Our Lodge Must Be Reliable

If we hope it to be respected

One of the Lodges I’m a member of received a phone call today. The caller was looking to make contact with a neighboring Lodge. The message was routed to me, and I returned the call.

Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

The caller was a counselor from a nearby school. She was concerned because the Lodge she was looking for had helped to support a Bikes For Books¹ program through the years, but the school hadn’t been able to reach anyone at the Lodge, and the assembly at which the best readers were to be honored is coming up in a matter of days.

So, let’s imagine that for a second…

A Lodge has assured a local school that this is its ‘thing.’ That it’ll be there to give a couple of bikes to those kids who read the most, just before summer break, if the school pushes the Bikes For Books idea to the kids. So they put up posters in the library or halls, using the promise of winning a bike to get kids to read.

And then summer comes, and for whatever reason, the Lodge ghosts the school.

There aren’t any bikes coming, and no one at the school can get a Lodge member to answer the phone or return an email.

What is the person at the school in charge of this thing supposed to do at that point?

How does that make our Lodge look? How does that impact the reputation of Freemasonry?

It sure isn’t good.

In fact, I’d bet that no teacher in that school would ever trust Freemasons again. With good cause.

Luckily, in this specific case, it all worked out OK. An ‘executive decision’ was made, the bikes were purchased, and they will be delivered to the school before the awards assembly.

I say it was lucky though, because what if the school hadn’t thought to call a Lodge a couple of towns over? Or if someone didn’t choose today as the day to pull the messages left on the very rarely used Lodge phone’s voicemail?

There are lots of good reasons why a Lodge might decide to not continue a program like this. It is costly, perhaps the members of the Lodge might feel that the Lodge can’t afford it. Perhaps there is no member of the Lodge willing or able to take on the task. Perhaps the Lodge decides that there are more impactful ways to use the funds, or better programs to support.

Surely a Lodge has every right to put an end to a Bikes For Books program. I would not argue otherwise.

But, if it decides to end a program like this, it most certainly has a responsibility to tell the school, its partner in the program, that it is not going to continue. And to make that clear before kids spend an entire school year thinking that they could win a bike.

Imagine an elementary class, or school, all excited about the prospect of maybe winning a bike, then the last day of school comes, and the bike promised by the Freemasons, on the poster saying that it is coming from the Masonic Lodge, isn’t there.

Under no circumstances should a Lodge ever just ghost a partner in a program like this. I would have thought that most of us learned, maybe back in Junior High School, or maybe as Freshmen that you actually should talk to the girl. That the only honorable way to break up with her is to tell her. That just ignoring her so that she eventually breaks up with you is the coward's way out.

If our Lodge can not reliably perform its part in a program, a partnership like this, then it should never consider starting down that path. This is a responsibility, and if we hope for Freemasonry to be respected in the world, our Lodges must be seen to be responsible. We must honor the commitments we make. Anything less is unmasonic, and harmful to the public standing of our Ancient Craft.²

1. Many Washington Lodges offer Bikes For Books programs in their local elementary schools, whereby the school selects a student(s) who have read the most over a set period of time, and the Lodge gives them a bicycle(s). Some schools alter the program, by for example giving each child a raffle ticket for each book read and then doing a drawing for the bike(s). Some Lodges alter the program by offering something other than bicycles, such as Kindles. Some Lodges offer a couple of bikes to one particular school, others offer quite large numbers of bikes to different schools. None of this is directed by the Grand Lodge, but it is financially assisted as a part of our jurisdiction wide charitable endeavors.

2. I don’t imagine that most, or all Grand Lodges have programs similar to our Bikes For Books program, but I don’t doubt that all Jurisdictions have Lodges that enter into partnerships of various kinds with other outside organizations. The same ideas certainly apply.