by Midnight Freemason Contributor
WB Darin A. Lahners
The 1973 film Soylent Green was at the time of its release a shocking dystopian and grim depiction of the future. Set in the year 2022, it shows a society of haves and have-nots in which ecological disaster has caused a greenhouse effect that has rendered most vegetation and livestock extinct. People are forced to live in cities like New York where the population has swelled to 40 million people. Poverty is rampant and people are starving. The majority of the population relies on water rationing and a mysterious food known as Soylent to survive. While the upper class live in gated guarded luxury apartments, they also are dependent upon Soylent for nourishment. There are three brands of Soylent, Red, Yellow and Green; with Green being the most nutritious variety.
As the film unfolds, a police detective and a police researcher (Thorn played by Charlton Heston and Solomon ‘Sol’ Roth played by Edward G. Robinson) are tasked with investigating the death of a board member of the Soylent corporation. The Soylent corporation advertises that Soylent Green is made from plankton, but Roth uncovers research that the Oceans are no longer capable of producing plankton, and the truth is uncovered that Soylent Green is made from human bodies. Roth is so distraught that he goes to a government clinic to seek assisted suicide. Thorn rushes to try to convince Roth to stop but he arrives only with enough time for Roth to reveal the truth to Thorn, that Soylent Green is made from people. Thorn secretly boards a truck transporting bodies to a waste processing plant where he witnesses corpses being turned into Soylent Green. Of course, the Soylent Corporation does not want the truth to be revealed and a gunfight with Soylent thugs occurs. Thorn is able to defeat his attackers but is seriously wounded in the fight. As he is taken away by paramedics he urges his Police Chief to spread the truth, that Soylent Green is people!
By this point you’re probably asking yourself: “WTF does this have to do with Freemasonry other than one of the characters being named Solomon?”
Actually, it has a lot to do with Freemasonry. You see, Freemasonry is like Soylent Green. It is also made up of people, and it comes in different flavors (in the form of appendant bodies). But that answer isn't adequate, is it? While accurate, the fact of the matter is that Freemasonry is like soylent green because Freemasonry has a habit of unsuspectingly eating itself.
Allow me to explain. Picture a man who has petitioned a Masonic lodge. We don't have to determine the lodge's pretend location because what I'm going to describe is symptomatic of many lodges across the United States (and maybe internationally). It also doesn't matter how he contacted the lodge to petition (maybe he's an internet inquiry, or he has just shown up, or he's an invitation to petition. All that matters is that we have a man who has petitioned a Masonic lodge. His petition is read, and then the Worshipful Master assigns an investigation committee to investigate the candidate.
A cursory investigation is done, asking basically if there is a belief in a supreme being, and if they have any felonies. The man is voted upon and he's eventually initiated, passed, and raised. Let's imagine the below scenario.
The man committed a crime(s) in the past. Because the lodge did no due diligence, the sex offender gets in close contact with the lodge member's wives and children, the girls of Rainbow Girls or Job's Daughters, the boys of Demolay, the women of OES, or the Order of Amaranth. The unimaginable happens. A child is molested, or a woman is raped. The Lodge and Grand Lodge are sued in civil court. If the sex offender had joined the Shrine or other appendant bodies, they are sued as well. There is a massive settlement awarded to the plaintiff. The amount is much larger than any insurance policy Grand Lodge has to cover such things. As such the Grand Lodge is forced into bankruptcy, as well as its lodges who are incorporated under the Grand Lodge, and possibly the appendant body as well.
Conspiracy theories that believe Freemasons are evil in the most hideous ways are confirmed. Social Media backlash towards Freemasonry begins when a conspiracy TikTok gets millions of views. Soon a massive global anti-Masonic backlash occurs. A trend from TikTok to cancel Freemasonry gains steam. Freemasonry experiences a sharp decline in membership, mostly from men demitting to disassociate themselves from the Fraternity, and due to the backlash, online inquiries are only coming in so that rabid anti-masons can harass the remaining fraternity members when they follow up on the inquiry. Unlike the Morgan Affair, Freemasonry does not recover from the anti-Masonic backlash.
While fantastical, I do think that all or some of the above is possible.
We have left the west gate open for far too many years, and we must protect Freemasonry not only from without but also from within. It is just a matter of time before we have a member do something that massively harms the Fraternity. If a Mason in most jurisdictions is automatically expelled upon committing a felony, shouldn't we also make sure that we exclude from membership all Felons? While I once wrote an article on this subject for this blog only to think I was wrong about the first article in a subsequent article, I have come to realize that Freemasonry needs to be protected at all costs, We should not allow men with a prior Felony conviction to join our fraternity, and we should also not allow members with prior felony convictions to remain in the fraternity, nor ones with any misdemeanor sexual offense.
To accomplish this, we should require background checks for all candidates for Freemasonry, but also a one-time criminal background check for all current members to enforce the above. In doing such, we are separating the wheat from the chaff. Those who have something to hide will be the ones who protest, those who are innocent will not. Not every man deserves to be a Mason, and we must decide that what matters more is the quality of our membership over the quantity of our membership.
We can ill afford to continue to tempt fate. Do you think we can afford to be wrong?
~DAL
Darin Lahners is a husband, father, Freemason, and fan of the actor Matt Berry.
