Civil Liberties
Mark Twain famously wrote:
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
As the Washington State Legislature is currently in Session, this quote has been at the forefront of my thoughts recently.
As I think we all know, the philosophies of Freemasonry formed a major part of the intellectual underpinnings of the American quest for independence. Freemasons themselves were extremely involved in both the Revolution, and the formation of government following it. At least nine signers of the Declaration of Independence were Masons, and a similar number signed the Constitution. The first President of the United States, following the adoption of the Constitution was a Freemason.
What these Masonic founding fathers believed, and taught, above all else is that the rights of the individual come from God. A man’s rights are his by virtue of his being born.
As such, no man or group of men, no King or Parliament could take these rights away from the individual, for they were derived from the Creator alone.
This was an extremely radical notion at the time. So radical that it sparked the violent overthrow of the existing government. Prior to the American Revolution, it was widely believed that any rights the individual might possess were granted to him from the King or government he lived under.
The founding fathers said ‘no more.’ They declared, violently, that individual rights were derived from God alone, not from government, and that they were therefore inviolate. They could not be infringed, no matter what excuse a government sought to use.
This thought, that men were created to be free, that there were limitations to governmental power, launched a nation that would grow from a handful of insignificant colonies to the most prosperous and powerful country on earth.
Fearful that the new government they had created would someday try to trample on those rights that they had fought so hard for, the founding fathers created the Bill of Rights. A list of those rights that they felt were most important, and made it clear that the new government had no power to abridge those rights.
If we look at those rights today, we can see that many of them are being abridged, in various ways.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The text is clear that the government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion. Yet the current pandemic has resulted in government orders closing down Churches. In some cases this has happened even when there was no risk whatsoever to public health. For example, in Greenville Mississippi police issued five hundred dollar tickets to drivers who parked their cars in their church parking lot, remained in their cars with the windows rolled up, and listened to their Pastor on their car radios.
“Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech…”
When our founding fathers wrote those words technology companies with monopolistic powers allowing them to control what we all see and read did not exist. Those companies do exist today, and they are suppressing the speech of individuals, including the speech of the then sitting President of the United States. They are doing this at the behest of many in Congress.
“…or of the press;”
Again, at the urging of many in the political class, those same technology companies actively suppressed New York Post stories, and locked New York Post social media accounts just a few months ago. This is the same New York Post that was created by our founding father, Alexander Hamilton, the fourth most read newspaper in the nation.
The First Amendment closes by establishing the right to lobby: “…and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Yet today, our Capitols in both Washington D.C. and Olympia are surrounded by fences and patrolled by armed men with orders to keep people out. In Olympia citizens are not allowed to meet with their Legislators at the Capitol, not allowed to stand in a hearing room to have their voice be heard, not allowed to rally or protest on the Capitol steps, the traditional place for such events since the building was first constructed.
Some of the restrictions listed above are a result of the current pandemic, others from reaction to our last President. It does not matter ‘why’ however, for history shows that once a right is restricted, it tends to remain restricted.
I, and I’m sure you, could continue through the Bill of Rights to point out other examples of the infringement of basic individual rights. I’ll not do so here, for I believe my point was likely made with the First Amendment alone.
To be sure, our founding fathers were not perfect men, not even the Freemasons among them! The nation they created wasn’t perfect either. In the Declaration of Independence they eloquently stated “…that all men are created equal…” at the same moment that many of them owned slaves. In the Bill of Rights they carefully listed the rights possessed by the individual, but denied those rights to others based upon skin color.
In my view therefore, these documents must be read as aspirational. The documents outlined what the founders wanted the United States to be, even though they were not able to create a nation that fully lived up to their ideals.
In many ways, in the generations since, the United States has gotten better at realizing the dream of its creation. In other ways it has grown worse. The only real constant is the struggle. The fight for the rights of the individual, and the expansion of those rights to all.
Our Masonic forefathers fought and cried, bled and died in their quest to create their vision of a nation of citizens instead of subjects. Countless lost their lives in the struggle for civil rights.
MW Joseph Warren, Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts is just one such man. A sitting Grand Master who chose to fight and give his life so that others could be free.
Our struggles to defend freedom are much easier today. They include voting, writing emails to our elected officials, making our position on proposed Bills known, and supporting those institutions that fight to preserve our civil rights.
We owe it to those Masons who gave everything in the struggle for liberty, to engage in that much easier struggle today. As Masons, and as good citizens, it is unquestionably our duty to do so.
But it goes beyond that. We also have a duty to educate the young people of our country, and the younger men in our Lodges.
Our Masonic ritual, in the strongest way possible attempts to convince us of the tremendous importance of education. Anyone who has ever sat through a Fellowcraft Degree knows just how much time is taken extolling the values of a well rounded course of study.
The men who developed the rituals of our Ancient Craft so long ago placed such emphasis on education because they understood that an educated man could not be made to blindly serve a tyrant forever, that an educated man could and would rebel against serfdom and slavery.
For this same reason, as Freemasonry expanded west into this continent, the Masonic settlers became the driving force behind public education. That every child might be educated, for the betterment of himself, and for the betterment of society as a whole.
As Freemasons we hold a heritage of education of the young, and we therefore have a duty to work to ensure that our children and our children’s children have the ability to receive the best education that our society can provide.
We also have a duty to educate ourselves.
Freemasonry is a great many things. One of the things it is designed to be is an educational institution. We should never allow a Lodge meeting to close before an educational program of some sort has been offered. If the leaders of the Lodge can’t or won’t do it then a side-liner should rise when remarks for the good of the order are called for and deliver an educational topic of his own. This is a responsibility we all share.
How sad it is when I visit a Lodge and see a half dozen or even a dozen dusty old copies of Morals and Dogma in a box or on a shelf somewhere.
Why, I wonder, aren’t those books in the hands of the Brothers?
That one book alone is a veritable treasure trove of insight for living the good Masonic life, and creating a better world all around ourselves. Some say that in modern times it is too difficult of read. Fair enough, but the Scottish Rite has published a wonderful Annotated Edition that makes the text much easier to enjoy and comprehend. Beyond that, I do wonder, have those who declare it too difficult actually tried to plumb its depths, or are they just repeating what they have heard from someone else? Either way, those books, indeed all of the thousands of books of various titles rotting away in our Lodge buildings need to be in the hands of the Brothers, where they can do the good they were written to do.
As Freemasons we strive to improve ourselves. When we succeed in making ourselves into better men, that naturally improves the world around us just a little bit. By improving our world, we are fulfilling an important duty owed to the Grand Architect.
Education protects liberty, Masonic education is the very best way for us to reach our goal of self improvement.
Discussion Recap
This past week we have had discussions about Social Media, why we became Freemasons, Masonic Mentoring, and the re-opening of our Lodges. I found those discussions to be entertaining and enlightening, and I am gratified by the number of people who participated in them, especially since they all took place prior to the actual launch of Emeth.
In the Social Media discussion Bob B. recounted what Kennewick Lodge has been doing over Zoom during the pandemic. Hint: it’s a lot! That Lodge is doing an amazing job, and other Lodges would find themselves very well served if they emulated it.
In the Why? discussion Franklyn G. used a great turn of phrase, something I’d not heard before, but which I think I’ll have to steal for use in the future!
In the Mentoring discussion Jack R. T. hit the nail perfectly on the head. If all of our Lodges mentored as he suggests we would very quickly put an end to the retention issues that plague our Fraternity.
In the Re-Opening discussion Todd managed to get a number of us excited to head over to Silverdale Lodge to watch him confer the Third Degree and the Junior Grand Warden threw out a joke that I was so dense that I didn’t manage to catch it for about half a day. This despite his helpful ‘LOL’ addition to it. Sometimes I have to wonder about that Cameron Bailey guy, not sure if he’s all there.
In the Background Check discussion Bob B. (who has professional experience in the field) gave some excellent advice, and MW Dean H. provided a good and timely warning we should all heed when our Lodges do re-open. There is also some information from the Washington Masonic Code in the thread that might prove helpful.
Please do check out these discussions, they contain some good ideas and information.
Please also feel free to add your own thoughts and perspective to the conversations! The more voices in them, the better they will be.
Thank You!
To all of you reading this, thank you very much. A writer is nothing without a reader.
Thank you as well to all of you who have taken part in our discussions. Your input is extremely valuable, and truly appreciated.
Lastly, a huge Thank You to all of you who have signed up for a paid subscription to Emeth. Your faith in this new endeavor, and in me, is humbling. I am greatly honored by your vote of confidence in me, and I will do my very best to not let you down.
I found online a recording where a Brother with "Masonic Books" read and recorded "Morals and Dogma" from the beginning to the 23rd Degree in Scottish Rite. I don't know if he continued. I enlarged my hard copy of the book 190 percent so that it fit on 11 by 17 ledger paper .which made it much easier to read along while listening to the audio. I am planning on playing small digestible snippets of the audio in Lodge when in the East again and affording the brothers the relevant ledger sheet so they can read along while listening and then follow it with discussion. Should make for some interesting Masonic education. .
And yet...here we are.