Creative Solutions
To Intractable Problems
Sometimes when we are very close to something, we are too close to see significant improvements as they happen. As Freemasons, we can sometimes suffer from that, our Craft might be changing for the better around us, but we can be so close to it that we can miss seeing those positive changes.
Two such have happened very recently, and are both so positive that I think they merit notice and discussion.
Some time ago I petitioned the various York Rite bodies so that a Grand Master’s Class could be held in Washington.
Shortly after I petitioned, but prior to receiving the Degrees, the Grand Encampment Knights Templar elected a new Grand Master (we can talk about the use of such titles another time) to oversee Templarism in the United States.
Without going into the details, all of which can be read elsewhere, the new Grand Master was shown, within days, to be unsuited to his office. Shockingly bad decision followed shockingly bad decision. Rather than face that poor decision-making head on, Templars were greeted with the new GM’s motto: “I never forget loyalty, nor do I forget betrayal.”
It was obvious from his actions that Templars were faced with a GM who insisted on making poor decisions, and who viewed anyone who dissented from those decisions as an enemy.
This led me to seriously question whether or not I should withdraw my petition. On the one hand, I wanted to assist the York Rite in my Jurisdiction. On the other hand, I did not want to join an organization run by a tyrant.
I ended up leaving my petition in place, but resolved to not finishing the obligation if any part of it required me to swear loyalty or obedience to this man. On taking the obligation, I was relieved to see that it did not, so I was able to complete the Templar Orders.
The great thing is that while I was going through this personal dilemma, Templars were taking action. Enough States joined a call for a special meeting to force that extremely unusual step.
At that meeting, held earlier this month, the body as a whole voted to reverse the GM’s poor decisions, to reinstate the DGM (who had been removed from office by the GM without any sort of due process,) and to remove and replace the Grand Master.
This was an unprecedented move by a group of Masons to take back authority over their organization from a man unfit to lead it.
This was a very difficult, but very important step for these Masons to take, and by taking it they quite likely prevented extreme levels of damage to their organization. I think that we must applaud their actions, and recognize the importance of those actions.
The second superb change happened just this past weekend when the Grand Lodge of Louisiana voted to recognize the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland. (As reported by Chris Hodapp of Dummies fame.)
Until Louisiana voted, five regular Jurisdictions in this country refused to recognize their Prince Hall counterparts, perpetuating a horrible stain upon Freemasonry.1
Our Fraternity collectively deciding to remove this stain once and for all, by whatever means are required, has been something at the forefront of my thoughts for many years now. Progress is being made, but it is being made far too slowly.
In recent years, I have been talking with men knowledgeable about the situations in the various States, and from those discussions, it sounded like Louisiana faced a difficult problem.
Even if they wanted to recognize their Prince Hall counterpart, that particular Prince Hall Grand Lodge was perceived to have issues that might prevent recognition.
It seemed that the Masons of Louisiana faced an impossible problem. They might well wish to recognize Prince Hall, but their Prince Hall counterpart made doing so uniquely problematic.
A truly elegant solution to this problem was found when they voted to recognize the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland. Those of us outside of Louisiana do well to recognize just what a huge step this was, bringing honor to our Craft, yet maintaining meaningful standards.
I think it inconceivable that either of these extremely positive steps would have been taken just twenty years ago. Masons around this country are recognizing problems that exist, both large and small, and taking positive steps to address those problems in meaningful and creative ways.
These are two huge examples, of national importance, but I see great changes being made at the local and Lodge level as well. These positive movements for change serve to give me hope, indeed a conviction, that the future of Freemasonry is bright indeed.
As of today, four US Grand Lodges refuse to recognize Prince Hall Masonry. They are: Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
Grand Master, On the matter of Prince Hall recognition you and I already know that we whole heartedly agree. I'm shocked at the degree of racial divide that still exists in our country, but I'm also kind of grateful that cell phone videos now capture and broadcast the incidents that may have previously been swept under the carpet. We can't contribute to a solution unless we the problem is clearly defined. And it seems to me that an obvious contribution is that Freemasons everywhere demonstrate that we're a united Brotherhood. It's an embarrassment that any Grand Lodge continues to refuse to recognize Prince Hall. And it sounds like the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Louisiana needs a wake up call too.
On the matter of advancing the wrong leader, in my short 14 years as a Mason I don't think there's anything new about this. The only thing new in the case your described is that the Knights finally did something about it. Much better to lose one bad apple than alienate scores of Brothers who can't stomach the wrong leader. In the last year or two I've seen what I consider our Grand Lodge's first efforts toward genuine Leadership training. We've done things in the past that we've called leadership training but it's really been management and governance training. I believe that Masons who aspire to higher offices should learn early and often that leadership isn't the practice of giving a bunch of orders. And we as a Fraternity should openly declare that we shouldn't select leaders who have in any way demonstrated a need to give orders.
The actions of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana this year are the culmination of 7+ years of work by a number of worthy Brothers (some of whom are no longer with us, but I’m sure are smiling) to work out a way to make this happen in spite of the local jurisdictional challenges, and to build a coalition of brothers behind the scenes who would overwhelmingly support this step. There was another step taken that has not been widely reported, but is probably even more interesting. I’ll follow up with some details once I can confirm them.