GOOFUS History

"Mr. King is the man who single handedly gave you the Grand Orient of the United States."
Jeff Peace, Creator of this and other counterfeit 'Masonic' groups, posting as Antonius9, on the Golden State Masons forum on December 5, 2007, one forum, among many, from which he has been banned.
(Note: this site's author has NEVER been banned from any forum of any kind, ever!)

The Many Machinations

In order to more adequately provide visitors to this site with an understandable explanation of why we - and the rest of the Masonic world (with the exception of a small handful of self-created, unrecognized loges/quasi 'grand lodges') consider the so-called "Grand Orient of the United States" to be a bogus and, perhaps even dangerous organization, we've revamped the primary page people would arrive at when coming to this site while keeping all of the 'gory details' from the (few) years past available.

Here then is the GOOFUS page as it was on 23 November 2010:

So what's happening with the Munchkins these days? It's a question we're asked regularly and the answer is "Who knows?" (Actually, it's "Who cares?" but we're trying to be polite!)

Their website has been redone, again with links which would lead a non-Mason to possibly think they were legitimate - but with nothing new added. Interestingly, though, their contact address is now that of the former Halcyon Lodge of Ohio (a LONG way from Georgia where the power resides) which has been engaged in legal battles with the (regular/recognized) Grand Lodge of Ohio from whom Halcyon 'removed themselves' (and that's the NICE way of saying it!). Curiously there's no reference to ANY of the burgeoning number of lodges that were supposedly reproducing like rabbits according to the breathless reports at the start of 2009. At least two of their lodges/triangles with more than just made-up screen names (that is, they had an actual member or two: Euclid and Emeth - now seemingly defunct) publicly announced their self-removal from the GOOFUS family during that year though but another temporary believer has apparently been found in Florida where another website owned by Jeff now announces that there's a lodge - albeit without any meetings or activities to show the curious public.

Their highly touted bulletin board went belly-up in November, 2009 because its founder might have been too busy doing other things but 9 months later (after a political primary: how curious), it's apparently being resurrected. You'll note that many of the links on this groups dozens of related websites simply go nowhere - and this has been yet another example. With this incarnation of their forum, there's a lot less stuff publicly: perhaps for good reason!

Are we close to end of the melodrama surrounding this group notwithstanding their conjuring of 'recognitions' from a couple of other non-recognized/non-regular groups prancing proudly with the trappings of Freemasonry in Europe? Have you ever been at a farm and watched a chicken have their head cut off? The body runs around flapping its wings for some time even while blood spurts from the neck: is there a comparison here? Time will tell....

Traditional Cosmopolitan Freemasonry = bogus foolishness

What is Traditional Cosmopolitan Freemasonry? Quite simply, an ADVERTISING SLOGAN!

Nothing more and nothing less. See for yourself: can you find a single Masonic paper using that phrase? Despite the tens of thousands of Masonic articles online, a Google search on 24 August 2008 showed that particular phrase appeared online a grand total of only EIGHT (8) times. While obviously not every Masonic essay ever written is online, but with obscure phrases piling up several hundred 'hits', if this were REALLY a Masonic concept rather than someone's fantasy, surely someone would be writing about 'traditional cosmopolitan Freemasonry' over the last 300 or so years. Of those eight references, SEVEN were written by the group using it, the so-called 'Grand Orient of the United States', founded in late 2005. The other reference is to this page! It is simply a 'catch-phrase' designed to recruit the unsuspecting into a group which is not now nor ever will be recognized or acknowledged by regular Freemasons anywhere.

In their prior incarnations, the self-styled Grand Orient of the United States - GOOFUS - created other wordings designed to 'set them apart' and make the unwary think that they were just as legitimate as any group of Freemasons one might find. They began using the term 'Free-Masonry' (with the hyphen): an affectation somewhat similar to wearing an ascot instead of a necktie. They've also tried to use the terms "Modern Freemasonry" versus the (regular/recognized) "Ancient Freemasonry" but this phraseology seemed to fall flat on its face as peals of laughter greeted their abject lack of knowledge of Masonic history. (In the late 1700s, the 'Ancient' group were actually the modern, progressive group they were trying to claim they were.) We thought of putting a picture of Clara Peller here to make the point - but you can draw your own conclusions as to what 'Traditional Cosmopolitan Free-Masonry' really stands for: a long-standing way of practicing Freemasonry or a slogan designed to bring attention to a handful of those who couldn't qualify (or were removed from) regular/recognized Freemasonry. They will likely morph into something else within another couple of years.

Nothing is as constant as change. Their latest gyrations can be found here.

With this type of pseudo 'Free-Masonry', every day brings something new. The problem is trying to stay up with the twists, turns, and distractions as well as their changing 'explanation' of what they really are can easily become MORE than a full time job. At least a couple of times each week, we'll receive an e-mail asking when our next update on this particular group will be forthcoming. Why? Because the creator and his couple of followers have become Master Obfuscators, trying desperately to create the illusion that a pebble of sand in the Sahara is actually the desert itself. We'll keep this page well lubricated with the truth (something which seems an anathema to this group's adherents - of whom there are, by current estimates, less than a couple of dozen). We've also got a few words about the ostensibly earth-shattering patent they obtained from the irregular and unrecognized Grand Orient of France in 2008 (see "Their Affiliations" below) which has been interpreted by knowledgeable Masons as being FAR less than the GOOFUS crowd wants you to believe. Their veil has been pierced and the general reaction is that there's often much sizzle but very little (if any) steak. We'll continue to cover the ongoing attempts to achieve credibility amidst the laughter of the Masonic world.

Let's start at the beginning - and about "being angry"

Regularly we'll see comments online that this website and/or its owner is "angry" at the individual and/or his followers who've gone off to start an organization which they think will revolutionize the world. Nothing could be further from the truth - and it is, in fact, with a considerable amount of melancholy that we take to recount the antics of this bunch on a regular basis. The opportunities lost by those who follow a Pied Piper - and even the abilities of the Pied Piper himself are gifts that are now gone. So please, dear reader: do not ASSume that you understand the mind of this author as he points out the foibles of this group and the fantasies they attempt to foster on the gullible.

It's well known that a website can make things sound ooooowwwww so appealing. And so, taking the same graphics created for the group he started in 2005 and applying them in 2007 in another herky-jerky shift, we now find the so-called Grand Orient of the United States, based on the internet and at a Starbucks in the Metro Atlanta area. (Update on this below!) This organization is sure to appeal to any lover of humanity and righteousness - as they'll be quick to tell you. Of course, their claims - to us at least - seem to deliberately hide the truth. Before you go further on this page, though, you might want to look at the shenanigans involving the several groups from which this one evolved, all of which have been 'run' by the very same person. This is a person who was not always listed as their 'grand leader' but in late 2008 he clothed himself in the pomp and pomposity of leadership of his two-dozen person organization after tossing out the those who'd served him. Click here and a new page will open with information about the United Grand Lodge of America - the group that made internet claims to be garnering all sorts of new members and yet not even two years later was gone, morphing into this bunch.

Here are the facts

In essence, one person who couldn't seem to get along in regular/recognized Freemasonry wanted to prove that he could create something that was better than the 300+ year old organization of Freemasonry. After several failed attempts (documented on other pages on this site), here's the current incarnation:

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The web site of the self-styled Grand Orient of the United States claims they're a continuation of the "Masonic traditions begun by brothers such as Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis De Lafayette." WHAT Masonic traditions? We know of no Masonic traditions begun by either of these two men. In fact, Grand Master Ben Franklin was vigorous in exposing imposters to Freemasonry, something he decried in his newspaper even before he himself was a Mason. (See here.) Just a few months prior to that claim they were touting their great heritage ties to Voltaire until we noted on this site that Voltaire was a Mason for just a couple of months before he died in his mid-80s, during a period of rapidly increasing senility - along with the fact that he never even participated in the usual three degrees which their group wants you to believe require years of preparation and study and an hours-long ceremony.
 

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While they claim that "Our lineage can be traced back through the Grand Orient of France to the original speculative Grand Lodge of London that was established in 1717.", such a claim is simply absurd. Their 'lineage' comes from the machinations of one individual to secure recognition for himself and whatever group-du-jour he's got. He found an organization which has for a century been completely unrecognized by any 'regular' Masonic body and he appealed to their penchant for dabbling in political matters. The current so-called Grand Orient is just one in a long series of self-aggrandizing groups Mr. Peace has built, mostly with internet websites, sock puppets (phantom online identities), and a small coterie of good buddies who convince the gullible that they've got a better form of Freemasonry. (See below for more information and commentary on their connection with the Grand Orient of France.) So here's their lineage in a nutshell: a Mason in Georgia is expelled from Freemasonry. He starts several of his own 'national' Grand Lodges in succession - even though they never seem to achieve more than a dozen members in total. The most recent manages to snooker a couple of people - including a well-known internet gadfly - to traipse to France. They manage to convince some unrecognized Masons there that this is a great group with tremendous appeal and huge growth potential - as well as a force to be reckoned with - thereby giving the very political French folks a claim to having some great growth by partnering with a US group. Now does THIS create a "lineage"? If you were adopted by some a city employee and his family, would you be running around claiming that your 'lineage' extended to Marcus Aurelius???? And beyond that, any such family associations ceased some century and a half ago when the United Grand Lodge of England declared the Grand Orient of France to be clandestine and removed recognition. Once you get divorced, folks, you don't have the right to claim that your former wife's brother is your brother-in-law. Simple, really....
 

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There are two references to "several lodges", both extraordinarily misleading and, in our opinion, fraudulent. In the first instance, there were - as you can see documented on our page for the predecessor United Grand Lodge of America - at most TWO so-called lodges that formed their little club. One in Alabama which soon became independent of them (see our page titled It's the Vulcans!) and another that seemed to consist of the organizer himself and a small coterie of chums meeting at a local Starbucks coffee shop. The second reference to "several lodges" presumably includes Halcyon Lodge in Cleveland, Ohio which was seduced into following the Pied Piper path and precipitously claimed ownership to the charity funds and other properties. The Grand Lodge of Ohio and the ORIGINAL/REAL Halcyon Lodge are now engaged in a lawsuit while the apparent instigator is, at least publicly, remarkably aloof from the proceedings.

When we're wrong, we're wrong: on December 10, 2007 we found that there's really a (sorta) lodge #7! Sirius Lodge which was once supposedly on the rolls, such as they were, of the United Grand Lodge of America (way back in 2006) and before that was actually the Rose Croix Cross of Gold (but that was AGES ago, back in 2005!). Of course, once you get past the pseudonyms and 'sock puppets', it looks like that "lodge" consists of 3-4 people - the very same coffee-klatch folks! No telling what it will be in 2009 and no word, of course, on all of the others - and now there's a smoke screen being developed to try and co-mingle the five (some apparently not operating) lodges of the co-Masonic George Washington Union into the count. It's easy to do with the creation of a little HTML by the person behind all of these fantasy groups. Simply grab one of your old domain names and - TA DA! - more web presence for something that seems to exist only in the minds of the very, very gullible.

Do they have "several" now? In fact, they have a handful of sycophants located in five of the fifty United States who are CLAIMING to be part of a lodge but the true facts are that such 'lodges' consist primarily of themselves ONLY. Their 'Triangles' mean that they only have 1 or 2 members: that should give potential candidates some real pause when they're looking for a stable, centuries-old organization with world-wide Brotherhood. Ask, for example, what has happened to their "Liberty Lodge" and others.

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"Together, these two systems represent the most liberal and progressive form of Freemasonry in America, which is open to all people regardless of race, creed, or sex." Sounds great, doesn't it? Of course, if you blink, you may find that the founder - who has since achieved his long-desired role as ruler - has yet more and different ideas just as those many/few lodges under the United Grand Lodge of America did. Where are they now? Alas...
 

bullet"Our aim is the brotherhood of all humanity through a universal chain of union extending around the globe. If you are already with us in spirit then you are welcome to join with us in Masonic lodges throughout the world." Around the world? Well, if your world is an Atlanta, Georgia suburb you'll be all set. Beyond that, though, don't count on it - unless, of course, you want count meeting with one person in Arizona or one person in Idaho for example. (If they lose interest, you can always become hailed as a great leader all by yourself- as long as you don't encroach too closely on the limelight of the founder/ruler.) You can start now by giving your personal information to someone at the other end of an anonymous e-mail! And, we hasten to add, that so-called universal chain is HARDLY universal since their entire organization consists of less than two score people AND even some of the organizations that they ALLUDE to being buddy-buddy with have advised masonicinfo.com that they would have nothing to do with this group, regardless of its other claimed affiliations!

Get involved - but only if you agree with them

Like to have a good chat about politics? What about going off in your Masonic apron to picket the visit by the Pope? Want to have a rally in all of your regalia to protest a certain electoral candidate? (Hopefully he's not the one you want to win - but he might be!) Maybe you want to really support Amnesty International by being affiliated with a web site that has a link to both them and public television on it. (Rah-rah!!!) Oh, and that 'belief in a Supreme Being' context that you thought Masons said was so important? FORGET IT - with these guys!

Within hours of the creation of this group, one sock puppet on a blog wrote "What exactly has your Masonry done to defend human rights rights recently? What has it done to promote religious tolerance recently?" The same, obviously, could be asked of them. Railing against others for not having done something that has yet to be done (and never will be done) by yourself is disingenuous at best.

magicAnd the real answer is - from a regular/recognized Freemasonic standpoint - NOTHING because that is not the work of Freemasonry no matter how righteous it sounds. If you want to take a stand on political issues, go find a political organization with which to align. Freemasonry - the REAL kind - does not take partisan positions in religion or politics. It has been ably noted by all thinkers that, in most cases, defending one person's human rights may rightfully deny another of theirs. From a strictly rhetorical standpoint, it makes great theatre to claim that this new organization will do all sorts of things but the reality is that it simply can't be accomplished. This is the hyperbole that has become so standard in all of the groups formed by this one individual. In fact, just a couple of years ago it was claimed that they (via one of their predecessor groups) were going to help the youth of America by supporting DeMolay - except for the truth: they LIED! (One anonymous internet identity in an attempt to discredit our site claims that they were prohibited from doing so. How curious. Somebody refused to take money? Uh-huh.... In fact, the Executive Director of DeMolay International in a personal conversation with this web site's owner stated that he'd never even heard of them - a full year after they'd been proclaiming their financial benevolence for DeMolay.) We note too that the 'fine print' now says that their MEMBERS support "some of" the organizations whose logos appear on their website. Doesn't that smell awfully fishy? What OTHER organizations do "some of" their members support? And to what extent? Why would an organization have links to other organizations if they themselves have no connection to them. (Think about it: the Red Cross doesn't have links to Grand Lodges of Freemasons despite the fact that many Grand Lodges are by far the biggest group of blood donors they have.) Could it be that GOOFUS is using yet another 'cheap trick' to garner your support?

By its very existence, Freemasonry (the regular and recognized kind) practices religious tolerance and thus stands as a beacon to it rather than as an activist in a partisan campaign whereby you might find yourself on the 'wrong side of the tracks' as arguments flare over which religion should be supported over which other.

In the Grand Orient of France, there's no Bible and nothing whatsoever to do with prayers. Secular humanism - or whatever brand of agnosticism you wish - is what you'll find there. In order to thumb their nose in the face of Masons who've rejected them, Mr. Peace - an expelled Freemason - now touts this as a 'better kind' of Freemasonry than the one that has existed for some 300 years teaching that faith, hope and charity are essential to a man's life and character. Frankly, we think it's like ordering a rib-eye steak and being told that the tofu placed in front of you is really what you wanted. (And no, we don't have anything against tofu.... well, maybe but that was just an example!....)

And let's not forget - as one chat room moderator has already commented: "Can someone explain how honourable men of integrity last year believed that a recognition of a supreme being was a landmark and that non inclusion of females was another landmark, have this year completely reversed those held and sworn views?"

One other very important point

So far, the organizations started by the person who started this one have had the half life of a fruit fly. Do you have ANY reason to believe that this will be any different? In truth, all you're going to see are pseudonyms and claims: never pictures nor any kind of proof whatsoever that this is anything more than just another personal aggrandizement - a website created for what can charitably be referred to as 'smoke and mirrors'.

Self-Identification - Brad and his antics

Barely 24 hours after their start, ONE individual identified himself publicly as being a member: Brad Cofield of California. Within less than a year, he has become such a gadfly relative to Masonry on the internet, we've created a separate page about him here. Although initially there were online posts that Brad would be leading their efforts in the northwest US, they quickly realized that he was even further off the scale then they themselves. Now when the topic comes up, they suggest that they saw through Brad and disassociated quickly. It's like bragging that you had the good sense not to put your hand in a boiling pot of water on top of a stove: should you really get credit for that kind of thoughtful behavior?

Their Affiliations....

When we first read that they had achieved 'fraternal relations' and a 'patent' from the Grand Orient of France and the George Washington Union of Freemasons in North America (although often coyly phrased as if they might not want to publicize it too widely and actually have one or both of those organizations officially deny it), it seemed hard to believe. In one of the two instances it was - and in the other, there seems to have been quite a lot added in the translation.

The Grand Orient of France has a long history. Because of France's proximity to England, Freemasonry arrived there very shortly after the formation of the first Grand Lodge in England in 1717. The Grand Orient was formed in 1733, the same year the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was formed. While originally very democratic in terms of membership (as documented by Professor Margaret C. Jacob in her seminal work in this area, mischaracterized by Mr. Peace for his own agenda), it soon became the playground for French nobility with the common man being forced from the scene almost completely. Records of histories are either absent or contradictory and anyone who claims full and complete understanding of the many issues of French Freemasonry's first century is a pretender. Likewise, anyone claiming that they have 'dynamite evidence' proving that Anglo-Freemasonry is somehow lacking in favor of the French has certainly never submitted their work to the criticism of Masonic scholars. Were they to do so, they would be laughed out of the building!

Suffice it to say that in 1877, the Grand Orient decided that freedom of conscience meant that a lodge should not ask whether a person held a belief in God. Thus atheists, agnostics, and basically anyone could join if they said they felt they could lead a good life. This flew in the face of western beliefs that having faith in a Supreme Being (regardless of how defined) was a crucial element to keeping one's bond. There followed acceptance of policies which allowed inter-visitation with mixed gender lodges etc. which is FAR different from the esoteric-initiatic path that the founder of GOOFUS seems to hawk. This affiliation comes at a time when the Grand Orient of France has been embroiled in some heated political matters in France and when many non-recognized groups are making moves to position themselves as being 'strong by association' with two other groups from England. Perhaps those in France don't realize that the Grand Orient of the United States of America will only add a handful (if that) of members to their stable or perhaps this is all part of a complex scheme to 'stick it in the eye' of regular/recognized Freemasonry!

"A Grand Orient may be defined as the French substitute for a Grand Lodge. ...  a Grand Master with a council, which was almost always appointed and not elected, the appointive power being the council, with the result that a self-perpetuating rule was established. ... First, there was the innovation of Masters ad vitam (for life) whereby the charter Master was often named in the charter as Master for life or so long as he chose to hold the office. He thus virtually owned the lodge... ... A typical Grand Orient is composed of a coterie of Grand Officers, who appoint a Grand Council as an executive committee, and the latter nominate or control the election of Grand Officers, constituting a wheel within a wheel until a revolt occurs."

Excerpted from Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961. Page 295-296.

And while we've always tried to be non-political here at masonicinfo.com, are there really big groups of Americans thinking that the way the French do things is a great example to adopt in the US? Now we mean NO disrespect here whatsoever and we're not like the crazy US congress-critters who wanted to ban the 'french fry' a few years ago. However, we just don't quite see the synchronicity that would make this attractive. Why would young, ostensibly upward-mobile, American males - regardless of their ancestry - want to look to France for guidance in the way to run an organization - ANY organization? Why would anyone look first to the French for their approval, regardless of how warm and fuzzy they might feel about the French Revolution (including the guillotine, public hangings, etc.) a couple of centuries ago? Perhaps the couple of GOOFUS members, not examining the full implications of political dabbling, finds these very political stances of the Grand Orient of France attractive. Perhaps the founder, as has been suggested for several years, wants to use Freemasonry for political clout in pursuing his goals of self-aggrandizement. Perhaps it's the lack of any religious base in French Grand Orient Freemasonry that they now find attractive (or convenient). We think, though, that most men who come to regular/recognized Freemasonry, when there's a comparison between the policies of the GOF and regular/recognized Grand Lodges, would nearly always choose the later.

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Quips, Squibs and Some Curiosities by Mason & Author Leon Zeldis, 2008, P. 80

Their Friends?

Let's take just one for an example: The George Washington Union was formed some thirty years ago. Pretty impressive, you're thinking: they're still going so what's the problem? Well, while it was formed thirty years ago, there are only FIVE (count 'em) lodges in their whole stable WORLDWIDE! They are as follows: Franklin Roosevelt - Chicago (which doesn't seem to be meeting and there's no information on their web page), Golden journey - San Francisco, Liberty - Washington which claims to be meeting in Bethesda, Maryland at an undisclosed location, Raoul Zetler - Montreal (which is in a very run-down part of town and is in a building used by various New Age groups and societies) and New Isis- Los Angeles which ostensibly meets in the (real) Masonic building of a California Lodge in Van Nuys that can be rented for weddings, receptions, parties, etc. {Note: In California it is not uncommon for many groups of varying kinds to use Masonic buildings for their meetings. This, of course, may give this particular "lodge" group the appearance of Masonic regularity but should you try to visit any one of the four lodges which make up the ownership of the building and are part of the Grand Lodge of California, you'd find yourself rejected.} But, despite their small number of lodges, their membership in the 2006 World Masonic Report show at a staggering - hold on for this - THIRTY SEVEN. Yes, folks: 37. Not 37,000. Not 3,700. Not even 370. Thirty seven (37). With five lodges that means they've got an average membership throughout the United States & Canada of less than 8 members per lodge. While it could be argued that there are lodges in regular/recognized Freemasonry where attendance might be lower than this, they're few and far between - and the rest of the lodges in the jurisdiction contribute to the overall membership count within one's state/province. This is 5 lodges & 37 members - in total - across two countries! We won't belabor it further: we've done the math for you so you can mull over what a tour de force you'll be joining up with should you go with these folks. Just don't plan to join what they call Freemasonry expecting that you'll have lots of places to visit. Regular/recognized Masonic lodges won't let you cross the threshold!

Tortured Tracings - On December 10, 2007 we discovered a NEW website - at the domain of Mr. Peace's old tracingboard.com where he had excoriated various Grand Masters in Georgia, this site and its owner, and more - done up more neatly for the George Washington Union group. It made them look FAR more hip than their 1990s site (never updated) but, of course, one wonders on what authority this was done. No matter. By March, 2008 it was changed yet again to be "A place supporting a dialogue among Traditional Cosmopolitan Freemasonry in North America, the Anglo-American tradition of Freemasonry and wider civil society." Yeah, as if there were any such thing! It really is to laugh. And not long afterwards, the site was redesigned yet again to be the mouthpiece for the GOOFUS group. Don't blink: it may be something else tomorrow and tough break for the George Washington Union folks who were tossed aside as no longer useful, a typical situation with the Peace-created organizations when things aren't convenient for him.

If you do go to visit the GOOFUS website, be sure to look in on their discussion forums.  <PAST TENSE: They don't exist any longer - as of 2010. Apparently it's too lonely to talk to one's self!>   It's pretty interesting. Not long ago, they were busy railing against US President George Bush with some considerable invective. (Curiously, no discussion of the riots in France, particularly in light of their ostensibly close alliance.) One wonders how comfortable a person who supported the US President would feel amongst them - but it's quite likely they don't care about those little things like keeping Freemasonry separate from politics. They're just following their French Grand Orient heroes in that regard. You'll be fine as long as you always agree with them philosophically. If you don't, who knows.... <shrug>

Watch the Ball

If you think a group which has a one imperial leader (who has FINALLY taken over as Grand Master, a move long seen coming by realists but denied by the sycophants) who changes things at his whim, which has more internet sock puppets than actual members, and which will be another sub-page on this site two years from now is the thing you want to join, GO FOR IT! Let us know, using a REAL name and address please, how it's working out for you.  (Masonicinfo Note: We made this offer in November, 2007 and we're still waiting....)

Even better: you can claim - like other anonymous posters on a particular blog which touts this group but whose creator, curiously, doesn't have the faith in them to leave his membership in the regular/recognized Grand Lodge of Georgia behind to jump on board - that you too are going to be part. Don't forget: you can post the same message several times with different screen names so that it'll look like there's LOTS of folks doing it - and only the blog's owner will know that it's really one person, perhaps the one person who's also the SOLE power in this organization!

Oh, and please say a prayer of remembrance for the many, many poor members who were left behind when the now completely gone from the internet (and everywhere else, it seems) United Grand Lodge of America went away. <sniffle></sarcasm>  WAIT!!! UPDATE!!! We read on a forum posting that there was NO ONE left behind as the Grand Lodge of the United States simply changed its name. That is REALLY good news - and nice to know they've still got all of their half-dozen members. Who knows: within a few years they may even be up to 37 - although that would take more than a miracle, we'd opine!

A three century tradition - Founded 2006!

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.

"Othello" (3.3.180-86)

A common argument used by this group and similar ones created 'via internet' is to parse the actions taken by Freemasonry and Grand Lodges hundreds of years ago. They're quick to cite specific actions without any explanation of surrounding circumstances which justified them AND they ignore the consequences which led to today or their particular relation to said actions. Further, though, if they're convinced that things should be the way they were when those decisions were made a couple of hundred years ago, there'd be no such thing as the 'progressive liberalism' they're promoting and we'd likely have public floggings. If you want to join a group similar to this, why bother to pay them? Simply go to Amazon, get a copy of Duncan's ritual (under $8 at the time of this writing and they even show drawings from a couple of hundred years ago too!), grab your best friend and make him the Treasurer, and start your own group. Make up your own rules, just like they did, and set up some web sites. Heck: you too can be a Grand Master - and more. 

What's the latest?

In the never-ending saga of Medici-like maneuvers, things continue to happen:

Brad Cofield seems to have had his hands slapped yet again, but this time by the GOOFUS boys themselves. He was tossed off of their discussion forum (where the half-dozen posters try to keep themselves motivated - more on this below) followed by questions of whether he was using more secret identities to gain re-entrance. Ah, too bad - but never fear: we predict a rehabilitation in short order. Those who enjoy the game of ice hockey, particularly watching at a professional level, understand the role of an 'enforcer' on the ice - and Mr. Cofield fills that bill nicely. We predict that he'll be pulled back out of his temporary retirement shortly. After all, the GOOFUS owner can't afford to let even the most intransigent individual slip away, particularly if it might increase membership by 10% - adding a single new member). Watch for it soon. (An admission of his banning and a variety of ranting can be found in the comments on the blog post here.)

OH! And then there's the big announcement (there WAS an announcement, wasn't there? No? Oh....) about an ostensible new Grand Master. With such a few people, everybody internally must have known and the rest of the world could care less. We were going to refer to him as the Grand Master du jour but this one will be around for as long as GOOFUS is - and longer! Check here to find out who it is - as if anyone who'd followed this group for more than a nanosecond had any doubt. Ain't it GRAND?

And as might be expected, the kiddies who've always wanted to tout their technology skills as being SO far superior to the 'old poop Masons' they'd left behind have once again shown that age and experience trumps youth and cunning. They seem to have fallen flat on their backsides with their web site being "hi-jacked" <sic>. The terse announcement made on their forum by the forum Administrator (creator/Grand Master/etc.) on January 13, 2009 stated, simply, "Unfortunately, the GOUSA web site URL has been hi-jacked." and proceeded to advise members "DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR PERSONAL CONTACT INFO AT THE OLD SITE", not that we'd ever noticed a place for anyone to do so anyway. (Why would they? Another mystery....) What they didn't want to admit, though, was that their website had been managed by their original Grand Master who, when he was unceremoniously tossed out of the organization simultaneously with the second Grand Master in order to make way for the founder to - at last - assume the title he has always coveted but was apparently afraid to grab at the outset, simply shut the site down.

Subsequently, another website has been created apparently pretending that the prior one was of no consequence. (The former is for sale now to the highest bidder!) In what might be a response to our comments about the paucity of activity on their discussion forum, they closed it and instead declared their 'official forum' to be at 'bluelodge.org' where copyright material was freely stolen from other websites, those who stumble in are assaulted constantly if they express any negativity towards the GOOFUS boys, and where the 'true' Grand Master makes proclamations. It's a comedy. After about a year of this, the Forum creator decided that he was going to run for political office and, strangely, the forum had 'difficulties'. Curiously, the connection with the so-called Grand Orient of the United States was never mentioned and he lost in the primary election to - of all things - a Mason! Needless to say, www.bluelodge.org is nothing a link farm now and what little discussion there is has gone back to their former hangout, averaging about 2-3 posts a week, maximum. The former administrator is nowhere to be seen any longer.

And they've also got a website IN FRENCH for those in the US who are interested!!! Yeppers, there must be a zillion young men in the United States, fluent in French, just lining up to join because of this. It'll make them SO swaveeee.... <grin> All the best to you, boys - and by the way: perhaps you might want to consider brushing up on your tech skills, particularly because having a website "hi-jacked" <sic> when it's hosted on your own server really is pretty darn embarrassing. And who - since nobody speaks French - is going to be jazzing up that site? It was pretty hilarious that when the Grand Orient of France published an article about recognizing GOOFUS, the half-dozen posters on their forum were asking each other how they could get a translation. Yep, the chuckles never end with these kiddies!

Coming home to roost - again!

So many things left unanswered. Time will, though, tell all - especially as those who DO have half a brain are coming to realize how they've been hoodwinked here. On September 15, 2009, for example, there was a terse announcement on the Euclid Lodge blog that Euclid had severed their ties with GOOFUS. A few days later another post emphasized that the reasons were 'nobody's business' except lodge members. Ah, yes: transparency: ya gotta love it. Apparently too the Grand Secretary is now - like 3 other so-called "Grand Orient Officers" - eligible for a group that is growing even more rapidly than the Grand Orient themselves: the FFOJ - Former Friends of Jeff. Nobody can say that this site didn't foresee all of it....

And, we suspect, that Euclid - like Vulcan and the others who've gone off on their own - is now but a memory. How much money and time was wasted on playing make-believe to no end? Such a shame!

Overall, fewer and fewer of self-identified GOOFUS members are speaking up about anything anywhere online. Maybe they're using the Pike secret communication device with the flaming toad heads? Maybe they're realizing what we've been saying all along: this group is bogus/fake and is NOT Masonry or Free-Masonry or any kind of thing related to the organization of Freemasonry, under whatever affectation they choose!

Their Grand Master's world view:

"When I visited Halcyon for the first time I knew that I had found real Free-Masonry and true brotherhood. They had zero tolerance for liars, backstabbers, and loud mouthed as 7 sho 9 les. They had no problem kicking men like this out the front door of their lodge and making it clear that they were unwelcome to return." - Jeff Peace
Spaces and numerals added to the above quote by masonicinfo.com

Are you impressed? Is this what Masonry is: decide someone isn't quite the way you want him to be and so you tell him to get out regardless of what he might have done - just because you and your buddies don't like it? The Grand Master railed long and hard about his having been deprived of a Masonic trial and spent years (yes, YEARS!) trying to plead his case with anyone who would listen (indeed, we have documented proof!) but yet, it is apparently ok when it's done to somebody he doesn't like. A curious contradiction indeed....

Created 26 November 2007
Updated 10 December 2007 and a little more added January 2008, April 2008, July 2008, August, 2008 and January 31, 2009.
Updated 20 June 2009, 19 September 2009, 28 January 2010, and August 2, 2010.
On November 23, this page was retitled as GOOFUS History in order that the primary GOOFUS page might be simplified and more understandable to visitors who don't have the full history of this sham Masonic organization.
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!


 

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Dissembling Lodges
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He's SO Grand!
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It's the Vulcans!
United GL of America

 

 

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