As a charter member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, I have watched with great pride the major contribution this society has made to Masonic education. Our Fraternity has no greater asset than a well-informed Mason, and the Society is playing a key role in educating our members.

It is my pleasure to be able to tell you that the Scottish Rite Research Society has requested the Masonic Information Center to update and make available to the Society a new edition of an important work by Bros. Art deHoyos, 32, and Dr. S. Brent Morris, 33. It is titled Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? The Methods of Anti-Masons.

Originally published in 1994, this 59-page, softbound, illustrated book has had four printings, and 17,000 copies have been distributed. Since the Research Society now has over 5,000 members and is adding more members daily, giving the second edition of this book to all Brethren who renew their membership in 1997 and to new members in 1997 will widen even more the influence of this important work. Intended to respond, on a point-by-point basis, to several of the most outspoken anti-Masonic critics, the revised and expanded edition will provide approximately 50 pages of new material. The new text is being written as of the printing of this article, and the revised edition should be available by spring 1997. Thus it will provide the latest information.

Why is this important? Whether it be the goal of several over-zealous Christians to destroy a church garden because it was dedicated to a man who happened to be a Mason; or a Catholic Bishop ordering excommunication of Freemasons, if they continue their memberships; or the Southern Baptist Convention attempting through misrepresentation of Masonic principles to condemn membership in the Masonic Fraternity, the anguish caused by these actions is hurting real people in real-life situations.

The Masonic Information Center is committed not only to helping make our members better understand our Fraternity but also to responding factually and emphatically to critics whose virulent condemnation of Freemasonry causes great harm to our members. The Masonic Information Center would like to thank the Scottish Rite Research Society for helping to make available to Freemasons and to the general public this very important book.

To become a member of the Scottish Rite Research Society and receive this significant publication, please fill in the membership application and send a check for $20.00 payable to The Scottish Rite Research Society to the address indicated in the application that follows. In addition to the bonus book, Brethren who hold lifetime memberships in the Society or renew their annual membership, new and existing members in 1997 will receive the quarterly newsletter of the Society. Entitled The Plumbline, this informative communication is filled with timely announcements and brief articles written in plain language. In addition, each 1997 member will receive in mid-1998, a hardbound, custom-covered book titled Heredom. It is a collection of very readable research papers written and submitted by Society members during the 1997 calendar year.