dfreybur
Premium Member
It is hard to understand why you assign blame to the Shrine.
You appear unaware of decades of clashes between the Imperial level of the Shrine and very many states. Nearly every one of the 21 years I've been a Mason one state or another clashed with the Shrine in one way or another. The one year old example in Arkansas and the two year old example in South Carolina are only the latest two in a list that was already long two decades ago.
Shrine cannot become "irregular" as they never were an appendant body like York or Scottish rites.
Of course this has always been at the core of the clashes. Various individual Shrines, state Shrine groups and/or Imperial Shrine asserts some sort of independence and the state in question's GM or GL asserts authority. The Arkansas situation is one among many. You see your local situation as if it were unique and not part of a long established trend but it is indeed a part of a long established trend.
They are "pushing" nothing.
Then why are NPD brothers allowed to retain their Shrine membership in South Carolina? My brother you are faced with a tree and you're not aware that it's in a forest.
The situation in Arkansas is nothing short of bizzare.
A disgrace even. But unfortunately not unexpected given the history in other states and other years.
And, honestly, the spirit of brothership was/is far stronger in Shrine than in Arkansas Masonry.
That's a part of the cause and effect here. Out of control brothers in the grand line are a reflection of other forces active there for a number of years. There isn't just a historical pattern of the Shrine clashing with assorted states. There's a history in Arkansas or declining morale. What you are experiencing is a collision of two unfortunate trends, not one isolated set of events.