Politics make strange bedfellows. 1 The fight for the hearts and minds of Americans and the home-front battle against international communism in the mid to late twentieth century created some strange and sometimes unwitting alliances. One such was the John Birch Society.
Among those attracted by the Bircher’s message of American values and anti-communism were a number of Christian fundamentalists who viewed both communism and Freemasonry as anti-American and probably satanic. When the masonic membership of a number of the society’s founders was noticed, this led to a belief that the society was actually some form of diversionary tactic on the part of an international satanic conspiracy.
"The Belmont Brotherhood," an unpublished "expose" of the John Birch Society, is the source of the name of this imagined group. It refers to freemasons who worked in the John Birch Society offices in Belmont, Massachusetts. The current main promoter of this attack on the John Birch Society is Nicholas J. Bove, Jr., 2 a former research assistant of the society’s founder, Robert Welch.
It appears that Robert Welch’s library contained a number of books on Freemasonry and on page 14 of the John Birch Society Bulletin of October, 1973 Welch assured his readers that "American Masons are just as patriotic as you or I." Welch mentions a number of occasions that he spoke out against communism at masonic lodges.
On December 20, 1972, Andrew Lane wrote from the Belmont offices, in response to concerns expressed by one Dr. Stuart Crane about freemasons in the society: "The JBS has no position on Freemasonry." "The Masons today are usually the outstanding and solid citizens of their communities." Again, on February 20, 1973, Andrew Lane wrote "...I do know many members of the Order, have over the years worked with many of them in a book, and related to several, all of whom are of unquestioned patriotism and loyalty to all that is finest in American and in Christian traditions."
A number of John Birch Society leaders have been freemasons: Council member Robert D. Love, founding member T. Coleman Andrews (1960-61 Who’s Who in America), Council member Ralph E. Davis, Frank E. Masland, Jr. (1964-65 Who’s Who), Cola Godden Parker (1950-51 Who’s Who), early JBS Council member Joseph Bracken Lee (1976-77 Who’s Who in America), Editorial Advisory Committee member of American Opinion Robert Bartlett Dresser (1976-77 Who’s Who in America)
The usual attacks are made by Bove: that 32° Scottish Rite freemasons worship Lucifer, that Albert Pike made this claim, and that 32° Scottish Rite freemasons are by definition "high-ranking". Stripped of his rhetoric and assertions, Bove fails to demonstrate that these freemasons in the John Birch leadership did anything other than convince the council that freemasons could be as patriotic and anti-communist as any other Americans. His only criticism of them is the fact that they are freemasons. His criticisms of Freemasonry are discredited lies.
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