I often wear my hat when working on my house, my ring when going out, and my truck has a masonic license plate cover and a masonic hitch cover. Suffice to say my neighborhood knows I'm a mason. When I meet those next door with kids, they seemed relaxed and had no problems letting my kids play with theirs. Even so far as letting them come over to our house and play for hours, despite not knowing us at all.
I'll never know if this is due to some charm I may or may not have, or the square and compass being obvious all over. I like to think so.
I think that someone running for public office should not openly use Masonry as a campaign point, much the same as someone in business using the Square and Compasses in his letterhead. He should not be reluctant to display a ring or a sticker on his car and allow the voters to come to their own conclusions. As always, when you wear "the Brand," BE the Man!
This is an interesting and important question, relevant in so many ways.
The answer I offer is, yes, it is a determent to identify as a Freemason in public political life. As evidence of that I offer that so few public political figures identify as Freemasons. I’m sure there are local examples where this is not true, and I believe in local politics a person could overcome any negative impact from through personal relationships with their community.
What can we do? Of course, I am not sure, but I think history is a place to start. An analysis of the relationship between Freemasonry and politics would be in order. Prior to the “Morgan Affair” it was common to declare as a Freemason publicly in politics. But after the Morgan affair we see this dropping off. The last very public Freemason was Brother Harry Truman (Ford did not make much of his membership publicly). Soon after the Morgan Affair the United States first third political party, the anti-Masonic party, was formed to oppose Freemasons. Fueled by the facts of the Morgan Affair, and constant conspiracy theories have over time eroded our public reputation.
Not long ago I saw a TV program called “America’s Book of Secrets”, a reference to a Nicholas Cage movie in the “National Treasure” series, which asked the question, “Who has more secrets, the Illuminati or the Freemasons?” Writing books and producing TV shows espousing conspiracy theories about Freemasons has become a cottage industry. In some cases, these media exploit our romantic history, presenting it as factually historical and extrapolating nefarious intent. “We are the continuation of a ancient conspiracy to control the world, and will execute our own designs on the world.” Unfortunately, all our good works are no match for what is essentially, mass media gossip.
So, what to do? Well in my opinion there are three prongs to what we need to do. First, we need to publicly address the conspiracy theories. We need to explain the romantic elements of our history for what they are, and work to affect the common understanding of who and what we are. Second, we need to encourage our brethren to not feed the flames of the conspiracy minded. Of course, every brother is free to say what he believes, but some of our brethren are profiting from misinformation, whether intentionally or not. Finally, we need to continue our efforts to promote our good works, as we have been.
Just about everyone I meet is a social setting has no idea what freemasons are, who they are, or what they stand for. The only ones that do know are former demolay, rainbow girls, jobbies, or masons themselves. And it's surprising how many there are that never continued on, either with a spouse, themselves, or their kids. I only know of a small handful of brothers in our jurisdiction that were former demolay, or brought into the fraternity by their kids, or spouse. Of course, I don't know or have met everyone, it's just my personal observation.
We get far more men wandering off the street (so to speak) than legacy.
But more to the point, I think we are a little bit vain, in that we think there are a lot more people out there that A) know who we are or B) cares, than there actually are. Much ado about nothing frankly. Sort of like that old joke about the amorous ant about to mount the elephant, assuring the elephant that he would be gentle.
I often wear my hat when working on my house, my ring when going out, and my truck has a masonic license plate cover and a masonic hitch cover. Suffice to say my neighborhood knows I'm a mason. When I meet those next door with kids, they seemed relaxed and had no problems letting my kids play with theirs. Even so far as letting them come over to our house and play for hours, despite not knowing us at all.
I'll never know if this is due to some charm I may or may not have, or the square and compass being obvious all over. I like to think so.
I think that someone running for public office should not openly use Masonry as a campaign point, much the same as someone in business using the Square and Compasses in his letterhead. He should not be reluctant to display a ring or a sticker on his car and allow the voters to come to their own conclusions. As always, when you wear "the Brand," BE the Man!
This is an interesting and important question, relevant in so many ways.
The answer I offer is, yes, it is a determent to identify as a Freemason in public political life. As evidence of that I offer that so few public political figures identify as Freemasons. I’m sure there are local examples where this is not true, and I believe in local politics a person could overcome any negative impact from through personal relationships with their community.
What can we do? Of course, I am not sure, but I think history is a place to start. An analysis of the relationship between Freemasonry and politics would be in order. Prior to the “Morgan Affair” it was common to declare as a Freemason publicly in politics. But after the Morgan affair we see this dropping off. The last very public Freemason was Brother Harry Truman (Ford did not make much of his membership publicly). Soon after the Morgan Affair the United States first third political party, the anti-Masonic party, was formed to oppose Freemasons. Fueled by the facts of the Morgan Affair, and constant conspiracy theories have over time eroded our public reputation.
Not long ago I saw a TV program called “America’s Book of Secrets”, a reference to a Nicholas Cage movie in the “National Treasure” series, which asked the question, “Who has more secrets, the Illuminati or the Freemasons?” Writing books and producing TV shows espousing conspiracy theories about Freemasons has become a cottage industry. In some cases, these media exploit our romantic history, presenting it as factually historical and extrapolating nefarious intent. “We are the continuation of a ancient conspiracy to control the world, and will execute our own designs on the world.” Unfortunately, all our good works are no match for what is essentially, mass media gossip.
So, what to do? Well in my opinion there are three prongs to what we need to do. First, we need to publicly address the conspiracy theories. We need to explain the romantic elements of our history for what they are, and work to affect the common understanding of who and what we are. Second, we need to encourage our brethren to not feed the flames of the conspiracy minded. Of course, every brother is free to say what he believes, but some of our brethren are profiting from misinformation, whether intentionally or not. Finally, we need to continue our efforts to promote our good works, as we have been.
All that said, I think this is a big lift.
Just about everyone I meet is a social setting has no idea what freemasons are, who they are, or what they stand for. The only ones that do know are former demolay, rainbow girls, jobbies, or masons themselves. And it's surprising how many there are that never continued on, either with a spouse, themselves, or their kids. I only know of a small handful of brothers in our jurisdiction that were former demolay, or brought into the fraternity by their kids, or spouse. Of course, I don't know or have met everyone, it's just my personal observation.
We get far more men wandering off the street (so to speak) than legacy.
But more to the point, I think we are a little bit vain, in that we think there are a lot more people out there that A) know who we are or B) cares, than there actually are. Much ado about nothing frankly. Sort of like that old joke about the amorous ant about to mount the elephant, assuring the elephant that he would be gentle.