Masonic Lodge Security

Actionable ideas that will help your Lodge

Over the past couple of years, and most especially over the past couple of weeks, I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the attacks taking place on Masons, and Masonic buildings, here in the United States, Canada, and Europe. While there have always been anti-Masons, it seems that over the past years more and more of them have moved from words to violence against people and property.

I’ve posted about some of these acts of violence and vandalism both on my Facebook page, and here, in Emeth Chat. Usually with an admonition that we need to take the security of our Masonic Temples, and our Masonic Lodge meetings seriously.

The recent handful of years have seen three incidents in the Lodge in my small City, where on each of those three occasions, someone has come into the building and disrupted a Masonic event. On another occasion, someone slashed the tires of the cars parked around our building while we were holding a Stated Meeting.

Not long ago I was sitting in a Scottish Rite meeting in my nearest Valley when someone from the street came barging into the Lodge Room.

As of today, someone in Washington is calling in threats to various Masonic Lodges. Threats taken seriously enough that the man has been arrested once already, and our Grand Master has had to send two separate letters of warning about him.

With all of this in mind, this week I sat down with an expert, to talk about Masonic Lodge security, and what we can do to protect ourselves no matter where our Lodge might be.

I’m pleased to present these actionable ideas to you here.

When I started thinking about how we can better secure our Masonic meetings and events, I realized that I was out of my depth. Because of that, I contacted a Washington Mason, Brother Troy. Our Brother has spent his entire career as a respected member of Law Enforcement, and currently is responsible for the policing and security of a large Washington State School District.

All of the good ideas below are his. If there are any bad ones, it is safe to assume that they are either mine, or that I didn’t explain them well.

The first, and most important thing we must do is control access to our buildings. Prior to our meetings, a member of the Lodge needs to be stationed at the outer door so that no one without a legitimate reason to enter the building is able to do so.

This Mason should sit or stand immediately inside of the building entrance, but off to the side, not directly in front of the door. Once stationed there he can let those Masons he knows, and visitors he can be confident about into the building prior to the meeting.

To keep this job from becoming tedious, Masons can rotate through it from meeting to meeting, and even perhaps rotate through it on a given night, so that no one needs to be there alone for long.

Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash

When it is time for the meeting to begin, the outer access door to the building should be locked. A sign can be posted with a phone number that can be called if there are late arrivals. But that outer door should never be unlocked while a meeting is taking place, and it should never, at any time, be propped open by any means. If we know that we are going to be late, we should let a Brother who will be attending the meeting know, so that he can let us in when we arrive.

Once the access door is locked, two Masons should do a walkthrough of the building. This walkthrough should start at the bottom floor of the building, and work its way up. These two Masons should do this walkthrough together, never splitting up.

Many Lodges, at least here in Washington, resort to using ‘Ghost Tylers.’ There isn’t actually any Tyler there, beyond the Tyler of our imagination. This practice needs to stop immediately. We need to have a real Tyler guarding our inner door, and he must be an effective Tyler. In other words, he must be physically capable of the job, and mentally able to maintain situational awareness. He should be armed, as he is supposed to be, with the sword. Not that our ceremonial swords are effective implements of battle, but because it could make an improvised self defense tool that could deliver significant pain.

If the building has security cameras, they should be monitored by the Tyler in his place, and by the Secretary at his. If the camera monitor is located where it can’t be seen while a meeting is taking place, it does no good.

We should consider and remember the tools we have available in the Lodge room that could serve a role in self defense. Most especially the Stewards and Deacons Rods.

Following a meeting, Masons should leave the building and walk to their transportation in groups of at least two or more. When exiting the building, they shouldn’t just push the door wide open, rather it should be opened just a bit so that a view can be had of the space around it, on the lookout for potential danger.

While walking between the building and transportation, Masons should maintain situational awareness, knowing what is going on in every direction around them.

Masons, especially older Masons, should consider carrying a cane to Lodge. A cane can be an effective tool of self defense, but even beyond that it will offer an important stabilizing force on stairs or uneven ground, and can help prevent accidental falls that can be devastating to older Brothers.

Laws vary from place to place, but where it is legal to carry, pepper spray might be considered. Brother Troy informs me that a dispenser that fogs in front of you is better than one that shoots a stream, and that if one decides to carry pepper spray, it is advisable to practice just a bit in one’s back yard or other suitable location.

Lastly, while I would rather avoid it, I think that I must, for those who are reading this in the United States, touch upon guns. I know that there are Masons in my Jurisdiction who carry guns while in Lodge. I do not, and never have, but I do not hold any objection to anyone else doing so. But, before we take a gun, we must remember that Masonic codes probably vary radically from Jurisdiction to Jurisdiction. There is nothing in our Washington code that prevents it, nor that I see in our ritual (some Masons in this Jurisdiction disagree re: our ritual) but I imagine that many Masonic codes do prohibit it, and each of us have sworn to follow our Jurisdiction’s code. Likewise laws vary radically from location to location. If one is going to carry a gun, one must do so legally. Finally, a gun in untrained hands must be avoided. If one decides to carry a gun, one needs to seek out competent training and regular practice.

I hope that you have found value in this post, and some actionable ideas that you can use in your own Lodge to help keep your Masons safe in this time of increasing anti-Masonic violence.

If you did find value in this post, I ask that you share it with your Lodge Brothers, and on social media, as widely as possible so that these ideas reach large numbers of Masons.

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