Call it an “inconvenient truth.” And ask yourself: might America be a tad better off reckoning with and rectifying it?

One speaks here of the cornerstone for the nation’s Capitol.

That’s of course where both the House of Representatives and the Senate meet for many crucial (although of late decreasingly relevant) decisions.

Does the building itself carry a bit of a spiritual burden?

The reason for all the questions: that cornerstone was cemented in by George Washington, the first president, and while that was most appropriate, less palatable is that the nation’s first president was a Freemason who conducted the ceremony wearing a Mason’s apron during a formal Freemasonic ceremony.

While Congress itself was dedicated in 1774 with a Protestant prayer and sessions open with Christian ones, the cornerstone should be purged and rededicated in a Christian ceremony, while we still have Christians strongly represented in Congress and thus the opportunity. Christians make up 87 percent of voting members in the Senate and House of Representatives, combined, for the 2025-27 congressional session.

Redo the dedication. Blessings will result.

Washington was initiated into the Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia on November 4, 1752, at age 20. and throughout his life embraced his Masonic affiliation, taking part in ceremonies, visiting lodges, and becoming the first Master of the Alexandria Lodge in 1788, capped when he laid the U.S. Capitol cornerstone in Masonic regalia.

Popes have condemned Freemasonry since 1738 because its principles are considered irreconcilable with Catholic doctrine, specifically regarding naturalism, “religious indifferentism” (treating all religions as equally valid), and secret, anti-clerical oaths. Other prominent American Freemasons include Benjamin Franklin, Harry Truman, Paul Revere, Gerald Ford, J. Edgar Hoover, John Hancock, Douglas MacArthur, and Theodore Franklin.

Not evil men, by and large, but carrying the scent and thus the possible misfortune (read: bad luck) of ancient esoteria.

Pope Leo XIII spearheaded the Catholic anti-Masonic movement with his 1884 encyclical Humanum Genus, condemning Freemasonry for its attempts to destroy religious and civil order. He accused the organization of trying to secularize society, promote religious indifference, and dismantle Christian institutions.

Most of Freemasonry seems relatively banal, represented at its lowest and most innocent levels by social organizations such as the tricycle-riding Shriners (and doing good deeds, such as raising funds for hospitals), but at the highest, most secretive level have been constant rumors of deep dark mystical mischief and occultism.

While its historical origins are rooted in medieval stonemason guilds, the fraternity adopted (especially from the seventeenth century onward) Egyptian and esoteric themes to emphasize a “lost knowledge.”

Masonry, particularly within the Scottish Rite, frequently cites the Egyptian mysteries as the origin of its moral teachings and symbols, such as the pyramid, the eye, and secrets of life/death. Some Masonic legends refer to the Tower of Babel as a place where “language was confounded and Masonry lost,” setting up the pursuit of reclaiming that lost knowledge. It often finds itself tied in with occult practices, often as the unspoken progenitor or at least forerunner.