The following comes from Mark Koltko-Rivera’s blog, Freemasonry: Reality, Myth, and Legend, and is cross posted here to communicate as far as possible.
In his piece, Mark skillfully reminds Mercedes-Benz of the atrocities during the holocaust that befell European Freemasons under the Nazi regime using Satanist Masonic propaganda like their commercial (see below) to put to death many members of the fraternity.
While I doubt Mercedes-Benz is purposefully linking Freemasonry and Satanism, by including the Masonic square and compass in such a manner could not be taken in any other way and is a thumb in the eye to the history of the fraternity. For context, all one need to do is examine the connection between Anti-Masonic Nazi propaganda and it’s horrific effects on the fraternity in Europe.
Mark and I both strongly urge you to let Mercedes-Benz know how offensive the commercial is which you can do on their online comment form or on their Facebook Page, or sign the petition on Change.org.
From Mark Koltko-Rivera:
Mercedes-Benz Super Bowl Commercial Links Freemasonry to Satan
Tomorrow, during the television broadcast of the Super Bowl, Mercedes-Benz will officially unveil its commercial for the all-new CLA-class automobile. It’s a terrific commercial. Unfortunately, it also is a monumental libel upon Freemasonry.
You can see the commercial for yourself here. The commercial features the talented Willem Dafoe (shown above) in a great turn as Satan.
(the video has since been taken off-line)
No, Dafoe’s character is never actually named Satan, but the soundtrack features the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” (available here with lyrics in the notes). More to the point, Dafoe’s character presents the protagonist with a contract to sign, a contract which has already been executed under the seal of “the Master of Devils and Demons” (translating the Latin, seen below). No reasonable person could see the commercial and think that Dafoe’s character is anyone other than Satan or one of his minions.
Here’s the thing: Satan is depicted as wearing a Masonic ring—on his left ring finger, yet!—easily visible at several points in the commercial, some of which feature close-up shots of Satan’s hands (two shown below).
(The pointy fingernails, à la the Devil in the film Rosemary’s Baby, are an especially nice touch, don’t you think?)
The implication is clear: Mercedes-Benz links Freemasonry to Satan. (Yes, I know, this particular ring shows that the Devil hasn’t gotten very far in Masonry, but that’s not the point.)
There are, of course, those who would say we should just ignore this in the spirit of good fun. Except that it’s not good fun to have to answer to people who think that Freemasons are devil-worshipping Satanists.
Last Wednesday night, I attended the Special Communication of the American Lodge of Research, at Masonic Hall, in New York City. (Facebook page here.) Those in attendance heard a paper on the topic, “Freemasonry and the Holocaust,” by Brother C. Moran (which will appear later this year in the published Proceedings). During the presentation, I was struck by the parallels between the situation of the German Masons in the 1930’s, and our Masonic situation today.
To a surprisingly large extent, these Masons faced the same outrageous accusations that Masons today are faced with: that Masonry is an international conspiracy, and so forth. The Taxil hoax occurred only about forty years or so before the Nazis came to power, and many people throughout Europe believed that Masons worshiped Lucifer. Sound familiar? All of this helped to create a climate where thousands of thousands of German and other European Masons would be imprisoned in concentration camps—and many murdered—by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
The Mercedes-Benz people, knowingly or not, are perpetuating a dangerous myth by linking Freemasonry with Satan. I think we should complain about this—in great numbers. The following is the text of the e-mail that I am sending to Mercedes-Benz through their online comment form. Feel free to adapt it for your own comment, if you wish:
During the 2013 Super Bowl, Mercedes-Benz /plans to show/showed/ a television commercial, titled “Soul,” about the new CLA. It features a character portraying Satan, who clearly wears a Masonic ring in plain sight on his left ring finger.
This linking of Freemasonry to Satan is no joke. It was rumors like this that set the stage for the imprisonment and murders of thousands of Freemasons in Europe by Nazis during the Holocaust. The false rumor that Freemasons worship Satan is alive and well among millions of Americans today. Mercedes-Benz is adding fuel to the fire of that defamation with this television commercial.
Surely, to sell cars, Mercedes-Benz would not jokingly link Jews to Satanism (another popular rumor during the Nazi era). It would be good to not jokingly link Freemasons to Satanism either.
There are over a million Masons in the United States. None of them are pleased about this.
Sincerely,
Mark Koltko-Rivera
Master Mason
Winter Park Lodge #239 Free and Accepted Masons (Florida)
The American Lodge of Research (New York)
Masons need to stand up to people who make outrageous slanders and libels against our community. Let’s do that here.
Masons need to stand up to people who make outrageous slanders and libels against our community. Let’s do that here.
AS AN EXPELLED MASON—-YEP THERE ARE DEVILS IN MASONRY—AS IN CHURCHES–AS IN POLITICS–AS IN POLICE –ECT ECT—-IF YOU BELIVE IN GOD—THEN YOU BELIVE THERE IS A DEVIL—-MASONRY–HAS–NOTHEN TO DO WHAT SO EVER WITH THE DEVIL—-SAME AS CHURCHES—BUT—PEOPLE HAVE A LOT TO DO WITH THE DEVIL—WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE DEVILS IN ALL OUR GOOD ORGANIZATIONS —THERE LIES THE PROUBLEMS–RON CHASTEEN—20 YEAR MASON—EXPELLED IN ARKANSAS BY DEVILS—BUT—STILL A BELIVER IN GOOD
Mercedes Benz also has a Google+ page (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MercedesBenz/posts) and Twitter (@MBUSA). I’ve posted to all of their social media pages.
I hope Mercedes Benz and their ad agency realize their error and corrects it
from what I have seen, all concerned Brothers are voicing their outrage at this
if you haven’t done it already, please make your voice heard in this matter
Maybe we should add that many Masons are in the Middle-Class or in the Upper Middle-Class, the persons who actually can afford to by a Mercedes Benz, (I’m one of them, who owns one) they are not going to like to be characterized such way. I’m sure Mercedes Benz Co. do not want to alienate their potentional buyers.
During the 2013 Super Bowl, Mercedes-Benz /plans to show/showed/ a television commercial, titled “Soul,” about the new CLA. It features a character portraying Satan, who clearly wears a Masonic ring in plain sight on his left ring finger.
This linking of Freemasonry to Satan is no joke. It was rumors like this that set the stage for the imprisonment and murders of thousands of Freemasons in Europe by Nazis during the Holocaust. The false rumor that Freemasons worship Satan is alive and well among millions of Americans today. Mercedes-Benz is adding fuel to the fire of that defamation with this television commercial.
Surely, to sell cars, Mercedes-Benz would not jokingly link Jews to Satanism (another popular rumor during the Nazi era). It would be good to not jokingly link Freemasons to Satanism either.
There are over a million Masons in the United States. None of them are pleased about this.
Sincerely,
we are masons, not the over-reacting, superstitious knuckle draggers of the past. reacting to such situations is what gives it momentum. own it, laugh at it, comment on the clever artistic vision and use of metaphors but dont blow this out of proportion without knowing the consequences, because it never fails to bounce back and make us really look like we’r guilty of hiding something sinister. have a since of humor about it. we live in the light and are above petty squabbles and fears. our conscious is clear and heart light, nothing can touch us unless we allow it. i liked the commercial by the way, ha! peace and harmony for ever. Bro. Roger S. 32degree Scottish Rite and Alcazar Shriner
The Mercedes-Benz inference in deplorable. Evidently, Mercedes knows little or nothing about the Masonic Order. This might be a clue to their lack of knowledge in automobile manufacturing. You won’t find this grandfather in their showroom.
Chris Murphy, BF
Master Mason
Royal Arch Mason
Mark Master Mason
Past Master
32 Degree AASR Mason
Shriner
Smh Crime Shame & Ronald Chasteen, you must be a good brother.
Me my buddy in the military were talking about ways of moving up in the military some how the conversation came about talking about catholics and thats then when he said. That the new in crowd is the catholics and that they are now going to try to destroy everything dealing with freemasonry.
Pull the Mercedes ad and we will turn the lights back on. You sem to have forgotten who we are.
the ad shows that those who drive a mercedes made a pact with the devil! hahahaha. epic fail. and ya, does mercedes have to bash masons so they can sell a car? how disgusting!
I have to say, as a life long Mercedes owner and enthusiast, that as a Mason, I’m really disappointed that someone at their ad agency would be as shortsighted as this to portray “the Devil” wearing a Masonic ring. Especially in light of the atrocities perpetrated during the second world war against Masons at the hands of the Nazi regime, you’d expect a little extra sensitivity around something like this from a German company. I know I will voice my displeasure to marketing team at Mercedes Benz!
Perhaps, Mercedes-Benz should do a better job of researching these things? FYI: Hitler labelled the Masons number two on his list- to abolish -after the Jewish people. He was afraid of their standing up to him and was aware that their infrastructure might be powerful enough to cause problems.
Consider that the problem with this stuff is that most are ignorant; do not research beyond a few Google searches and a quick browse or two. And, ignorance is the enemy of humankind- not the Freemasons.
FYI: I get the same from my association(s) in other groups..more ignorance. When one researches this stuff correctly, one get back results like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu54pPHiCxc
We cannot lack the courage to progress and we cannot be ignorant.
Wishing you all the love in the world,
DjM
The sentence “shows the devil has not gotten very far in masonry” alludes to viewing the ring a shown to the public, but many masons wear their rings as shown to them, in which case he would indeed have been depicted as a 3rd degree Master Mason.
The sentence “shows the devil has not gotten very far in masonry” alludes to viewing the ring a shown to the public, but many masons wear their rings as shown to them, in which case he would indeed have been depicted as a 3rd degree Master Mason.
Either ignorance is alive and well and living in a company full of educated people who should know better, or Michael Moore is correct. The people responsible for this nonsense are no better than corporate pychopaths and snakes in suits. I hope your “cathedral of the bottom line” takes a big hit. But then again, we all make mistakes. M-B,care to acknowledge yours as publicly as you made it?
Who cares? Would you rather have it linked to cigar chomping Objectivist profiteers? Oh wait, already is .
We can actually block/report abuse of Mercedes Benz on google and google plus….I just did it.
Snip Snip – just edit the ring-scenes out. No loss to the impact of the advert.
Please remember, not only American Masons are upset over this bad call. Masonry and Masons in Europe *actually* suffered as a result of wrongful-association.
Over here, we *feel* the stares when a ring is noticed (on us) – great conversations follow, but initially…
I’d like to say that this subject has interested non-masons, but because of the Devil-dude + ring the interest starts off immediately negative – “OK, person I like and trust and have known for years, now that I know you *are* a devil worshipper (because of the advert and your ring that I’d never really noticed before), convince me you’re not…”
On the flip side – when I say “boo”, people really do jump, now.
21st century technology with 19th century ignorance.
Who shot and directed the commericial? Those zooms are intentional! Wake up Bros.! Can you see how masonary is being scapegoated to all the shit thats going on in the world! Somebody is moving forward with an agenda and the frat. is going to take the wrap!
Considering the active participation (forced or not) of Mercedes-Benz in supporting the Nazis during WWII, you’d think they’d be a little more sensitive toward a group they helped (directly or not) to try to exterminate in Nazi death-camps. Shame on you Mercedes-Benz… shame on you!
Why do we have to listen to someone who is ignorant about freemasonry?
Bring this issue to your lodge attention and request a letter be sent signed by all members for actions to be taken as a united society we are.
I have always held Mercedes in high regard. However, your relationship of the Devil and Freemasonry during the Super Bowl, completely shows the ignorance of your company. As a Freemason, I am angered at your commercial and the message it is attempting to send. Mercedes in high regard??? Not so much anymore!
Este tipo de comerciales refleja la ignorancia de quien lo hace. Ademas genera odio y rencor hacia los masones y la masonería sin ningún tipo de fundamento.
Hay que precionar a la opinion pública para que la gente de Mercedes Benz modefique el anuncio y pida disculpas públicas por el agravio. Además las logias de USA y Alemania en particular deberian emitir comunicados con tal solicitud.
Dear Brothers, I did my part and I have already sent an email to all my Mercedes with discontent, here in Brazil we Masons are also outraged.
Leandro Marinho
M, ‘, M’,
Masons don’t worship Lucifer? Perhaps you (the author of this article) have not “gotten very far in masonry”?
I implore you to review the following link. Don’t just stop there. There are MANY writings on this subject. For example…read some Pike.