"I was done with Freemasonry a long time ago but was asked to make some introductions to the brothers in Paris. I did what I was asked and helped put things together. I'm done. I did what I promised I would do.
I don't have any interest in being a part of any form of Freemasonry. It's devolved into a political quagmire that focuses on administration and not knowledge or brotherhood."
 Jeff Peace posting using his pseudonym of Antoninus9 in December, 2007 - and yet, not long after this, he's identified as the GOOFUS Grand Junior Warden. Go figure!

Dissembling:
"Pretending with the intention to deceive."
"The act of deceiving."

"Not your Grandfather's Masonry"

...so claims the self-styled Grand Orient of the United States. Actually, it's really not Masonry at all, in the eyes of most of the world but putting that argument aside, would you really want THAT? I mean, after all: they list 'famous Freemasons' who were part of 'your Grandfather's Freemasonry', they talk about historical events that were part and parcel of 'your Grandfather's Masonry' and some of them were even members of 'your Grandfather's Freemasonry' - but decided that they knew a better way than the ten plus million members over the world across three centuries. Good to know everyone has options here, eh?

And as part of their 'new idea', their lodges have 'sprung up' (on the internet at least) and then - in the blink of an eye - have vanished. One pundit suggested you need a scorecard to keep track of the many machinations they've gone though. Well, here it is, folks: the Grand Orient Of The United States LODGE SCORECARD, comments and personal opinion from Ed King, this site's author and the person who has - as everyone will agree - 'called it right' from the start of the several predecessor organizations which did things like recruiting online in Holocaust denier newsgroups - and SO much more!

This page is provided because, it would seem, their own list of their constantly changing "lodges" was becoming too much of an embarrassment - as you can see below. From now on, it'll apparently be secret so that they can better obfuscate what's going on. Is this what you want to get involved with? Have at it if you do - but when you've been 'ridden hard and put away wet', do drop us a note and let us know how that worked out for you, OK?

Pink coloring indicates that the lodge is now 'missing in action'. Aqua Coloring indicates that the Lodge doesn't have a website and exists/existed in name only. Yellow coloring indicates that the lodge is/was claimed to exist and has a website but it hasn't been updated in a year or more - perhaps a sign that it too is 'going, going, gone!'. No coloring indicates an active group (although 'group' probably means a 'one-man band') based on what their website shows. How many 'no color' lines can you spot below? (PS: This test counts only if you're not color blind!)

When GOOFUS revised their primary website in December 2010, "Triangles" morphed into "Chapters" of what appears to be a politically-oriented "charity" which, like the anti-Masons, seems to use US tax laws to further their agenda. This change certainly sounds less child-like and, after all, there are "Chapters" in other parts of regular/recognized Freemasonry - the better to confuse the unwary. It eliminates the distinction that most of their organization consists of short-lived interest by a single individual who seemed to soon become aware of a larger picture that isn't as pretty as the Pied Piper painted it. (Notice the predominant pink above? That should be a clue....) Of course, why these 'hip' guys didn't do a Google search and wind up here to check things out first is also pretty telling, isn't it?

We began this page the day after Christmas 2010. At that time there were two so-called 'lodges' that appeared active. Less than three weeks later, there was one. A day after we posted a page with that information, there were NONE. Four months later there was one ad-ridden website being flogged by the FOURTH new Grand Master on their Facebook page. It continues to be SO comical....

Looking back, it seems as if ANYONE contacting them could get themselves set up as a lodge in the blink of an eye - and it gave the impression to onlookers that the so-called Grand Orient of the United States was really going places fast. This was apparently the information given to the gullible Grand Orient of France in order to get their 'sharing of rituals' and 'treaty of amity'. Based on reports of emails filled with profanities should anyone dare to question 'authority', it should have been enough to make even the blind see - but it wasn't. (There's a long history of THAT stuff as the graphic below shows. Wonder what it said BEFORE the editing thirty seconds later.... <chuckle> Great way to start a work day, huh?) Nope: it's sure not your Grandfather's Freemasonry!

Good ol' Ben Franklin: we hardly knew ye....

Talk about a 'fall from grace': here was their Lodge #11 with a well designed website (albeit with all sorts of material cribbed from regular/recognized sources and bastardized to meet their atheistic agenda), a multi-lingual leader who immediately became their 'Grand Secretary for External Affairs' (proud to be seen wearing a Masonic tie with the letter 'G' quite prominent - apparently to mean 'Gnostic' as their rituals claim). He spoke a foreign language which no one else did (it must have been like heaven to give up on the Google translators), plus a great physical location close to the imaginary other lodge that Jeff claimed to belong to in Washington, DC. And yet, within the blink of an eye, it was over and the #11 was gone with AFM and then a day or two later AYM replacing it. Hey, wait! Weren't these guys supposed to be MODERN and not ANCIENT??? (Maybe it meant 'Atheists For Masonry' or 'A Fine Mess'....) And then they were gone from the web altogether except for a couple of fleeting appearances in blog comments made by him trying to distance himself from the bizarre behavior of Halcyon. We waited for a dueling contest of domains since Mr. Tamayo owned the web address of grandorientusa.org but it didn't happen.

So we hope that not too many of you tied your dreams to that star. We received one message saying there were 10-12 members and the pictures on their website showed a party of men and women, milling around together but we suspect the latter had nothing at all to do with anything Masonic and the information from our correspondent had been gleaned from GOOFUS directly, something no one wanting facts should have ever done. It's all just TOO comical for words - but it's a potent reminder that if you want to be a Mason, you need to be part of a regular/recognized lodge. Those who thought they knew better are now out in the cold!

This is but one example of many showing the VERY fleeting nature of this 'make-believe' Masonry: using the trappings and rituals of a three hundred year old organization but having no more permanence than a set of underwear. Actually, based on their past performance and that of other similarly-situated groups, you'd probably find your underwear to last longer than they do.

Conclusion?

We should know better than to make changes on this page even within hours of publishing it because SOMETHING even more crazy will occur. They removed their e-mail contact requiring a written letter for a while and now have returned to use a web form for communications. Apparently Mr. Brown has lots of time on his hands to deal with this. It's is all pretty strange thing for a group that tried SO hard to appeal to young, upwardly-mobile and internet-engaged professionals, isn't it? Of course, we realize that every organization is entitled to a certain amount of privacy so you could, perhaps, argue that it's none of our business what goes on. It seems terribly strange, though, if they ARE a vibrant and growing organization that they'd be doing/not doing things like this - at least the way we see it. Oh, and their touted relationship with the Grand Orient of France is apparently so significant that the French site doesn't even link to these folks any longer despite links to other irregular US bodies such as the George Washington Union. Though vigorously denied by one GOOFUS member who seems incapable of high school level spelling ('We've still got this here plate from their gift store so obviously they're in fraternal relations....' is his logic), there are NO refutations from the Grand Master thus once more leading to speculation as to whether one member is grossly (perhaps deliberately) uninformed and/or is dissembling.

Just for clarification....

We'd previously mentioned that on every GOOFUS lodge website there were different listings of their sister lodges. Now, with nearly all of these sites gone, it's impossible for you to see that for yourself. Their once highly-touted but barely used discussion board at tracingboard.com became simply an 'ad farm' for a few weeks but then was back up only not as a forum but rather a place for rants and fabrications. It's now being used by the defrocked creator and former "Grand Master" for dissertations on how smart he is with long essays pretending to be research papers. (The difference? No footnotes whatsoever. It's easier to claim things when you don't have to prove them.) But there are no 'discussion groups' any longer because it's like the sound of one hand clapping.... We thought that the site might finally be transferred to our ownership as promised in 2005.<GRIN> Guess they missed that memo....

To us at least, it seems as if - with the overthrow of the founder - the train has finally come off the rails but, as with that type of accident, things continue to plunge ahead on inertia for some distance and surely the new engineer - living a thousand miles away from their 'headquarters' and unable to have ever formed a lodge in his own town - probably thinks that somehow he'll achieve where the zealous founder didn't. All of this notwithstanding, we would again, however, remind readers that they are free to make their own decisions about affiliations etc. and not let the facts we've presented bar you from participation should you so desire.

NOT 'regular/recognized' Freemasonry - and proud of it!

Remember that NONE of the members of any of the so-called 'lodges' shown above would be welcomed to share fellowship with any of those 'local lodges' whose buildings you see in so many places (except for that one building in Cleveland, Ohio 'taken' from a group of Masons who'd begun the lodge and nurtured it from 1875 through 2008). Don't believe us and think there are big groups around the world associated with this organization and just waiting to welcome you? OK. Enjoy then - and let us know how that works out....

In mid-2012

Their 'discussion forum' no longer exists: it's just too embarrassing to have so few participants it would seem. The domain has gone up for sale. The Halcyon Charities and Halcyon Lodge website were non-functional at the end of 2011 while they scurried around to find someone to pay the bill but they're up and running again. The GOOFUS Facebook page has irregular postings, sometimes simply a duplicate of what's on the Travis/Perry website for the 2 person California contingent. And lately they've been creating more and more websites that all mirror each other in several ways. Looks like somebody has a lot of time on their hands....

Every now and then, they go through an explosion of "Ed King is horrible" postings, whining about my having stated that something happened in March when it really happened in February (according to them) and some of these explosions were online for just a couple of days so it's hard to tell if somebody's smoking something strange and then coming to their senses or what. Moreover, doesn't it appear a bit unseemly to you that a LODGE - or a "GRAND LODGE" - would take time out of their busy schedule to whine about postings on the seventh or eighth level down in a website that they claim is completely inaccurate anyway? One just has to wonder.

You know, for all the problems these kiddies found in regular/recognized Freemasonry, we'd opine that they're NOTHING to the mess they've created. Nothing at all!

The Sirius Building:

Yep: here was the building they claimed was going to be their building but, comically, one of their leaders later admitted that these were actually design pictures of the building the Grand Poo-Bah's employer was building. So much for honesty and integrity, eh?

First uploaded February 3, 2011 -- and you might expect to see some wholesale updates to their websites soon although when the parent organization refuses to list their entities, it's not a very good sign. But never fret: we can prove what they had when this was written.
The information above may appear to some (especially if they have a grudge to carry against regular/recognized Freemasonry) to be judgmental and defamatory. However, sometimes facts don't paint a very rosy picture - and all of the above is FACT!

Updated February 4, 2011 when Praxis Lodge 'hit the dust'.... Just one day in the life of GOOFUS.... and again on March 28th just after Ben Franklin Lodge disappeared from the web, as just another in the long line of 'here today ~ gone tomorrow' creations by one person.

Updated May 15, 2011. A few minor changes and typo fixes plus the notation about lack of Grand Orient of France linkage to the GOOFUS website. Updated again on August 30, 2011 with the addition of another their two person lodge in California and a fantasy lodge in Cleveland and a couple of tweaks in December, 2011 as Dale loses interest and the golden boys from California do likewise.

Updated May 25, 2012 with a couple more of their 'website only' "lodges". Updated December, 2013, noting the departure of yet more of the (very few) faithful and the lack of any meaningful web engagement for nearly two years. Added the Sirius building pictures in February, 2014.
 

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