I am interested in "Square and Compass Clubs" and "Widow's sons clubs"

Well Bro. Moore, I can say that GL will most likely continue to have an issue with the original patch. They are mostly going to argue that portraying a woman in such a fashion harkens too much to a Biker Gang. I would say that you would need to either change the patch to be successful in gaining recognition from GL or take being a MM out of your official qualifications and make it a "tradition" instead.

I hope the WS seek approval and achieve as well. Some wonderful brethren are affiliated with same. But, I really don't care for non masons petitioning a lodge to become a MM just to belong to a riding club or any appendant body.

Please,
Don't misunderstand me, these Brothers didn't join to ride with the WS, our rides are open to anyone ... Male, Female, Brother or not. These men became Brothers, and not all became WS, because of their realization that the Fraternity really did have something to offer them.
Roger Moore

LRG said:

I hope the WS seek approval and achieve as well. Some wonderful brethren are affiliated with same. But, I really don't care for non masons petitioning a lodge to become a MM just to belong to a riding club or any appendant body.

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I am the founder of the Widows Sons of Texas. It is time for the HONEST truth about this organization and it's history. Our original by-laws clearly stated that we required our members to be Master Masons in good standing. During PGM Boyd Patterson's year, I was advised that we were in violation of Article 506.29 of the Grand Lodge Constitution which prohibited any Texas Mason to belong to any organization which predicates it's membership on being a Mason. Several discussions occurred between myself and members of the Committee on Juris Prudence. I sought their advice on how we might structure our by-laws in such a way as not to be in violation of Grand Lodge Law. It is important to point out that we had over 100 members at that time and were 16 months into building our membership. The long and short of it was that our only alternative was to open our membership to anyone and remove all Masonic references from our by-laws. Simply, we were abiding by the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Texas as we had sworn to do in our obligation. Now, the references made here regarding our website are valid with the following explanation. The website was constructed prior to the afformentioned incident and is a part of my personal Verizon account. It has never been updated because for some reason Verizon stopped providing that service and I have never been able to take it down because there is no access available. Sorry, but I have tried to correct that situation and am stuck at this point. Moving on to 2007. I am not certain as to the year but it was either 2005 or 2006, Grand Lodge passed an amendment to Article 225 which provided for organizations to offer Resolutions for recognition which would be kept on a list at the Grand Secretary's office. At least, this was how it was explained to me. Seeing this as our first opportunity to get our Masonic by-laws back in place, I conferred with Juris Prudence again on how to prepare the Resolution in "proper form". The total text of that Resolution was written for me by a member of Juris Prudence. It is important to state that Juris Prudence authored the Resolution because some of the content of that document is now being used against us. It was that document which identified us as the Widows Sons Masonic Motorcyle Riders and not the name in our existing by-laws at that time. Now, that is the name we were hoping to go to should we be recognized through this process. Lawyers, go figure. Everyone should be advised that we received recognition on the first vote to that Resolution. Unfortunately, I became sick and left after the vote. About two hours later, I was advised that there was a Motion to Reconsider the previous vote and because I was not present to defend the accusations presented, the original vote was overturned. The two objections were that our bylaws were open to anyone up to and including "the Ku Klux Klan, Bandidos, Hells Angels" etc and our logo depicted a "stripper dancing around a stripper pole". As to objection number one: We would have been in violation of Grand Lodge Constitution had our membership requirements been predicated on being a Mason as previously stated. Number two: You may argue that our logo is not to your liking; however, it is nowhere close to depicting a stripper dancing around a stripper pole. One final important point. In August or September prior to the 2007 Grand Lodge Communication, a group of Masons from Harris County petitioned me for a chapter charter in the Widows Sons. Long story short, they did not want to abide by the by-laws and rules of the organization and I obviously was not willing to give them free hand to do whatever they wanted to do. I POLITELY apologized to them and offered my assistance to get them in with another organization which might be able to accommodate their needs. I began to receive phone calls and emails from this group threatening to discredit us at Grand Lodge in December. After numerous pleas to my Brothers to not engage in that type of endeavor, I was assured that they would not follow through with their threat. The rest is history and the derogatory statements at Grand Lodge were made by a member of Holland Lodge. Take a guess as to what Lodge the majority of this group belonged to. You got it, Holland Lodge in Houston, Texas. Now you tell me who is acting against the teachings of the craft.

It is not my intention to disrupt "peace and harmony" within the Fraternity but right is right and the truth is the truth. Respectfully submitted for your consideration.

I have a hard time thinking with our great fraternity we should be happy to see new members. If we are not careful we will be a dead fraternity. We should let all mason's bring in new guys. We let our brothers take care of a blue lodge members, so we need to let the widowsons ensure only good men join the blue lodge. If they choose to join masonary and then become members in the brothers who ride and enjoy the fellowship of the open highways.

Well, as I have advised, I would have a petition ready to for GL in 2011. I would have good speakers lined up who can prove good facts about the WS. I would also get a different hosting company to host your website and domain name. Then change your website DNS servers to point ot the new site that you can update. Having that old incorrect info floating around out there is going to hurt you when it comes to GL. After you get the resolution ready, get with some people and try to get them to shoot it full of holes. Then fix those holes so they can't be used against you at GL.

I would also recommend officially changing the patch. I know you don't feel it's not offensive, but some are going to take it as such. Right now, it's a stick they can still beat you with. What you do after recognition is your business, but then you'll have a record of Masonic service to fall back on.

How many non-masons are members currently? What would you propose to do with them if you successfully petitioned to be recognized?

As long as we're talking patches...unless I'm mistaken, another of the WS patches incorporates the official Grand Master's logo from 1999. Did anyone get permission for that?

Website issues have been corrected. To make the statement "have good speakers lined up" is an insult and totally disregards the previous facts presented. Resolutions must be submitted in "proper form" and approved by Juris Prudence before proceeding to the Committee on Masonic Relations. The Committee on Masonic Relations makes it's recommendation to accept or reject Resolutions before the sponser even presents it to the GL body. I had a file folder 2 inches thick with all of the relative facts, current by-laws, proposed new by-laws and any and all possible supporting documentation. I was never asked to present that material to the committee and they made their recommendations with zero input from me. Is that a fair process? That not withstanding, lets not forget that we received a favorable vote following my presentation and it is my opinion that outcome was later corrupted by what I consider to be un-masonic behavior. It appears that some here have the same negative and biased opinions as those who ultimately prevailed. Ignore the facts, consider the source and continue to resist because you don't now and probably never will be willing to be objective. If you see a stripper and we see a widow in mourning, I would suggest that you may be the ones with dirty minds and ill intent towards your Brothers. If you would be disloyal enough to abandon a logo you have supported for over 10 years just because some see it as something different than you, it would be just as believable to me that you would abandon the square and compasses under some unforeseen circumstance. With all of the problems Grand Lodge needs to be addressing at this time, it seems to be a waste of good time and talent to be paying attention to this. First thing out of the box, this Grand Master finds it important to make his first order of business an edict against nearly 300 Master Masons who ride motorcycles. Go figure.

Brother there is a lot of things that we don't understand that GL does but the bottom line is as long as we are masons in Texas they govern what we do masonically. I for one appreciate the insight you and a couple other Brothers have given into the WS. Since there has been an edict I only see two options from this point. You can disregard the edict and be in violation of GL law as a master mason from the Grand Lodge of Texas or you can seek recognition as spelled out in the laws. I know there were some shenanigans the last time but that just shows you can get recognition if you tried. As stated before there are many of us that have experience in getting the political backing on things if you would like to use those resources at Masonsoftexas.

Keep in mind I don't think the previous Brothers are attacking the WS but rather offering advice and trying to counter any questions they may face if they speak about the edict in lodge. This tends to do wonders on getting word out among the lodges to help your cause. Thank you again for signing up to the site to explain the history of the WS but let us help you achieve the ultimate end by getting that recognition this year in Dec. That is if your organization chooses to do so.

owls84 said:

Brother there is a lot of things that we don't understand that GL does but the bottom line is as long as we are masons in Texas they govern what we do masonically. I for one appreciate the insight you and a couple other Brothers have given into the WS. Since there has been an edict I only see two options from this point. You can disregard the edict and be in violation of GL law as a master mason from the Grand Lodge of Texas or you can seek recognition as spelled out in the laws. I know there were some shenanigans the last time but that just shows you can get recognition if you tried. As stated before there are many of us that have experience in getting the political backing on things if you would like to use those resources at Masonsoftexas.

Keep in mind I don't think the previous Brothers are attacking the WS but rather offering advice and trying to counter any questions they may face if they speak about the edict in lodge. This tends to do wonders on getting word out among the lodges to help your cause. Thank you again for signing up to the site to explain the history of the WS but let us help you achieve the ultimate end by getting that recognition this year in Dec. That is if your organization chooses to do so.

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True, they do govern what we do masonically but we are not a masonic organization. Since our by-laws are open to anyone, there is no way anyone can honestly define us as a masonic organization. And I do consider it to be an attack when someone implies we had an inaffective speaker. Remember again, we were granted recognition in the original vote!!!! There is a third option. We can continue on since we are not in violation and wait for Grand Lodge to suspend 100's of Widows Sons Master Masons. At that time there will be numerous other options become available to us in State and Federal courts. I personally am up for the fight. I am a man, free born and sound of mind and members. I also have the time and the money. The Grand Master has justified his decision with this single statement. "Because I can". That statement has been made to more than one Texas Mason and I find that to be extemely disturbing. Think what you want but I will not go down quietly.

Well good luck but this site is not the means to do it that way.

I think the staff will agree that we are now beating a dead horse with this discussion. This thread is closed.

I support this lock. Someone will inevitably be offended, but that's not our hope. MoT doesn't support either side of this, though.