This post did not start out as a post. Rather it began as a comment on a technology newsletter that I posted over on Emeth Chat. But, I’ve continued thinking about that comment, and expanding upon it.1
Freemasonry today does not have an experimentation layer. It doesn’t have a place to try different ways of being or an arena where new concepts can be explored.
This of course provides our Craft with tremendous stability.
But at a cost of increasing irrelevance in our society at large, and a lack of perceived value for countless millions of good men.
I don’t believe that Freemasonry would be well served by innovation for the sake of innovation, or change run amok. Disruption and destruction, innovation in what is fundamental to Freemasonry is not what our Craft is all about.
But today’s Freemasonry is hidebound by tradition and rules. Largely frozen in place by constricting structure and bloated bureaucracy. The costs those things impose on our Craft are working towards its irrelevance.
It wasn’t always this way.
Our Grand Lodge system, the very superstructure of Freemasonry came about because a small handful of Lodges in England decided that they wanted to plan and host amazing feasts.
The ritual used in my Jurisdiction, that I would venture to guess most Masons here believe has always been with us, only came about because Brothers Preston and Webb worked to create something better than what they themselves first experienced.
The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry came about because a handful of Brothers in Charleston decided to take something that had come to the United States from France, via Hati, and make a new Order out of it. They worked to bring order to a collection of haught Degrees that were in chaos.
Our Shrine Hospital system, the crown jewel of Masonic charity in the Americas, exists simply because the Shriners of the day decided that they needed to do something to polish their reputation, and decided to go big.
These are just a few examples of changes that came to Freemasonry, and served to keep it relevant to society at large and men in particular, for hundreds of years.
If they did not already exist, could any of these changes come about today given the constraints in our respective Masonic Codes?
If they did not already exist, would the leaders of our Craft, the Grand Masters, allow the experimentation needed to bring them about to happen?
Would all of these changes not have been stifled in the cradle if Freemasonry at the time was as resistant to experimentation as it is now?
How can we create an experimentation layer in our Craft today?
I don’t know.
But, I do know of two things that we can do to place ourselves on the path towards creating it.
-As Lodge members, Lodge leaders, and even Grand Lodge leaders, we do well to not tell new and excited Masons no. To not discourage them. To not assure them that ‘it wasn’t done that way in my year,’ to not tell them about past failures and that they are doomed to repeat those failures. We need to encourage them instead, jump in behind them, see where it leads.
Ultimately, if it isn’t breaking the rules, we have no good reason to discourage the excited Mason who wants to try something different.
-As voters at our respective Grand Lodges, we need to stop growing our Masonic Codes. We don’t need more rules, indeed, we need less of them. If we think, for some reason, that we should propose a resolution to create some new rule, maybe instead we should focus our energy on proposing a resolution to remove some old rule that is no longer serving us. We should certainly take a very hard look at anything that would make our Codes larger or more complex.
As Winston Churchill famously said: “If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.”
I owe a great big ‘Tip o’ the hat’ for this post to
over at Not Boring for both inspiring this post, and the term “Experimentation Layer.” His excellent post that led me to this is here:
"Less laws more freedom" You, sir, are entering into what is called The Crossroads. You are entering in to the Spirit of Freemasonry. It is where one discovers Truth and contributes through one's own self-discovery.. Keep it up-you might not fit in technically but no true Freemason ever did!
Born partly out of necessity, the use of Zoom and other meeting platforms during Covid did as much to save our Craft as anything has in the recent history. Some were able to grasp the innovative technology and continue to meet as a lodge. I believe it went a long ways to save my lodge and keep the Brothers together and meeting. We had some great educational experiences and maintained connections. We certainly aren’t using it at the same level as we were but it opened the door for bringing programs into our lodges that we would otherwise not experience. It offers the opportunity for Masons to meet and share ideas during Rummers and Grapes. Opportunities are out there for experimenting with different ideas to move Freemasonry forward. The Grand Lodges would do well to allow them to be tried out without immediately putting a halt to them.