World Egyptian Rite Masons 97 - Michigan and doubtful
anywhere else.
Here's their claim:
{The above was written by their leader, Warren Rodgers himself (as you can see if you follow the link here - you'll need to expand the answer of "Jeff", his middle and sometimes nickname <ROFL>) with grammatical and spelling errors left intact.} They also claim:
On this page there was the claim that they have 96,000 members worldwide. Pretty amazing, isn't it? Of course, this was even more amazing since they claimed to take in 7 new members each year - and from another page, there was a claim of only 800 members. Of course, they also claim that they've been around since long before the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 (they're supposedly Egyptian, after all!!!). They can also be seen bragging that "WE ARE NOT FREEMASONS, WE ARE MASONS. FREEMASONRY CAME FROM THE TEACHINGS OF OUR ORDER. WE ARE THE FATHERS OF FREEMASONRY. WERM MASONRY HAS ALL THE SECRETS OF THEIR ORDERS,THEY HAVE NONE OF OURS." Yeah, right! Thousands of historians have just missed this: amazing! And that's ok - because this section is about "Fake Masonry" in all its many permutations! There was also an article on their now gone website ostensibly written by an "Alan Scott" (who, surely coincidentally, has the same spelling and capitalization problems as Mr. Rodgers) which tells of the amazing good fortune to befall Rodgers. Obviously, any new millionaire would want to be circumspect about his new-found wealth, particularly when he was on the brink of financial disaster - according to the story. Perhaps not surprisingly, this story wasn't reported anywhere else.... However, this is just wonderful for the WERMs: because of Mr. Rodgers' largess, ostensibly, the WERMs claim that they don't ever charge anyone dues or membership fees. Of course, they've got a website set up to have people pay dues (and, it would seem, there have actually been people putting money in there - though one might assume that the anonymous dues payers aren't really anything but the site owner trying to 'prime the pump'....). You'll note too that there's a donation of $75 from Martin MacLorrain and not long afterwards, he was named a "Grand Master" for the Southeastern United States. In fact, several mentions of him were made on their now defunct website where his name was spelled differently almost every time! He must be SO proud.... Further, there's no explanation for how the WERMs funded themselves before May of 2013 when this remarkable inheritance occurred. Did they just get the 96,000 members AFTER that - at the rate of 7 per year? Must be my math isn't too good and surely there's an explanation somewhere, eh? 14 Attorneys too: heck, did you EVER hear of 14 attorneys coming from all parts of the country to sit in a room waiting to meet with someone who they didn't even know was available for an appointment??? Maybe that's the way they do things in Detroit but I doubt it. Oh, and a BLACK "old New York banking family"? REALLY??? (One correspondent suggested that a mixed race marriage might be involved but really: do you really believe ANY part of this story???) The WERM website talks about delivering food to a (perhaps conveniently unnamed) African country and then going there armed to supposedly force some warlord to release it to the people under threat of harm to himself and family - oh, and ostensibly carrying a letter from 'our government' (which might have been the United States based on the story) but not knowing what was in it. Yeah, right! Read "WHAT WERM EXSPECT'S WHEN WERM SENDS FOOD TO AFRICA ?" for a hearty laugh (starting with the misspelled title, of course!). It was removed from the site (before the site was removed) but the Internet Archive can regale you with Rodgers' bragging about arming themselves and staring down warlords. I wonder if anyone can produce a passport showing travel for this - or if they'll just claim that it was some sort of 'secret mission' and they didn't need such things. Yeah, right! Oh, and with adding only 7 members a year and the under $1,300 online fundraising, they're ostensibly building a USD $9 MILLION dollar building. Curiously, no mention of this can be found in any of the Pontiac newspapers that we could locate. Perhaps someone could show evidence of this somewhere - if the project isn't similar to the building that Sirius Lodge claimed they were building.... It was supposedly on hold but with Rodgers' death, perhaps we will see notice of project abandonment since he seemed to be the only member in Michigan - but more than likely, there'll be no mention since there was no such project - except in Rodgers' fantasies. I would be remiss if we didn't note that Mr. Rodgers was also at one time apparently involved with the Frank Ripel organization and has been disowned by them. (Read WAY down on the page here.) He's even created a full web page to castigate Mr. Ripel - in an interesting case of the pot calling the kettle.... Oh, and Mr. Rodgers ALSO claimed "...so the person who wrote i was was connected to a bunch of non main stream freemasonry groups was right and that i was connected to 16 other non main stream groups and just two main stream groups." (and will sell you his book so you can learn more). He also writes "I WAS A 33RD DEGREE IN MAINSTREAM FREEMASONRY WORKING FOR THE SUPREME COUNCIL AND DIDN'T KNOW ALL THIS ?" We would have LOVED to see some proof of this ludicrous claim since Mr. Rodgers' name doesn't seem to appear ANYWHERE in the records of EITHER the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction (in whose jurisdiction he apparently resided all his life - pictures of the Proceedings in which all 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Masons are shown) or the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite. (He never mentions this in his work history on Linkedin, not that he would have to, of course - but we wonder what a fellow who claims that he's been a 'Master Builder' for his entire career was doing working for them. In looking through 'class pictures' for a couple of decades, he's simply not shown so perhaps someone can point us to copies of the pages in which his name and photo appeared (or even cite the year and page number) for his being nominated and then, in the following year, receiving his recognition on his website??? That would be a GREAT way to show how we misjudged him. (And just for the uninformed: there are NO 'secret' 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Masons made - PERIOD!)
And we doubt you'll find more than a handful (if that many) of the ninety-six thousand other members of this group - but don't let us stop you from trying! We're not being cyber-bullies here, folks (a common whine when someone doesn't have a leg to stand on and one which Mr. Rodgers used when the spotlight of truth was pointed at him): we're simply pointing out the FACTS. This is a group that claims to be "Masons" - and they're not talking about the kind that'll build you a fireplace 'cause those men and women don't have or use numerical degrees after their names or dress up in colored robes, bizarre headgear, and fancy bejeweled aprons - so if they're not 'fake (free)masons', then what the heck do you suppose they are??? Can anybody name a religion (outside of WERM in some of their more bizarre claims, of course) that has a numerical degree system? Anyone??? and don't forget:
7/14/13 to all masons : priest training info. the temple jewel must be washed
once per day held over your head into sun light for three seconds. as a priest
in training you must say this : " may the rays from the sun protect me and my
family and the order of brothers of light " Careful: don't look up and get soap in your eyes while doing this. One final warning too: if you want to join the group's priest training, you must be circumcised. (Sorry: that link's gone also - thankfully!) Be forewarned.... <chuckle> See the entry under 1/11/2014 for more exciting expectations. April 2, 2014 and updated with links from Archive.org in June, 2014. Updated noting more proclivities in October, 2014 with his death notice added November 9, 2014. |
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