This Mason Is Fighting For His Civil Rites

I once covered a John Birch Society meeting where a paranoid speaker insisted world events were actually orchestrated by a vast Masonic conspiracy.

These can’t be the same Masons that Seattle resident Martin D. Ringhofer is wrangling with.

To hear him tell it, the exalted pooh-bahs of Washington’s Grand Lodge are a thin-skinned gang of vindictive geezers whose lack of vision and inept leadership contributes to a critical decline in membership.

Ringhofer - through his Spokane attorney, Marc Roecks - launched a $1.5 million civil rights lawsuit the other day against Masonic leaders Ringhofer says had him blackballed for political reasons.

The legal action offers a rare peek into the ages-old organization that is the foundation for the Scottish Rite, Shrine, Eastern Star and other fraternal orders. Washington’s Tacoma-based Grand Lodge oversees 230 Masonic lodges scattered all over the state.

Ringhofer, 45, has been a loyal Mason for over two decades. He’s a past master and member of the Daylight Lodge of Seattle.

But in October 1993, Ringhofer and three pals were blackballed when they applied for dual affiliation with another Seattle lodge.

The unexpected ouster was extremely fishy considering Ringhofer and the others were invited to join the second lodge by its enthusiastic members.

“We were Masonically killed,” complains the Boeing executive, adding that being a blackballed Mason is as stigmatic as wearing a scarlet letter. He says he lost friends and is unwelcome at other Masonic meetings. He tabled plans to join the Scottish Rite in fear of being blackballed again.

The rejection, he claims, was ordered like a Mafia hit by Grand Lodge muckymucks who view Ringhofer and the others as irritants.

Ringhofer publishes an unauthorized newsletter that is often critical of the old guard and their alleged tyrannical ways. He pushes for reform, educational programs and progressive methods to bring new blood to an organization Ringhofer believes is withering away.

“Quite frankly, they (Masonic leaders) wanted to censor him,” says attorney Roecks. “They were saying, ‘Mr. Ringhofer, we do not allow free speech in our organization.”’ Grand Lodge secretary John Keliher says he’s confident Masonic executives will be vindicated, but declined to discuss any specifics.

“When you are dealing with somebody who is profoundly dissatisfied,” he says, “there’s nothing we could do at this point that would not make him feel worse.”

Reading from a prepared statement, Keliher adds that the Grand Lodge believes Ringhofer “has not been deprived of any rights or benefits to which he may be entitled….”

Ringhofer blames out-of-touch, authoritarian leaders for Masonry’s decline. Washington, he notes, had 65,000 Masons when he joined in 1973. Today, he says, Masonic membership has dwindled to about 30,000.

But bucking this still-powerful system, he concedes, is not easy. Ringhofer says he couldn’t find a West Side lawyer brave enough to take on the Masonic power structure.

Hmm. Maybe there’s something to that Masonic conspiracy theory, after all.

He found Roecks with the help of Spokane’s William Sweikert, a Mason for 54 years who holds its highest ranking. Sweikert, 75, shares Ringhofer’s reformist views and says similar lawsuits have been filed in other states.

But why should we non-Masons care about all this?

Sweikert answers quickly. The public, he says, will be the biggest loser should Masonry continue its downward slide.

We do owe a lot to the Masons. From hospitals for crippled children to burn treatment centers to free clinics, generous members pay billions to help people in dire need.

That’s what this lawsuit is all about, says Ringhofer, saving an organization he dearly loves, not collecting a big settlement. “Quite frankly,” adds attorney Roecks, “Martin would be thrilled if he could just get the Masonic leaders to clean up their act.”

, DataTimes