Freemasonry Is A Sacred Institution
We can not allow its harm
Today’s essay is much more personal than what is normal here at Emeth. I hope that by sharing my personal thoughts and feelings about the topic, I am able to provide something of value to you.
One of the Lodges of which I am a member has annual dues of $68.00. This $68.00 is an effective dues rate, for any other fees or assessments are on top of the dues. $68.00 is frankly far too low. It keeps the Lodge functioning, but just barely, and there is little money left over from the dues to do things outside of the norm. As a result of this, when the Lodge does seek to do something big or unique, it results in members needing to dig into their own pockets. These dues are also not high enough for the Lodge to be able to set aside meaningful amounts of money each year to cover eventual major repairs to its very large building.
So, that’s the problem. The dues are too low, most everyone knows that they are too low, but attempting to increase them is like pulling teeth. I’m sure that many Masons have experienced this exact same situation.
Recently I’ve found myself growing extremely disturbed because a tiny, but very vocal minority of Lodge members has begun agitating to actually lower the effective amount of the Lodge’s dues. They are seeking to have the $28.00 in fees/assessments we all pay on top of the dues, instead taken from the dues. So the $68.00 in Lodge dues, under this proposed scheme would result in the Lodge only bringing in $40.00 per Mason. This would be a massive budget cut in a Lodge that already can not fund all that it should be funding.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t worry about something like this overly much. It is after all a tiny minority pushing it, and I am confident that the majority of my Brothers see the proposal for the disaster it is.
But, surprisingly to me, I do find that I am worried about it. More than worried actually. I find myself deeply angry at this proposal. It’s an anger and an upset that just won’t go away.
The Lodge won’t adopt this proposal, I even imagine that sooner rather than later the Lodge will raise its dues to a more appropriate level. But knowing that doesn’t stem my anger at a proposal that seeks to effectively cut our Lodge dues by over a third.
This anger has weighed on my mind as I’ve tried to understand it.
I find that I do some of my best thinking when I’m all alone, driving the car to some far off event or another. Once I have thought through something, I find that those thoughts can be refined by putting them into writing.
The other day, I took such a journey, and while on it, I contemplated just what it was about this proposal that caused me to react so negatively. The very short essay below are my thoughts about just why that is:
Freemasonry Is A Sacred Institution
Freemasonry is a sacred institution. Sacred because it endeavors to bring men together from every nation, every race, every religion, every background, every political persuasion. No matter what else may serve to divide man from man, Freemasonry seeks to erase that division, to form mankind into a band of brothers. Through this, Freemasonry seeks to bring peace to our world. No other institution in the world seeks to do that, and as such, Freemasonry is, and always has been, The Great Peace Society. Peace is the work of the Grand Architect, and because it seeks to do his work, our Craft is set apart as sacred.
Freemasonry calls upon us to labor. It asks that we work to improve ourselves and work to improve the Fraternity. By doing these things, we are making a small difference, a small improvement in the world around us. When millions of Freemasons are making a small difference, all around the world, well then our impact is tremendous indeed. We must always remember though, that Freemasonry is sacred, so by definition the work we do to improve ourselves, and improve our Lodges is sacred work. Work pleasing to the Grand Architect.
It also holds that anything we do which serves to weaken our Lodge and our Fraternity is an evil. We must not let our passions override our morality, must not allow our own desire for personal gain prey upon our Craft. Our personal philosophy as Masons must serve to exalt Freemasonry, and not harm it.
In this day of tremendous division within our society, a day of ever increasing political fanaticism, Freemasonry is needed more than ever. Not long ago friends everywhere could disagree about the issues of the day yet remain close. Now these divisions have become personalized. People who think differently are thought of as enemies. No free society can exist long when people consider their neighbors enemies. Freemasonry can heal those divisions within our society. It can again, as it has done since time immemorial, bring men of all persuasions together into a brotherhood under the fatherhood of God. It can quietly do the sacred work it has always done.
If our Lodges are strong. If Freemasonry is strong.
I think that this proposal brought forth such strong feelings in me because cutting the income of a Lodge that is already struggling financially by such a dramatic amount will not just harm the Lodge, it risks killing the Lodge.
As Freemasons, if we truly believe in the mission of our Fraternity, we are called upon to do all that we can to strengthen our Lodge. Knowingly doing things that will seriously harm or even kill our Lodge is the very opposite of that which is good and right.
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Just in case you missed it:
Our eastern star chapter has dues of $35 a year. Probably hasn't changed since Moses was in diapers. Yet when someone broaches the idea of raising dues, it's shot down. But when the lodge tries to raise their monthly rent due to rising costs, that also is shot down, and crying poverty.
It's not just the masons. All of the concordant bodies complain about expenses, yet refuse to raise dues to make things better. And it's not like this lodge is filled with sharecroppers scraping by hand to mouth.
$35 dollars is dinner and drinks at Dennys. Seriously? For the privilege of sitting in a meeting arguing about what cookies to bring to the bake sale and 40 minutes of introductions. They can afford it, they just refuse to pay.
So, it's not just the lodge.
Grand Master, Well said!
From my perspective we've taken our eye off the ball both structurally and operationally. Your statement is the ball: "It asks that we work to improve ourselves and work to improve the Fraternity. "
Working to improve ourselves is something that gets a lot of lip service an not enough hands on action. It would be interesting to put a stopwatch on any of our meetings and then compile the statistics across the Jurisdiction to determine how much time we spend on topics and activities directly aimed at improving ourselves and how much time we spend on other stuff. And I'd go one step further ... let's discount the time we spend telling each other how good we are because we're Masons because we're good because we're Masons ... (lather, rinse, repeat). Yes, positive affirmations are valuable but only as a preamble to more substantive endeavors.
Structurally we're our own worst enemies. How much time and effort do we spend on studying, amending, and enforcing the WMC? Answer: A lot. And how much of our Code can be directly tied to making good men better? Answer: very little, if anything. And what would happen if we stripped the Code down to bare essentials that formalized tax compliance and a few other business controls, specified officer duties, and protected our ritual, and removed just about every instance that causes grown men to stand before the Grand Master and ask "mother may I?" on operational matters for which the judgements of a well qualified Worshipful Master should be trusted? Answer: The Fraternity would be much better off and we'd actually have time to make good men better.
Grand Master, you and I have exchanged thoughts about the state of Masonic education in our Jurisdiction and I think it's fair to say that we both see untapped opportunities. Too often it's an afterthought on Lodge meeting agendas. Too often it focuses on the procedural (ie, floor work or Lodge meeting etiquette) instead of a more challenging curriculum directed at bettering ourselves. The things we call Leadership training are often mislabeled and underlying it all is that I'm not aware that we teach the teachers how to teach.
I must comment on the money issue as well. As Lodge membership demographics shift to an older collection of past masters it's not surprising that there is resistance to "right size" dues. It's a conversation most would prefer to avoid so it's been successfully avoided over the years. So now the avoidance or deferral is a well engrained habit. It has always seemed to work before, so why not now? There's a couple reasons why we're in this stalemate:
1) In my opinion, Grand Lodge has not lead by example. Our membership has declined dramatically in the past decade (decades?), yet the Grand Lodge budget has remained flat or has gradually increased. I'm not saying that there have not been well intentioned efforts to manage the Grand Lodge budget, but the budget is driven by habits that are often packaged in the more pleasant term, tradition. I can't think of another sustainable organization that has experienced membership (customer) decline as significant as ours that hasn't dramatically changed its business model. I don't know what the new business model should look like, but I feel strongly that this issue needs to be on the table.
2) We're not properly informing the membership about our Lodge's business model. How many Treasurer reports are only a sentence or two saying that there's money in the checking account? How many Lodges present a multi-year projection of income, expenses, and liquidity, without which there isn't time to develop solutions to looming issues? And how many times do we seek increases with empty or irrelevant slogans like, "When my grandfather was a Mason the dues used to equal two weeks pay"? (By the way, your grandfather paid a lot less than we pay for housing, college tuition, and healthcare, he got a pension and he qualified for Social Security earlier than we will).
3) We operate under the illusion that our current dues are an appropriate reflection of market value. When I was Master of my Lodge our dues were $30 because that's what we had always done. I asked a committee of three recently initiated EAs to assess the market value of a membership of our Lodge, and they proposed $120. Thankfully the membership recognized that the incoming Masons understood current value better than many of the Past Masters did.
4) The Life Membership program has done significant damage to our Lodges. They are laughably under-priced and have allowed a large portion of our members to completely side-step the ongoing responsibility of paying dues. And they were marketed inappropriately. When I bought mine, which I now regret, a very senior and accomplished Brother told me that if I buy a life membership I'll never have to pay dues again. So I told my wife and she thought sounded great. I do not take lightly the disruption of domestic peace and harmony that our Brothers' households will suffer if we terminated the Life Membership fund, returned the money, and required dues from all members. But economically it's the obvious thing to do.
5) We're hanging on to buildings with emotional reasoning while ignoring market realities. A Lodge in my District went through significant grief with its more tenured membership to sell its building a few years back. Their cash flow wasn't sufficient to maintain it while the market value of the land had skyrocketed. Eventually they sold it and now they have enough money to keep the Lodge in business well into the next Ice Age and the when the doors to the Lodge room (ie, where the work gets done) are closed they're in a much nicer room than they had in the old place.
We can't solve problems if they're not put on the table. And the solutions can't look like the way we've always done things, that what's created the current situation.
Grand Master, I apologize if I've been a little too verbose with my reaction. Thank you for providing an opportunity to share my views.