hh on Nostr: Not really. When I was living in Singapore I met a very senior local mason there and ...
Not really. When I was living in Singapore I met a very senior local mason there and I spent some time around it (I even went to one of their Christmas dinners at the lodge) and my conclusion was that the way Regular Masonry is organized, it's unavoidable that the members are well to do financially, and influential in their field. They also have a duty to be obedient to the local laws and generally speaking to avoid partisan politics. I guess in Singapore that's an easy ask.
The thing is, because government and private wealth are so deeply embedded in each other currently, it's a given that they also have "access". But that's a consequence of having money and being successful in the first place, in my opinion.
As for the particular case of Spain and Catholicism, yes, it may sound strange, especially because Franco was furiously anti-Mason (rumor says because he did not make the cut).
But again, influential and well to do people who are for the established legal order in Spain tend to be overwhelmingly Catholic, regardless, and Freemasonry was basically eradicated during the Franco era and "reconstructed" from scratch, so I imagine they "repopulated" it with people from the Spanish status quo.
In any case, regular Masonry insists that members pledge their belief in a supreme being (an "Architect"), and that they do so in the presence of a Holy Book of their choice (so, the Bible, basically). So it's not a stretch for Catholics to connect the dots (in their head).
As a personal note, my friend in Singapore never once asked me to join - they have a strict policy of waiting for you do ask. After a while I openly asked him to what extent they would really make me pledge a belief in a "supreme being" which I simply do not share.
He said that as long as I had my own interpretation of what that meant, it'd be OK, implying that even an atheist could join, if I had a vague notion that the universe is "rational" (as in based on the Architect's "plan"). I told him I am a resolute atheist and I simply could not rationalize it or make it work with my view of the universe, so I kept the relation, but strictly outside of the Lodge.
Completely unrelated to my Singapore experience, back home I came across another senior mason, but belonging to the "non regular" lodge over here. That's when I got to ask about their thing, and I felt equally uninterested in the end.
The thing is, because government and private wealth are so deeply embedded in each other currently, it's a given that they also have "access". But that's a consequence of having money and being successful in the first place, in my opinion.
As for the particular case of Spain and Catholicism, yes, it may sound strange, especially because Franco was furiously anti-Mason (rumor says because he did not make the cut).
But again, influential and well to do people who are for the established legal order in Spain tend to be overwhelmingly Catholic, regardless, and Freemasonry was basically eradicated during the Franco era and "reconstructed" from scratch, so I imagine they "repopulated" it with people from the Spanish status quo.
In any case, regular Masonry insists that members pledge their belief in a supreme being (an "Architect"), and that they do so in the presence of a Holy Book of their choice (so, the Bible, basically). So it's not a stretch for Catholics to connect the dots (in their head).
As a personal note, my friend in Singapore never once asked me to join - they have a strict policy of waiting for you do ask. After a while I openly asked him to what extent they would really make me pledge a belief in a "supreme being" which I simply do not share.
He said that as long as I had my own interpretation of what that meant, it'd be OK, implying that even an atheist could join, if I had a vague notion that the universe is "rational" (as in based on the Architect's "plan"). I told him I am a resolute atheist and I simply could not rationalize it or make it work with my view of the universe, so I kept the relation, but strictly outside of the Lodge.
Completely unrelated to my Singapore experience, back home I came across another senior mason, but belonging to the "non regular" lodge over here. That's when I got to ask about their thing, and I felt equally uninterested in the end.