interested in “secretive” societies. Even though Freemasons are adamant that they are not a “secret society” but rather a “society with secrets,” it still had that mysterious attraction. I also have an interest in European/Christian/early American history, and the history of the Freemasons is absolutely fascinating.

Secondly, I was raised in a suburban, Protestant household. So I’ve had a fair amount of exposure to Christianity. But as I got older, went to college, began studying philosophy and other religions, I took issue with the “my way is right, your way is wrong” mentality that many of the Christians I was raised around had. I wouldn’t say I was ever an atheist, but I was a hard-core agnostic.

I wanted a way to get closer to God. I wanted some rational spiritual structure and guidelines. Freemasonry turned out to be exactly this — a system of morality. In fact, one of their mottos is “We make good men better.”

Tell me more about the Freemasons’ idea of morality. What are the main ideas?

It’s a very simple concept: Masons seek to improve themselves and help others not only because it’s the right thing to do but also because we want to do it. All of the major religions share some variation of this same idea, and that is part of the reason why Freemasonry is so welcoming of people from different backgrounds. It really all boils down to this simple theme.

So you don’t have to be part of a particular religion to join?

A Freemason can be of any faith. The only requisite is that he believe in a supreme being (whom they diplomatically refer to as “The Great Architect of the Universe”).

Why did you think that Freemasonry would help you “get closer to God,” as you put it earlier?

I feel like being righteous is about much, much more than simply believing and praying; it’s about your actions. I liked the fact that Freemasonry reinforced the idea that one’s actions are as important as one’s faith or intentions. In this way, I felt it might help put me on the right track in being closer to God.

I want to point out that I’m not on a high horse or preaching or trying to tell you all how good I am. I’m very, very far from perfect, and I’m still very far from where I want to be. But you have to figure out which direction you’re walking before you can take that first step, and I feel like Freemasonry is the compass in this sense.

Was it difficult to become a member? Did they make you jump through a lot of hoops?

Joining was not that difficult. It’s a rather long story, but I’ll summarize by saying that a Mason friend took me to a lodge dinner where he introduced me to several members. I filled out an application signed by two sponsors, paid my application fee and waited for a couple of months. Then I was contacted by three Masons individually, who asked if they could come to my apartment to interview me.

What did they want to know?

It was less intimidating than you might think. They asked questions like, What did I hope to get out of Masonry? What do I do [for a living]? Had I ever been arrested? And then there was some basic small talk. I think they were just trying to get a sense of what kind of person I am.

The Freemasons are known for their unusual initiation rituals, although exactly what goes on is kept secret. What can you tell me about them?

The initiation is essentially a drama that begins to reveal and explain the symbolism and ritual of Masonry. It was a little strange in that it was very old and completely foreign to me. I’ve never been a joiner — I was never in a college fraternity or anything.

There is no tomfoolery involved, and it’s meant to be a very solemn event. It turned out to be a very intriguing and memorable experience.

Was the process upsetting or scary?

It definitely wasn’t upsetting. And I wouldn’t quite call it scary either. I was out of my element, for sure, which made it slightly uncomfortable. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be completely benign — there was no hazing involved.

Tell me about your lodge. How often do you meet?

There are lodge events nearly every week. As an entered apprentice, a sort of entry-level Mason, I am not permitted to attend all of the events — so far I’ve only been to dinners. Like I said, I’m very new to this.

What happens at meetings?

Some nights they do “degree work,” where a Mason is promoted to a higher level, and some nights are strictly social functions. There is a large social component to being a Freemason. You have to realize that many members are retired, and this is their primary social outlet. However, I have noticed that many of the new members are younger (in their 20s), and I’ve read that there are more younger people joining.

Is it true that you have a secret handshake?

There are a few handshakes.

I’m sure you’re aware that Freemasonry has been linked to numerous conspiracy theories over the centuries. It’s been described in some circles as an occult and even an evil power. What do you make of these claims?

I really can’t answer this question for fear of my life — just kidding! For the most part, I find these claims to be ridiculous. If you were to walk into the lodge on any given night, you’d find a bunch of good-natured older guys playing billiards and telling unfunny jokes. It’s not like there is a dark-robed master sacrificing goats by candlelight or anything.

I think most conspiracy theories stem from the unknown. For example, we don’t know who killed JFK, and therefore there are countless conspiracy theories about who did it. Most people are uninformed or misinformed about Freemasonry, and I think this is the cause of a lot of it. From what I’ve seen, the Masons are about as harmless as the Girl Scouts.

The group has also been seen by some religious leaders, particularly the Catholic Church, as a threat to their beliefs.

I honestly don’t understand why certain religious leaders condemn Freemasonry. I suspect it’s mostly influenced by power and paranoia.

Like I said, I was raised Christian — Sunday school, Bible camp, the whole nine yards. And everything I know about Freemasonry is completely compatible with Christianity and has really provided me with a way to implement those principles into my life.

What do your friends think about your joining the Freemasons?

It’s quite funny to try to explain it to them. They’re like, “Isn’t that some sort of satanic cult?” It can be tough, especially in San Francisco. I don’t come across a lot of people my age wanting to talk about God, religion or righteousness. When I’ve tried to bring these things up at bars or parties, the conversation tends to die, although I think that is changing.

I think a lot of younger people are getting tired of our increasingly materialistic and shallow culture, and are looking for something more traditional. I know that was part of the appeal for me. You can only hang out in bars and go to shows for so long. I felt like I needed something more relevant and lasting.

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By David Ian Miller

During his far-flung career in journalism, Bay Area writer and editor David Ian Miller has worked as a city hall reporter, personal finance writer, cable television executive and managing editor of a technology news site. His writing credits include Salon.com, Wired News and The New York Observer.

His “Finding My religion” series of interviews that you can find in SFGate.com look at individual experience of how different people found their religion. It is considered that this is a subject close to all Templars heart, that will surely resonate with some of our own individual experiences, helping us understand how mystical traditions far apart from ours have so many common points. You will also read about people that today follow mystical disciplines that it is said the historical Templar Order was familiar with, including Sufism, Kaballah, Gnosticism, Sacred Geometry, Meditation, etc.

 Photos of the Grand Lodge of New York and Temple - Luis de Matos (c) 2007

It’s one of Minnesota’s greatest mysteries. It’s something that puts settlers in America well before Columbus. A Minnesota geologist thinks the controversial Kensington Runestone is the real thing and there is evidence that he says backs up the theory.

The Kensington Runestone is a rock found near Alexandria a century ago. It’s inscription speaking of Norwegians here in 1362. It begs the question. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is it just an elaborate hoax?

New research shows that the stone is genuine and there’s hidden code that may prove it. It contains carved words that have haunted these hills and the Ohman family for more than 100 years, yet their faith has never wavered.

“I just never had any doubt. I mean I was very emphatic about it. Absolutely it’s real. There’s no doubt,” said Darwin Ohman. His grandfather found the Runestone.

Darwin’s grandfather Olof Ohman has been considered the author of Minnesota’s most famous fraud, the Runestone. He says he found it buried under a tree in 1898. Critics say the language on the stone is too modern to be from 1362, that some of the runes are made up. They say this simple farmer carved it himself to fool the learned.

“You’re calling him a liar. If this is a hoax he lied to his two sons, he lied to his family, lied to his neighbors and friends and lied to the world,” said Scott Wolter a geologist and researcher of the Runestone.

Wolter and Texas engineer Dick Nielsen are sharing for the first time new evidence about the hidden secrets they say are carved in this stone.

“It changes history in a big way,” Wolter said

In 2000 he performed one of the very few geological studies on the stone. He says the breakdown of minerals in the inscription shows the carving is at least 200 years old, older than Olof Ohman. Those findings support the first geological study in 1910 that also found the stone to be genuine.

“In my mind the geology settled it once and for all,” he said.

Linguistic experts are not convinced. They say runes like those on the stone are made up. But Nielsen has now found the same one here in an old Swedish rune document dating back to the 1300’s.

“It makes me ask the question if they were wrong about that what else were they wrong about?” Wolter said.

For the first time Wolter has documented every individual rune on the stone with a microscope. He started finding things that he didn’t expect. He was the first to discover dots inside four R shaped runes on the stone. He said they are intentional and they mean something. So Wolter and Nielsen scoured rune catalogs.

“We found the dotted R’s. It’s an extremely rare rune that only appeared during medieval times. This absolutely fingerprints it to the 14th century. This is linguistic proof. This is medieval, period,” Wolter said.

They traced the dotted ‘R’ to rune covered graves inside ancient churches on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden. What they found on the grave slabs were very interesting crosses. They were Templar crosses, the symbol of a religious order of knights formed during the crusades and persecuted by the Catholic Church in the 1300’s.

“This was the genesis of their secret societies, secret codes, secret symbols, secret signs all this stuff. If they carved the rune stone why did they come here and why did they carve this thing?” Wolter asked.

He has uncovered new evidence that has taken his research in a very different direction. Wolter now believes that the words on the stone may not be the record of the death of 10 men but instead, a secret code concealing the true purpose of the rune stone.

Two runes in the form of an L and a U are two more reasons why linguists say Olof Ohman carved the stone. They are crossed and linguists say they should not be.

A third rune has a punch at the end of one line. Each rune on the stone has a numerical value. Wolter and Nielsen took the three marked runes and plotted them on a medieval dating system called the Easter Table.

“When we plotted these three things we got a year, 1362. It was like ‘oh my god is this an accident? Is this a coincidence?’ I don’t think so,” Wolter said.

They wondered why Templars would come to North America, carve the stone and code the date.

“If it’s the Templars that were under religious persecution at the time, that would be a pretty good reason to come over here,” Wolter figured.

“I’m sure a lot of people are going to roll their eyes and say oh it’s the Davinci Code and if they do they do. This is the evidence. This is who was there. This is what the grave slabs tell us. It is what it is,” he said.

Wolter and Nielsen’s authored the book “The Kensington Runestone: Compelling New Evidence.” Wolter is currently writing another book on the Runestone.

By Ben Tracy in CBS WCCO

See the video report: HERE

Under this title the “Daily Advertiser” from Louisiana, United States, published a short article a few days ago about the social calendar of the Marquis de La Fayette while he visited New Orleans in 1825. La Fayette was a French military officer and former aristocrat who participated in both the American and French revolutions, an extremely influential character in the formation of the United States, close friend with George Washington and known for having been an active Freemason. One of the interesting points of note about his social calendar in New Orleans is the fact that he met with local Templars. The existence and activity of branches of the Order in the United States at this epoch had been established, but this is an interesting reference of note.

We transcribe:

“The Marquis de La Fayette stayed only five days in New Orleans, but they were hectic ones, according to a calendar kept at the time:

Monday, April 11, 1825: Received representatives of the legislature and members of the bar. Called on the governor and several ladies. Went to the American Theatre early in the evening and, afterward, to the Theatre d’Orleans.

Tuesday, April 12: Received a delegation of New Orleans Spaniards. Met a deputation of Knights Templars. Received a delegation from the state militia and the Louisiana Legion (whose leaders quarrelled among themselves about protocol). Attended a “brilliant ball” in his honour, followed by a supper attended by hundreds of the New Orleans elite.

Wednesday, April 13: Received visitors, notably priests. Straightened out differences between the leaders of the Militia and Legion. Made more calls on “ladies and distinguished persons.” Viewed a parade and manoeuvres of an artillery battalion at the Place d’Armes (now Jackson Square). In the evening, rode in his carriage around the square twice to the applause of crowds. … Went again to the American Theatre and the Theatre d’Orleans, then to the St. Philip Street Theatre, where he attended another ball.

Thursday, April 14: Attended an evening meeting of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana with brother masons, eating supper with 300 of them. Heard the opera Aline and a piece written especially for the occasion, La Fayette in New Orleans, at the Theatre d’Orleans.

Friday, April 15: Left his apartments at the Cabildo on foot, passing between rows of Legionnaires until he reached Levee Street, where he got into a carriage which carried him to a waiting steamboat for his journey to Baton Rouge and then on up the Mississippi.

By Tim Bradshaw”

Thought you might like to know.

Picture: George Washington and General La Fayette at Mount Vernon

After years of scandalous publicity and tasteless priest jokes, the Catholic Church is settling out of court for a record $650 million in disbursements to victims of sexual abuse that occurred as far back as the 1940’s. Hoping to launch a new beginning in Los Angeles, the American Cardinal Roger Mahoney apologized to the plaintiffs, and regretted he could not turn back the clocks of time and repair their childhood.

In other words, the Church had sinned, and was seeking forgiveness. This is certainly not the gravest crisis within the Catholic Church, but the connection of bail out money, homosexuality and a costly apology is reminiscent of a darker period of the Church’s history when money was the root of a religious scandal that eventually brought about the Protestant Reformation in 1517.

In the Middle Ages, the Popes were, ultimately, businessmen- the administration of Church property and the distant geographies of Europe’s Catholics meant that a great deal of power and money changed hands quickly. It is ironic that the French Pope Clement V moved the entire seat of the Catholic Church to the French city of Avignon in 1307 as a direct result of the French king Philip’s oppression of the Knights Templars, who were suspected of homosexual activity. Ostensibly, the so-called “Babylonian Captivity” of the Papal office in Avignon for 70 years was aimed at cleansing the Church of its avarice- witness the suppression of the Templars- but it achieved little along these lines.

It was during these dark times in the Church’s history that corruption replaced the proper hierarchy and salvation became a blessing up for sale. In order to raise money for the new leaders of the Church, it became possible to pay the church in order to secure a lucrative position in the bureaucracy (simony), or to make sure that a favorite nephew got a job for life (nepotism- from the Greek nepos for nephew). But the most ingenious marketing campaign was directed at the Church’s sinners- of which there were many. A spurious argument was advanced that over the past 1,000 years the good deeds of the numerous saints were an asset of the Church that could be sold in order to achieve salvation and entrance into heaven. They were called “indulgences”, and when a guilty relative of a recently-deceased loved one made a contribution to the Church, the seller of the indulgences would draw on this moral bank account of the saints and withdraw an all coveted “get out of purgatory free” card for the sinner.

In 1377, the Papacy finally returned to Rome at the trusty hands of Pope Gregory, who immediately upon taking up residence there died. Another Pope was elected, but he was Italian, and this served to irk the French king so much that they decided to keep their own Pope in Avignon- resulting in two competing Popes. Naturally this meant double the corruption, which weakened the Church and shook the faith of the believers considerably. It was only in 1409 that the Church elders called a council to resolve the dreadful situation, and they finally agreed on one single Pope- who was elected that same year.

But neither the Pope in Avignon nor the Pope in Rome wanted to give up their jobs, so they boycotted the new Pope, resulting in 3 Popes. Finally in 1417 another Church council was able to push its will through by electing one, universal Pope- Martin V- but the institution’s reputation was irretrievable damaged by the past 120 years of scandal and corruption.

It would take exactly another 100 years before Martin Luther- a lawyer by education- would read in Romans 23 that salvation could be found exclusively through the righteousness of God. Without invoking yet another Church council to decipher what this meant, Luther interpreted it to mean that salvation could be attained by simply reading the word of God- the Bible. The simplicity of the notion, together with the countless princes, kings and noblemen who longed to be free of the confines of Rome, created a movement that would result in devastating European wars until the Peace of Augsburg granted religious freedom- but to the nobility only.

The Catholic Church will ultimately survive this sex scandal and put it behind the alter, but without external or even internal control of a patriarchal system based on loyalty and theology only, there is room for more abuse of power in the minds of people who believe in the sanctity of the Church and its spiritual leaders.

by Tracy Dove, editor of The Russia News Service, is a Professor of History and the Department Chair of International Relations at the University of New York in Prague, in US Politics Today

North America’s oldest church may lie beneath a small town in Newfoundland, according to information cobbled together from the research of a historian who recently died before publishing her seminal work.

An Italian friar and sailing companion of explorer John Cabot erected the church during his second trip to the continent in 1498, according to the late Alwyn Ruddock, said Evan Jones, a University of Bristol researcher who investigated and pieced together Ruddock’s notes.

“To describe Alwyn Ruddock’s claims as revolutionary would not be an exaggeration,” Jones said. “If Ruddock is right, it means that the remains of the only medieval church in North America may still lie buried under the modern town of Carbonear.”

Ruddock, a historian with the University of London, was one of the world’s foremost experts on Cabot’s voyages until her death in late 2005. In keeping with her will, all of her research was destroyed when she passed away, including 40 years’ worth of work for a book about the many mysteries surrounding Cabot’s maligned 1498 expedition.

However, a book proposal Ruddock gave to her publisher and some e-mail correspondences survived, allowing Jones to explore her theories in a recent article published in the journal Historical Research.

Ruddock’s most exciting claims concern an Italian friar named Fra Giovanni Antonio Carbonaro, who sailed aboard one of the five vessels that left with Cabot from Bristol, England, in 1498 and landed in Newfoundland.

“While we have long known that Fra Giovanni accompanied the expedition, along with some other ‘poor Italian friars’, nothing has been known of what happened to their mission,” Jones said.

Ruddock seemed to have found evidence that while Cabot sailed on down nearly the entire eastern shore of North America to the Caribbean-another new revelation-the friar and his brothers stayed on and established a religious colony in Newfoundland, at present-day Carbonear.

“It appears that Ruddock believed the Newfoundland church was named after San Giovanni a Carbonara,” Jones writes, “the locative element ‘a Carbonara’ presumably being carried across because it was key to the congregation’s identity.”

The problem with Ruddock’s notes is that they do not include actual documented evidence to substantiate her claims. “While her correspondence does not give all the answers, it does provide many clues that historians can use to investigate her claims,” said Jones.

Neither Jones nor any other historians involved in the literary reconstruction efforts understand why Ruddock chose to have her valuable work destroyed.

“Even if all the documents she claimed to have found do come to light eventually, the mystery of why she sought to suppress her own basic research may never be resolved,” Jones said.

By Heather Whipps

Sunday morning, I walked over to Lincoln Park to catch a glimpse of the annual Portuguese festa parade. In past years, I had watched the parade on the Holly Drive side of the Tracy Branch Library, and it had become an annual event for me. But this year, I had a special interest in one of the underpinning legends of the annual Holy Ghost Festa, sponsored by Tracy’s IPFES.

That special interest was sparked by my recent trip to Portugal; specifically, an afternoon visit to the small town of Estremoz in the Alentejo Plain. It was there in 1336 that Queen Isabel of Portugal died in a hilltop castle. Legends of her life, especially her many kindnesses to the poor, along with a few reported miracles, later brought sainthood to the queen, an unusual occurrence.

Over the years, I had known that Queen Isabel and her concern for Portugal’s poor to be one of the legends connected to the annual festa. I recalled talking to Mary Correia one day about the queen, her saint-like actions, and other festa legends.

Anyway, when our tour group arrived in Estremoz in April, we climbed the hill to the castle, and there was a statue of the Sainted Queen Isabel and the words “Pousada da Rainha Santa Isabel” near the front door of the castle.

The other tour members seemed mildly interested in the queen and her hilltop castle, but I said, “Wow, we’re talking big-time festa material here.”

Inside the castle, which has been made into a pousada — a small, high-end inn — we paused for a soft drink in a lavishly furnished lobby and then toured the chapel, which is lined with tiles depicting the life and recorded miracles of the queen.

A central scene showed her displaying roses from a basket. The story is that when challenged by her husband the king, Dom Dinis, about giving bread to the poor, she opened the basket to reveal only roses, not bread. Roses have adorned statues in her honor ever since.

The king’s crowning the poorest man in the kingdom on Pentecost Sunday at the queen’s urging — showing he was not such a bad guy after all — is another part of the legend.

So on Sunday morning, I watched closely as one of the floats carried a young woman depicting the queen with bread. Queen Isabel’s memory lives on every June in our town and festas all over California.

Waiting for the parade to arrive — it’s scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., but everyone knows it never does — I talked to several of the Portuguese faithful seated in chairs under the shade of the Lincoln Park trees. Many remembered Holy Ghost Festa parades of years gone past and shared a special bond to the parade that brought them back year after year.

Liana Garcia Gerhart told me she was queen of the 1969 festa and recalls marching in Portuguese parades all over Northern California that year. There were a number of very hot Sundays that year, she remembered.

Lisa Alegre Cracraft and Connie Martin Henson chuckled over their experiences marching in festa parades when they were high school students.

Sunday’s parade, which was stalled for a good 15 minutes at the intersection of Holly and Eaton while cars leaving St. Bernard’s Catholic Church after a Mass were flagged through, finally rounded the corner and headed to the church, arriving barely in time for the 11 a.m. Mass in Portuguese.

After that, it was sopas e carne at the IPFES Hall on West Ninth Street. Do you suppose Queen Isabel ever tried the meat broth and boiled beef

By Sam Matthews, Tracy Press publisher emeritus

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Saint Isabel of Portugal

Born in 1271, Queen Isabel was married to King Diniz (or Dinis). King Diniz was ruling over Portugal when the Templars escaping from France came to him in search of sanctuary; later King Diniz would establish the Order of Christ with the same posessions and knights as the Templars, with the permission of Rome. His wife Isabel was extremely devoted to the Pentecost and the celebration of the Holy Ghost (where a child is put into the thrown as Emperor of the World, accomplishing the Fifth Age or Empire as related in the dream of Nabucodanossor explained by the Prophet Daniel). Like her great-aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, for whom she was named, Saint Isabel of Portugal dedicated her life to the poor. She established orphanages and provided shelter for the homeless. She also founded a convent in Coimbra.
There are many versions of the story of Queen Isabel’s miracle of turning bread into roses, but they are all fundamentally the same. She is said to have been forbidden by her unfaithful husband to give to the poor. Having hid bread to give away in her apron, she encountered King Diniz, who asked her what she was carrying. Not wanting to let on that the contents of her apron were meant for the poor, she responded that they were roses. The bread was transformed into roses, and King Dinis, who could not understand how she could have possession of fresh roses in January, did not punish his wife. A similar legend is told about her great-aunt Elizabeth of Hungary.

Known for settling disputes, Queen Isabel was called the Peacemaker. When her son Affonso (or Afonso) declared war on his father, jealous of the attention being paid by Diniz to his illegitimate sons, she rode between the armies, reconciling the two sides. On another occasion, she rode to Estremoz despite being ill to keep the army of Affonso, by then Affonso IV, from fighting that of Castile. Affonso, angry at the mistreatment his daughter Maria was suffering at the hands of her husband, the king of Castile, had ordered an attack. Isabel stopped the fighting, but the exertion proved to be too much for her and she fell ill, dying shortly thereafter.

Isabel was buried in Coimbra. She was canonized in 1625 by Urban VIII, and her feast day is July 8. Many Portuguese and Portuguese-American organizations bear her name.

Order of Saint Isabel  (Ordem da Rainha Santa Isabel)

Created by John VI of Portugal on 4 November 1801, in recognition for the devotion of Elizabeth of Aragon, the Queen Saint. John VI invested Carlota Joaquina, his wife, as Grand Master of the order.

The Order is exclusively for dames and it distinguished catholic noble women. The total of members that this order could have was twenty-six.
In 1910, the Monarchy collapsed and the Republican Government abolishe the Order, however King’s Manuel II of Portugal wife in exile and after his death the Duchess of Braganza continued to used the order’s insignia of Grand Master.

The order’s sash is pale pink and has a white stripe in the midle. The crowned medallion as a picture of the Queen Saint giving money to a poor men and it is surronded by a frame with roses (alusion to the Queen’s miracle). The insignia’s motto is Pauperum Solatio.

They inspire, give comfort and pray for safety. Throughout America’s history, chaplains have ‘come nigh unto the battle.’

By Lisa Miller
Newsweek

During his tour in Vietnam, Angelo Charles Liteky, a Roman Catholic chaplain, often traveled with the forward line because he thought it was important to know what the boys out front were feeling. That way, when they broke down, he would be better able to persuade them to soldier on. On Dec. 6, 1967, Liteky was near the village of Phuoc Lac when his battalion came under heavy fire. Walking upright through raining bullets, Liteky singlehandedly dragged 20 wounded soldiers to a landing strip so they could be evacuated. “It was strictly compassion,” he tells NEWSWEEK. “We are supposed to grow in love, and when I saw these guys just getting killed all around me, there was nothing for me to do but go and help them.” The next year, President Lyndon Johnson gave Liteky the congressional Medal of Honor.

History’s battlefields have almost always held a place for men and women of God—someone to inspire and give comfort, give parents and fiancées the bad news, file forms, educate, pray for safety and, failing that, safe passage. Deuteronomy 20:2-4 says, “And it shall be when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people.” In America, the role of military chaplain has, in the past 250 years, grown from ad hoc—the village pastor who fought with the boys in his congregation—to bureaucratic. But from the start, the job has had inherent tensions: To whom does the chaplain ultimately report? To the troops who need guidance? The government that pays the bills? God? And in the hell of war, how does a chaplain hold on to faith?

George Washington thought chaplains belonged in the military and he wrote 50 letters saying so; in 1775, Congress approved funding. Almost immediately, though, the position raised ethical and constitutional questions. In his “Detached Memoranda,” James Madison worried that military chaplains might violate the Establishment Clause.

In the 1840s, a group of Protestants from Tennessee wrote a letter to the secretary of War, saying they didn’t want their tax dollars to pay for a Catholic chaplain—and as the diversity of the U.S. troops grew (black and Jewish chaplains joined the military in the Civil War), so did these tensions. Two years ago, the Air Force had to issue a statement saying it didn’t prefer one religion to another after staffers complained of proselytizing by evangelicals; in 2004, General William G. Boykin was reprimanded for making anti-Muslim remarks.

On a frigid night in 1943, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester was sailing near Greenland when it was hit by a torpedo from a German sub. Among the dead were four chaplains—two Protestants, a Catholic and a Jew—who gave their own life jackets to men on deck. They could be heard praying together as the massive ship slipped under water, and their sacrifice and compassion became the stuff of legend.

As for Liteky, his own struggle with faith continues. In 1975, he gave up the priesthood; 10 years later, he gave back his medal in protest over U.S. policies in Central America. Now, at 76, he’s a pacifist and he’s renounced his religion: “I couldn’t continue to worship a God that I thought was an angry God, or a punishing God. I haven’t found another one yet.” When he finds one that will help him “grow in love,” perhaps he will.

With Sarah Childress, Sarina Rosenberg and John Barry

© 2007 Newsweek

A review of God’s War: A New History of the Crusades, by Christopher Tyerman

Since September 11, few historical events have been evoked more frequently than the Christian Crusades to the Holy Land (1095-1291). To Osama bin Laden’s fossilized mind, they happened almost yesterday: modern Israel’s brief existence in Palestine is analogous to the 200-year Frankish occupation of the Levant; Israel’s acquisition of Jerusalem, following the Six-Day War, is every bit as repugnant as the First Crusade that put Westerners in control of the holy city for nearly a century (1099-1187). More important, bin Laden believes that, like the Crusades, the current clash of civilizations will persist for decades until the infidels’ inevitable defeat and withdrawal-in acknowledgment of the greater will of Islam. As this would-be Saladin explained in an October 2001 interview with al-Jazeera:

“This is a battle of Muslims against the global crusaders…. God, who provided us with his support and kept us steadfast until the Soviet Union was defeated, is able to provide us once more with his support to defeat America on the same land and with the same people.

In a war of civilizations, our goal is for our nation to unite in the face of the Christian crusade…. This is a recurring war. The original crusade brought Richard [the Lionheart] from Britain, Louis from France, and Barbarossa from Germany. Today the crusading countries rushed as soon as Bush raised the cross. They accepted the rule of the cross.”

Although bin Laden and Dr. Zawahiri—al-Qaeda’s Alfred Rosenberg-like theoretician—refer to the hated crusaders often, Western leaders go to great pains to avoid even the memory of those once-upon-a-time religious pests. It’s not merely that President Bush and Tony Blair fear framing the war against terror in terms of an age-old religious clash, or even an embarrassing postcolonial replay. It’s that the Western public as a whole remains deeply ashamed of their crusading ancestors’ zealotry and intolerance. In the words of Christopher Tyerman, a lecturer in medieval history at Hertford College and New College, Oxford, the knights who took the cross have “entered the sphere of public history, where the past is captured in abiding cultural myths of inheritance, self-image and identity. Many groups and nations find their memory awkward, even distressing.”

Just distressing? So toxic has the word “crusade” become in the age of political correctness that we increasingly avoid it altogether; banished are once common expressions like the crusade against drugs or against illiteracy. Western secularism explains much of this hand-wringing, since our elites believe that Christian fundamentalists who advocate things like Bible study in schools are not much different from radical Islamists who blow up heretics and infidels.

What is lost is any recollection that at the time of the Crusades, an ascendant Islam was occupying Spain and Portugal—after failing at Poitiers in the 8th century to take France. Or that Greek-speaking Byzantium was under a constant assault that would culminate in the Muslim occupation of much of the European Balkans, and later still produce Islamic armies at the gates of Vienna. Few remember, either, that the eastern Mediterranean coastal lands originally had been Phoenician and Jewish, then Persian, then Macedonian, then Roman, then Byzantine—and not, until the 7th century, Islamic. Whether intentionally or not, we have accepted bin Laden’s frame of reference: that religiously intolerant Crusaders had gratuitously started a war to take something that was not theirs. That the Ottomans subsequently occupied the Levant for nearly 500 years as unapologetic imperialists seems to matter little to either bin Laden or the West, inasmuch as that brutal subjugation can be understood as an internecine squabble, not a cross-cultural vendetta instigated by Westerners.

Christopher Tyerman’s thousand-page God’s War is not oblivious to this post-9/11 controversy over the Crusades. Indeed, he candidly informs us that his “perspective is western European. This accords best with my own research experience.” And he further confesses that as a descendent of Crusaders himself, he has plenty of paradoxes to explore, which he insists are best understood through the labyrinth of European church-state politics of the 11th through 13th centuries.

But after that brief throat-clearing, there is almost no reference at all to the relevance of the Crusades to the modern Western struggle against radical Islamists from the Middle East. Instead, he judiciously reminds us, “This study is intended as a history, not a polemic, an account not a judgment…not a confessional apologia or a witness statement in some cosmic law suit.” About the closest we get to contemporary allusion is something like the banal, “Thus Islam’s holy war, the lesser jihad, remains a modern phenomenon.”

Well, then, if this erudite, disinterested, and exhaustive study offers almost no enlightenment about the context of our own episode in the long history of Christian-Muslim strife, why such a massive history now? Tyerman, of course, consciously writes in the shadow of Sir Steven Runciman’s three-volume History of the Crusades (1951-4), a magisterial account that is ensured a place alongside Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico and Churchill’s The Second World War as one of the most elegantly written prose narratives in modern English. “It would be folly and hubris,” admits Tyerman, “to pretend to compete, to match, as it were, my clunking computer keyboard with [Runciman's] pen, at once a rapier and a paintbrush; to pit one volume however substantial, with the breadth, scope and elegance of his three.” Tyerman is right there, for Sir Steven would never have written sentences like this clunker: “The increasing interiorization of faith, shared to some degree by all sides of the major confessional divides, mitigated against certain of the showier forms of medieval devotions that crusading exemplified, the increasingly controversial sale of indulgences merely being the most notorious.” Even when (relatively) succinct, Tyerman often cannot convey a simple thought with clarity: “Both activities are open to reductive interpretations of unavoidable cultural or social compulsion.”

If Tyerman is, to be frank, a very poor stylist, he nevertheless offers many things new and insightful—besides drawing on a half-century’s worth of archaeological, historical, and epigraphical scholarship since the time of Runciman. Though Tyerman seems oblivious to contemporary comparisons he rightly insists on viewing both the Crusaders and their enemies in the context of their times. Thus he refuses to pass easy moral judgments on people who, in comparison with our own affluence and ease, lived short and miserable lives. It isn’t a question of whether Richard the Lionheart (who in a few hours executed 2,600 Muslim prisoners) or Saladin (who butchered the Templars and Hospitallers after their defeat at Hattin) was cruel, but rather cruel compared to what?

Important here is Tyerman’s stance towards religiosity. He reminds us throughout the narrative that it was not merely glory or money or excitement that drove Westerners of all classes and nationalities to risk their lives in a deadly journey to an inhospitable east, but a real belief in a living God and their own desire to please Him through preserving and honoring the birth and death places of His son. The Crusaders were not merely religious in the modern sense of devout or church-going; akin to present-day Muslims, they cleaved to religion as the ruling element in almost every aspect of their lives. The Crusades arose when the Church, in the absence of strong secular governments, commanded the moral authority to ignite the religious passions of thousands of Europeans—and the Crusades ceased when at last the Church lost such stature.

Tyerman offers some surprising revisionism. One of the great heroes of the Muslim world is the magnetic Kurd, al-Malik al-Nasir Slah al-Dunya wa’l-Din Abu’l Muzaffar Yusuf ibn Ayyub Ibn Shadi al-Kurdi, better known as Salah al-Din or Saladin, sultan of Egypt, who ensured that the Third Crusade would fail and that Richard the Lionheart would return to Europe without recapturing Jerusalem. But as Tyerman notes, most of Saladin’s early efforts were aimed at consolidating power by killing other Muslims. Defeated by Christian armies at Montgisard, Forbelet, Arsuf, and Jaffa, he lost both Tyre and Antioch—despite the numerical and logistical advantages of his home terrain. His chief virtue was his skill as a diplomatic chess-master. He exploited the political differences among the Crusaders, adeptly dividing them against themselves.

For most moderns, the absurdity and hypocrisy of a struggle to restore Christianity in the Holy Land is best exemplified by the so-called Fourth Crusade, in which Western Europeans sacked Constantinople (1204), killing thousands of fellow (Orthodox) Christians and weakening the Eastern church to such a degree that its subsequent defeat by the Ottomans two centuries later was nearly preordained. But Tyerman reminds us that nearly half of the Crusaders had defected and returned home, once the “diversion” to Constantinople was decided upon. The other half, mostly Venetians, were excommunicated in advance of the siege. “Neither some fanciful conspiracy nor a general mind-set allegedly susceptible to anti-Greek propaganda adequately explains the course of events,” he writes. “Instead, conflicting ties of solidarity, honor, obligation and advantage exerted the strongest pressures.” He concludes that the motives of the Crusaders were “immediate, contradictory, self-deluding and muddled rather than treacherous or malign.”

Finally, time ran out under the walls of Byzantium; supplies were exhausted and the inept Crusaders were forced to assault the city. The subsequent looting and desecration of icons and art were devastating. The killing was mostly sporadic and limited to the first day of the attack—the infamy magnified, however, by the failure to kill Muslims to the south, and the hatred between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. “If the victors had proceeded to the Holy Land the following spring,” Tyerman writes, “the fall of Constantinople may have never acquired its reputation for unique barbarism.”

If there are few vivid battle accounts in this dry retelling, he does admirably locate the Crusades in both a larger European and global context. The first Crusade, for example, arose as a complex response both to the Investiture Contest with the German king Henry IV (part of the Church’s effort to purge its corruptions and confirm its authority over European kings), and to the call of the Byzantine Emperor Alexis, who thought Western Christians might save his eroding rule from the Seljuk Turks. A crusade against the Muslims, it was believed, would restore the Church’s prestige by a demonstration of selfless zeal at home and of increased status and power abroad. Once Tyerman guides us through this labyrinth of contemporary agendas and self-interested motives, the decision to send thousands of novice soldiers to the other end of the Mediterranean somehow does not seem so lunatic.

By the same token, he envisions the Crusades in the broadest sense, well beyond the interventions into the Holy Land. God’s War includes chapters on the collective and transnational Christian efforts against unbelievers in the Balkans, Scandinavia, and Russia, as well as against the Ottomans and their clients in the Balkans extending into the 15th century.

In the eleventh hour before the impending Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment, the Church belatedly sought to galvanize the faithful to an almost feverish effort at global crusading, sending its tentacles outward as the nerve center at home enervated. What, then, finally ended the crusading spirit? Not loss of pious devotion or belief in God per se, but rather the rise of the modern, competent, secular state, which won the primary allegiance of millions of devout Europeans, who increasingly rendered unto Caesar what was Caesar’s. Christopher Tyerman’s exhaustive new history is not easy going, but it is often surprising and ironic—reminding us that the crusading spirit is properly seen as tragic rather than melodramatic, and thus “cannot be explained, excused or dismissed either as virtue or sin. Rather, its very contradictions spelt its humanity.”

By Victor Davis Hanson
Claremont Review of Books.

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Book details
God’s War: A New History of the Crusades
By Christopher Tyerman
1040 pages; £18.00.
Buy it on the Templar Globe Store

Ever wonder about the Knights Templar, the organization that figured prominently in Dan Brown’s blockbuster, “The Da Vinci Code”?

“That was a great, suspenseful story,” says David Appleby, Grand Prior XIV of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, or what is commonly called Knights Templar, “but it doesn’t have a lot to do with reality.”

Appleby, an attorney for more than 30 years and a municipal judge in Ozark, will discuss the historic and contemporary Order, separating myth from fact, at a program at 7 p.m. on Monday in the auditorium at the Library Center.

“The modern Order,” he says, “is a United Nations-sanctioned non-governmental organization, or NGO, and the bottom line is that the Knights Templar is a Christian charitable organization.”

The umbrella organization for Missouri is the Priory of St. Louis the Crusader. “Each Priory is allowed to select its charitable activities and we’ve chosen the Ronald McDonald House,” said Appleby.

“In very broad terms, the Order today exists to protect Christians in peril just as it did over 800 years ago. In more practical terms, Templars today engage in numerous charitable activities that result in assistance to other Christians in financial or physical need. We have assisted those in need in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. We are now working with groups in the Holy Lands to assist Christians with needs there, too.”

Appleby knows there’s confusion about the Knights Templar, so he will be prepared to answer questions, such as:

Q: Are there hereditary restrictions to membership?

A: We do not believe being a Christian is hereditary. The Order has Christian members of all races and nationalities and both genders.

Q: Is it exclusively a military organization?

A: Although the name perpetuates the historical military aspect of the Order, military service is not required, but the organization is organized along military lines.

Q: Is the organization related to Freemasonry?

A: No, but it is our understanding that a segment of Freemasonry has adopted some Templar symbols and precepts. All of our ceremonies and activities are open to the public, have a distinct and intentional religious basis, but are never conducted behind closed doors.

in NewsLeader.com

 Look up the Priory of the US at OSMTH

note: The Grand Priory of the United States OSMTH, under the leadership of HE Read Admiral James Carey, has no filiation with our obedience of the Order, however good relations and fraternal bonds of friendship prevail between both Templar bodies.