The Grand Orient of the United States of America : A Modern Masonic Experiment ?
Liberal views of Freemasonry came into conflict with what they saw as the ‘ boys club ’ that was centered around the Halcyon building .
Hartung , like Slifko before him , was attracted to GOUSA by the opportunity to become involved in a more Liberal and philosophical form of Freemasonry , Hartung initially seeing an organization that offered a progressive pathway :
‘ I truly just wanted to bring back and foster the Freemasonry of the Age of Enlightenment that I had read about . Having obtained my degree in Philosophy , I longed for this philosophical engagement blended into a fraternity-like organization . Before I joined the local Blue lodge here in Boise , I naively thought that the Freemasonry of Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire was what I would experience . Instead , I encountered a good ol ’ boys club that spent 90 % of its efforts on constant membership drives and rituals , and no philosophical or enlightenment at all . I was extremely saddened and disappointed by this , but this also fuelled my passion to start a ‘ Modern ’ lodge that was in alignment with the GOdF principles and values , their emphasis on education , freedom of conscience and thought … I found the Arizona lodge [ Lodge Emeth ], Jeff Peace and GOUSA only by accident in my research . There were other Orders I considered , but from what I gathered at
51 the time , GOUSA was the closest thing to the GOdF . Once GOUSA started to crumble , we switched to GWU for the same reasons ; to support this Age of Enlightenment form of Freemasonry , but not do it alone . We wanted to be part of a larger , legitimate organization . If we could have been directly under the GOdF , we would have done it , because we wanted to be in direct alignment to the original Modern movement of the Enlightenment . All this aside , the infighting , politics , egos , my trial , etc ., were only part of the reason for my personal choice to bow out of Freemasonry . The other reason is that I had put a ton of work into GOUSA ( the giant education binder I put together ) and Praxis to promote our cause and gain members . But in the end I was burned out . I couldn ’ t do it by myself , not even with the help of Lane [ Startin ]… I am still very attracted to the idea of a Modern or ‘ Red ’ lodge and the idea of practicing the more philosophical and thought provoking Masonry . If such a lodge existed here and was well established , I would most certainly join .’
Peace , by this time , was now Grand Master of the firmly masculine GOUSA hierarchy , and with the more Liberal elements of Slifko , Peavy and Cooksey gone from the leadership , the organization certainly seemed to reflect a club for close-friends , based around a clique of members from Halcyon in Ohio , rather than the progres-