So, They Made Me Grand Master

Late last night, it was expected of course, but still...

This post is going to be a bit different from normal. What can I say, I’m writing this on a bit of a unique night. About six hours ago, I was installed Grand Master of Masons for the Jurisdiction of Washington.

I’ve posted a couple of my speeches here before, but those were about things that I think we need to do to ensure Freemasonry’s future.

Last night’s Installation speech was different, for instead of ideas, it was an attempt to inspire. I hope that it did so.

The text is below, for those who are interested.

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Assuming this office is admittedly quite awe inspiring for me.  I’ve got quite a line of predecessors to try and live up too…

Princes of Wales, Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman, but most importantly, these men sitting in front tonight.  The men who have helped with this installation.

This is the finest group of men I have ever encountered, and I just hope that I can live up to the tremendous example that they have set.

When considering what to say this evening, I thought that I should try to define Freemasonry.

So ancient that its birth is lost to the mists of time, Freemasonry is the oldest, largest, richest, most influential body of men that has ever existed on the face of the earth.

Freemasonry exists in every part of our world, in the largest of cities and the tiniest of towns.  Freemasons are everywhere, and have been everywhere since time immemorial.

Freemasonry cradled the enlightenment that led to the modern world that we all enjoy.

Freemasonry has consistently championed the cause of Freedom all over the world, most especially here in the America’s, where Freemasons led the revolutions that threw off the yoke of European oppression in the United States, Mexico, and throughout central and South America.

So, what is Freemasonry?

Through its worldwide charitable efforts, including things such as our Shrine children’s hospitals, and our Scottish Rite scholarships, Freemasonry is undoubtedly the world’s greatest charitable institution.

But we are not a charity.

A Freemason certainly could easily spend every night of the week out at some Masonic event or another, enjoying fellowship and good society with men, all of whom are doing their best to be good men.

This ability to find friends and brothers at any moment isn’t limited geographically.  A man could very easily fly from Seattle to Manilla, and be instantly welcomed into the Lodges there, anywhere in the world really.

So, it is fair to say that Freemasonry is the world’s greatest social organization.

But we are not a social organization.

Freemasonry is a great champion of religion.  Not of any particular religion, but of every religion that helps good men to become better men.  Freemasonry truly is deeply religious and spiritual.

But Freemasonry is not a religion.

So what exactly is Freemasonry?

That is a question that I think we all struggle to answer from time to time.

The ‘official’ answer is that we are:

“A peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols.”

Well, I don’t know how helpful that is in common conversation.

I think a more helpful answer is that we are what we have proven ourselves to be since time immemorial.

Freemasonry is the Great Peace Society of the World.

Freemasonry seeks to unite men of all religious creeds, from every country, and every climate, into one common band, or Brotherhood of man.  Putting the differences that divide men aside, and creating a society of peace and harmony.

What is Freemasonry?

Freemasonry is a union of men who all share a sincere and powerful dedication to a few core ideas:

Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth.

Faith, Hope, and Charity.

A union of men who hold these principals within their hearts, and so very strongly that they will never give them up, no matter how much pressure is exerted upon them to do so.

Freemasonry holds those ideas:

Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, Faith, Hope, and Charity

Sacred.

So what is Freemasonry?

Freemasonry is a union of men who Stand for those ideas, against all odds if need be.

Freemasons stand for those simple ideas, no matter what.

Freemasons stood against attacks by Popes for hundreds of years.

Freemasons stood in this country during the anti-Masonic movement when we became so small that our Grand Lodges were barely functioning.

Freemasons stood against Kings and other despots who tried in vain to outlaw our gatherings.

Freemasons stood against the literal tortures of the Inquisition in Italy and South America.

When the Soviet Union and its bloc countries disallowed Freemasonry, Freemasonry stood as evidenced by the fact that the Grand Lodge of Russia popped up into public view the moment Soviet oppression was thrown off.

Today in Iran, Freemasonry stands.  Freemasons have been murdered in the most horrific ways possible, yet the Grand Lodge of Iran in Exile exists, ready to flourish again in that ancient persian land, just as soon as the fanatics are overthrown.

The Nazi regime threw all of Germany’s famous efficiency towards the eradication of Freemasonry, yet Freemasons stood against the world’s most horrific terror.  In just one example, Lodge Liberty Cherie was created by prisoners within a Nazi concentration camp on November 15, 1943, and met regularly, dispensing Masonic Light and education to its members, and those it initiated under its own accord.

Only two members of Liberty Cherie Lodge survived the horrors of the concentration camp, yet those two Freemasons Stood.

Dictators and totalitarians have always despised Freemasonry, and attempted to annihilate Freemasonry; viewed our sacred institution with a fanatical hatred simply because of the ideas mentioned above.

Brutal tyrants such as Spain’s Franco obsess over Freemasonry, and wholesale murder any Freemasons they can find simply because Freemasons hold to those simple ideas mentioned earlier.

Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, Faith, Hope, and Charity.

To a tyrant, either religious or secular, anyone holding to these truths must be destroyed.

Yet Freemasons stand.  Freemasonry stands openly today in Spain, despite Franco spending decades hunting down and murdering every Freemason found in that country.

Freemasons have stood against the tortures of the Inquisition.

Freemasons have stood against their casual murder in Lenin & Stalin’s Russia.

Freemasons have stood against their systemic murder in Franco’s Spain and Hitler’s Germany.

Freemasons today stand despite the threat of murder in those few nations that are not now free.

Freemasons stand today in British Columbia and the Yukon, despite the fact that a fanatic burned down three Masonic Temples in Vancouver earlier this year.

Freemasons stand today in France, in defiance of the terrorist conspiracy to attack a Masonic Temple and murder the Grand Master of France earlier this year.

Everywhere Freemasons have stood against oppression, in every single case, for hundreds of years, the dictators have fallen away, and Freemasonry has thrived once again.

This is the meaning of the symbolism found on my coin and pin.  The Forget Me Not.  The symbol of Masonic resistance to totalitarianism.

This is the Legend that we should seek to Live out, every day and in every way.

No tyrant, no matter how brutal or efficient, whether from the Church or the State, has ever been able to stamp out Freemasonry because Freemasonry is not a dead thing.

Freemasonry is a living idea.

It can not be destroyed because it truly exists only within the hearts of men.

Just as with that Lodge formed within a concentration camp, Lodge Liberty Cherie, as long as those two Brothers survived the Nazi horror, Freemasonry survived.

Freemasonry can never be destroyed from without.  Only our own inaction or wrong action could ever destroy it.

We are all blessed to have be in the United States.  It is  easy for us to Stand for Freemasonry.

In Europe the blood of Freemasons has run in rivers, yet those Freemasons stood.

Tonight I am asking that you stand with me.

That you take a stand for Freemasonry.

That you join me in standing for Freemasonry.

That you join me, standing strong for Freemasonry, each of us, giving our very best to Freemasonry, so that it might have a bright dawn each morning, dispensing its light to the world as it always has.

Stand with me, let us work together to ensure that the Future of Freemasonry is even brighter than it’s truly illustrious past.

Please.  Stand with me, for Freemasonry.

Thank you.

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Tonight, like every Sunday, we will have a gathering over zoom for those with a paid subscription to Emeth. The link will go out at 3:00 PM.

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Just in case you missed it:

Let’s Discuss Our Obligation

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