John Ratcliff's Weblog

Yesterday someone left a comment to one of my previous posts. In the classic tone of questions like 'So how often do you beat your mother?' I was asked how I felt about belonging to a cult not unlike Scientology. The term 'cult' is often bandied about, usually by people who belong to a cult. To me the term 'cult' implies a few things. First, it implies a charismatic leader who engenders deep devotion by his followers (ex: The Pope). The second major characteristic of a cult is that it practices time worn practices of brainwashing through the exercise of intense mind control. This often takes the form of an 'educational' process where spiritual threats of extortion are applied. (ex: Sunday School replete with threats of hell). Finally, I feel like something meets a cult status when it attempts to control the behavior of its followers impinging on their free will. (ex. Pretty much all Christian churches). There is one more criteria that people use to defin...

Right Worshipful Brother Christopher Hodapp has written an instant classic in his new book 'Solomon's Builders' . The book is clearly designed to leverage against the next Dan Brown novel that is supposed to be titled 'Solomon's Key' . Dan Brown's novel will be a work of fiction and is sure to allude to all manner of conspiracy theories and astronomical mumbo -jumbo. In contrast the non-fiction book 'Solomon's Builders' is impeccably well researched, referenced, and with a detailed bibliography. Brother Hodapp is able to cover a broad range of material in a smooth and flowing way that ultimately produces a compelling narrative; one that keeps the reader turning each page wanting to know 'what comes next'. I believe this book will be a requirement on the bookshelf of every Freemason or person interested in Freemasonry. One of the things that Brother Hodapp does so very well is to lay the record straight on just how influential Freemason...

I'm back from GDC and I figured I better make a post or I will just forget everything that happened. Not that a whole lot happened anyway, but I still want a record of the event. Let's see..how far back do I go? Last Sunday Troy DeMolay chapter held our regular meeting; and we certainly had a lot of business to discuss. We set out our upcoming plans which included a pancake breakfast fundraiser, a service project with the Shriner's children hospital, a talent competition as a fundraising opportunity, an upcoming movie night, our day of devotion at St. Cletus church, our fun day at the City Museum, our special ritual practice day at Wentzville Lodge, the Shrine Circus, a Rainbow Girls Dance, and conferring the entire initiatory and DeMolay degrees on our own. Wow, that's a lot of stuff! I spent many hours working on the newsletter, but I cannot provide a link here until I remove all of the personal information from the document. On Monday I flew to San Francisco. I was o...

Yikes! I just realized that a draft copy of a post had 'leaked out' onto my blog. I am writing up a recap about my trip last week to GDC , which includes a visit to a Freemason Lodge, a dinner at a Moroccan restaurant with my friends, some other trivia, and my thoughts on reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. However, I am not finished with it and sometime today, instead of hitting 'save as draft' I must have accidentally hit publish. I'm heading off to my tennis match now but if I find the time and inclination I will finish it up later this evening. For now, I am going to include a link to the March newsletter of the DeMolay Chapter my son is a member of. On Sunday, before I left for my trip, we had a big DeMolay meeting and did a lot of planning. The biggest item being that we made a commitment to perform our own initiatory degree *and* DeMolay degree in the months of April and May. I have been using a piece of publishing software I bought at Walmart ...

I have avoided talking about this topic ever since I became a Freemason. After all, I promised to be prudent, temperate, and discrete. I also promised that I would respect the religion of others. All that said, a man has his limits and I feel compelled to make comment. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people insist on referring to the Bible as the 'Holy' Bible. There is a particular irrational system built within Freemasonry that I have largely ignored. We are 'told' that it is open to men of all religious faiths, so long as they profess in a belief in God. I met these criteria, especially since I particularly like the term 'Great Architect of the Universe' since that phrase has a close affinity with my personal belief. Personally, I believe in a form of Intelligent Design since I believe the Universe itself to be a creative and intelligent entity. The fact that I am, myself, a creative and intelligent entity within Universe I find of particular significan...