THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF: THE BOOK THAT BREAKS MASONIC SILENCE
By Richard P. Thorn, M.D.
Reviewed by Bro. Jason F. Hicks
The books stands as the first formal response from inside the fraternity to the outside critics. The critics specifically Ron Carlson and Pat Robertson. Through this book Dr. Richard Thorn goes on attack by eviscerating their arguments. He shows their arguments are not out of ignorance but are deliberate misrepresentations.
For many years, the fraternity has taken a hands off approach to responding to its critics. This has allowed these critics to drive the narrative about the Masonic fraternity and what it’s about. Furthermore, it has given them creative license to get bolder and bolder in the claims, half truths, or even mistruths.
Dr. Thorne’s book is relatively short but over half of it is appendices. The first one is a transcript Carlson’s tape. Then chapter by chapter he states what Carlson states and then he goes to the extent of filling in the blanks that Carlson leaves out. In some instances Carlson leaves out whole sentences or context by not including the sentence before or after a quote. By the end of the book you realize that Carlson was deliberate and intentional on his misrepresentation of the materials.
Thorn was one of the first in this field of publicly defending the fraternity. He deserves credit for that and his analysis is exhaustive to evaluate Carlson’s claims and figuring out what was left out and what was a half-truth. I would recommend this to any mason because it shows the road map for anti Masonic movement and how to defend against certain arguments.
