John Ratcliff's Weblog

I just received the question "So which religions do openly accept Free Masons in their church as members? " in a comment to one of my previous blog posts. This is certainly an interesting question, though I think it would be easier to list the ones that openly *reject* Freemasonry, as they are easier to identify. The single religion at the top of the list which is opposed to Freemasonry is Catholicism. This has a lot to do with history and the fact that the Enlightenment ideas in Freemasonry largely came about in response to the ideological oppression of the Roman Catholic Church in past centuries. Freemasonry and the rise of protestantism also have a lot in common. Today the Catholic Church is still 'officially' against Freemasonry and has reaffirmed that position fairly recently. That said, few Catholics actually abide by every rule and regulation set forth by the Roman Catholic Church. For example, the RC still says you shouldn't use condoms but I'm ...

My daughter got her senior pictures taken recently. I think they turned out great!

It seems as though I have pretty much stopped blogging on any issue of significance for the past few months. I suppose that must mean there is nothing much going on in my life to talk about; right? Actually, it is almost always just the opposite. There is a lot going on in my life, just nothing that is appropriate to air in a public forum such as this weblog. It is deeply personal family stuff that, even though it is affecting my life, would be horribly inappropriate to air in public. I even created a blog at one point just so I could write about it. I flagged it as 'hidden from public view'. I only updated it for a few days and then I decided I was obsessing about the problem enough without taking it any further. Speaking of obsession, I actually suffer from OCD. I suppose I can talk about personal issues, so long as they are just about me and not anyone else. I take medication for my OCD problem and it seems to work exceptionally well except under times of extreme st...

This evening I decided to delete all of the posts, and comments they have received, for the past week. Of course I can't really make the words I wrote go away. They still sit in newsreader feeds and those who were hurt by them are still impacted. However, by removing the posts I can stop things from getting any worse and I can remove them from future search results on the web. Not a single opinion I hold or expressed in those posts has changed. I still feel strongly about all of the points I raised and stand by everything I said. However, it has been brought to my attention that my strong expression of disbelief in certain religious views can be hurtful to those who embrace them. I did take an oath to be tolerant of the religious views of others and there was not a great deal of tolerance showing through in my recent posts and comments. What gets me in trouble is a combination of things. First, writing a rant late at night after I have had a few beers tends to loosen my fing...