strategy . Essentially , we had won a major victory in gaining the recognition of an established body and we needed to focus more on building the fraternity and less on drawing the negative attention on the web . However , because the legal battle was still in process over the Halcyon building , Jeff was unwilling to back down . He became antagonistic when it was clear that the Halcyon building issue was not one of John ’ s primary concerns . During my term , Jeff and I spoke often about his plans for that building and he viewed it as a symbol and headquarters . John did not share that vision , or perhaps wanted to distance us from the controversy of the situation . So , after repeated requests to cease his fire-starting activities on the internet in the name of GOUSA , he resigned from the Board in protest .’
According to the minutes , Peace did indeed resign from the Executive Board in a meeting in November 2008 , but all was not what it seemed , as Peavy continues :
‘ When his resignation was accepted , he raised hell . He was under the illusion that the Board was going to beg him to return and when he demanded to be given back his position , he was told it was going to be voted upon at the next meeting , in following with the very procedures he himself helped to put into place . That wasn ’ t good
Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
50 enough for him either , so he decided to draw Halcyon and Sirius into a clandestine meeting where they unilaterally ‘ voted ’ to replace the Board and put himself as its Grand Master .’
So , within a matter of months from gaining the Charter , Slifko left the organization after an ongoing whispering campaign and after seemingly being ejected from his office by Peace who had been backed by his allies from Georgia and Halcyon . On hearing that Slifko had left , and blaming Peace for the discord , Peavy also resigned . Peavy maintains that Slifko had been used somewhat for his connections to obtain the Charter from the GOdF , and after that had been done , Peace took control , though with two lodges now gone ( Regulus and Intrepid ) the GOUSA Empire was somewhat diminished . Euclid Lodge had also left GOUSA by the end of 2009 , but there was still cause for celebration ; Halcyon Lodge won its court case with the Grand Lodge of Ohio in December 2009 , and an internet campaign was in full swing in an attempt to combat the Ed King website . Praxis Lodge had been founded in this same year , and GOUSA was still attracting prominent members such as David Tamayo , Krispen Hartung and Richard Ehrlich . The formation of the Benjamin Franklin and Praxis lodges around this time reveals that GOUSA Freemasonry was still an attractive alternative for disillusioned Masons despite the online attacks that the GOUSA leaders were receiving , though as Tamayo and Hartung would quickly find out , their more