No, Chuck Norris Is Not A Freemason

[My Freemasonry]

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by Christopher Hodapp

All weekend long Masonic groups and individual Masons on social media platforms have circulated images and text snippits that claim popular actor and martial arts champion Chuck Norris was a Freemason. One especially detailed image appears to come from the Grand Lodge of Texas paying tribute to the late Norris by falsely claiming he was a distinguished Texas Mason.

Norris died suddenly on Thursday after being hospitalized in Hawaii with a medical emergency. He was 86 years old.

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It IS true that Norris was granted the title of Honorary Texas Ranger in 2010 by Texas governor Rick Perry after playing a Texas Ranger in the movie Lone Wolf McQuade. He went on to star as ranger Cordell Walker in the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger. In 2017, he was also made an "Honorary Texan" in part, because he owned a Texas ranch near Navasota.

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But Chuck Norris was not himself a Mason, no matter what the Intertubz may have told you. Not a single lodge or grand lodge has legitimately acknowledged Norris' Masonic membership - traditional, honorary, or otherwise.

It IS true that Norris is described in many circles as a 'grand master' in the martial arts world, which is likely the source of confusion that set off this silliness in the first place. But that term has been around for a very long time, pre-dating modern Freemasonry, appearing in ancient craft guilds and medieval orders of knighthood. We Masons don't have a corner on the term.

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[Winter]

There was a Reddit post in the r/freemasonry sub, that has since been deleted and I can't remember the username, where a member claimed he had made the majority of the false images and put them out as an experiment to see how far they would spread and how many Brothers would accept it as fact without checking. It was in very poor taste if true.