The Future Of Freemasonry

The Sun Is Rising In The East

This post is different from my regular Sunday posts. Instead of an essay it is a speech.

On Saturday Evening I was asked to speak to the Board of the Scottish Rite Scholarship Foundation at their annual meeting. It was the first completely normal feeling meeting that I’ve attended in I believe 14 months now.

The speech discusses those things I believe are important for the future success of Freemasonry. Many of its themes are things that we have discussed here on Emeth, but it is not a speech that I have given before.

The text is below, I hope that you enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, I ask that you forward this email your Masonic friends and Lodge Brothers, for I think it is a message that can benefit Lodges everywhere.

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Sunrise From Mt. Tendre. Photo By Celsocorreia88 CC4.0

I want to thank each and every one of you for taking time on this Saturday evening to hear my ideas about the bright future of Freemasonry.

The Scottish Rite, correctly in my opinion, refers to itself as the University of Freemasonry.  Given that Masonic Education is so important to me, I am honored to be given this opportunity to address you, my fellow Scottish Rite Masons.

Our new Masonic year is almost here, and with the pandemic coming to an end, I know that it is going to be great!

As our Fraternity slowly returns to normalcy, I ask that you join me in a vital project.  Tonight I ask that you join me in working for the improvement of Freemasonry.  

If you will join with me, together, we are going to make a positive impact, together we are going to change Freemasonry in the great State of Washington for the better.

I believe that if we are going to improve Freemasonry, there are four vital areas that we must address.

We must improve the Lodge Experience for our Masons.  We must work to improve opportunities to build true Brotherhood. We must do a better job Guarding our West Gate.  And we must figure out how we are going to pay for it all.

I’d like to begin this evening by talking about Guarding our West Gate, and the men we decide to make into Masons.  

If we hope to see Freemasonry survive and thrive, then we must always use great care when deciding who we let pass through our West Gate. 

Freemasonry is designed to be an elite institution, it has never been for every man, and it is not suitable for every man.

We owe it to ourselves, and our Fraternity, to ensure that only those who truly are good men, and who will be a credit to us are given the Degrees of Masonry.

When we are considering a man for Masonry, and given the election requirements we have, it truly is up to each of us to make the decision, we do well to think back to that time when we knelt at the altar and took our Obligations.

When we took those Obligations we promised to bind ourselves to every other Mason in the world. We pledged to do certain things, if called upon to do them, for our fellow Masons.

We should ask ourselves when considering a man for Masonry, if we are comfortable giving our pledge to him, Obligating ourselves to him. We should ask if we believe that we can in turn rely upon him to fulfill his Obligation to us.

Freemasonry is a brotherhood. A legendary and factual brotherhood. We need to ask ourselves, is this man good enough for us to be proud to call him Brother. 

In today’s society many object to the very idea of judging others, or deciding if someone else is good enough or not, but Freemasonry is not a part of society. It stands apart from society, in its own sacred space. Freemasonry has never been for all men, it has always only been for those men judged to be good men. Good men who are striving to become even better men.

Before we vote to make a man a Mason, we should remember that he will be seen as a Mason by those who know him, by random strangers he encounters in his daily life, and in today’s world, online as well.

All those who see him will judge Freemasonry, and Masons, by what they see in him. Will the people who know him credit Freemasonry as an institution of importance and quality when they see that we have made him a Mason? Will the stranger who sees him out shopping, and notices his Masonic ring see someone who is a credit to the Fraternity? Will the things he posts online, and the way he posts them, leave a positive or negative impression of Freemasonry in the minds of those who read his posts?

The man who is recognized as a good man may serve as an inducement for other good men to consider Freemasonry for themselves. Through our long history how many men decided that they wanted to become Freemasons following the example of someone famous like Washington, Franklin, or John Wayne? Likewise, how many men decided that they wanted to become Freemasons not because of any famous Mason, but because of an unknown, but good man within their family or social circle? One need not be famous to exert an influence, if one is seen to be good.

Good men in our Fraternity attract men to our Fraternity.

On the other hand, a single bad man, who is seen to be a Mason, will drive good men away in droves.

Ask yourself, before you vote to make a man a Mason. Will those non Masons who see this man be attracted towards Freemasonry or repelled from it? What kind of impression will he make on the non Masons he encounters?

It is counterintuitive but true:

Initiating all the men who want to join our Lodge, does not grow our Lodge. It shrinks our Lodge, because those we Initiate who are unsuitable drive many others away.

Rejecting unsuitable petitioners grows our Lodge, because doing so helps to ensure that those who are allowed to become Masons are the kinds of men who attract others to our Ancient Craft.

I have said it before, I will say it again, Masonry needs a few men of excellence, it does not need large numbers of questionable men.

If we will Guard our West Gate properly, we will set our Fraternity firmly on the path for future success.

I believe that if we hope to build true bonds of fellowship and brotherhood within our Lodges, and within our Valleys, then we must get out of our Lodge Rooms.  

We must share things together, good and bad, fun and labor, as true brothers would do.  That is how an unbreakable brotherhood is created.

In fact, it is very difficult to actually build strong ties of fellowship and Brotherhood within the Lodge room.  Those things are best built outside of it.

We need to encourage the leaders of our Lodges to get out of the Lodge.  To take their Masons out and do things that are fun and interesting.

Camping together is great for some Lodges, I know Lodges that do it, and I’ve built some great friendships through it.  

One of my Lodges, Centralia Lodge rather likes the idea of camping, but is rather too fancy to actually do it, so they rent a big house to share in a beautiful spot for a weekend.

If a Lodge is fortunate enough to have Live Theater, a great evening can be had by inviting the Masons and their wives out to a nice restaurant, with a live show to follow.  Don’t believe me about how much fun this is?  Then ask Most Worshipful Mendoza he will fill you in.

What about a manly feast of steaks, cigars, and whiskey tasting?  Who doesn’t love such things.  If legally allowed, it can be done with a caterer in a Lodge building.  If not, it can be done at one of the myriad casinos that now dot our state. 

Just don’t let the brothers turn it from steak to dominos pizza or from whiskey to watery beer.  Quality experiences are what men seek.

What about doing the occasional Degree outdoors in the good weather?  Lots of Masons own large and private chunks of land, why not fashion an outdoor Lodge room, move the Charter, and create a Degree experience that everyone will remember forever?

What about BBQ’s in the summer?  Everyone loves a great BBQ.  Why not see who is willing to host one for the Lodge?  It can easily be repeated by others in the months to come, as long as the weather holds.

Holiday parties.  Holiday parties are great.  Every darn holiday there is, our Lodges should be holding holiday parties.  They are good for our Masons, good for their families, and good for our Lodges.

Let’s get together on Halloween for example, hand out candy to the trick or treaters from the Lodge building.  Afterwards, why not enjoy a meal, some music and dancing even.

You know, most of our buildings are vacant most of the time.  It makes Freemasonry appear to be dead.  How much better would it be if people saw light and life in our buildings, heard music and laughter in our buildings?

That my Brothers is how our Lodges can build true Brotherhood.  It isn’t hard, it is simply a willingness to do something new, something different.  A willingness to actually spend time together as friends and Brothers.

If it is to enjoy a bright future, Freemasonry must address the issue of money.

The simple fact of the matter is that for decades and decades now we have been putting far too low of price on Freemasonry, and our Ancient Craft is suffering as a result. We must all pay more today if we hope to transmit our fraternity to our children’s children.

The lack of adequate funding shows itself from the very first moment that we Initiate a new man into our mysteries, at least in most of our Lodges.

We tell him that we are presenting him with a lambskin or white leather apron. We explain that it is the badge of a Mason. Then, in most of our Lodges, we give him a vinyl apron. The manufacturer might call it ‘lamtex’ or something, but let’s be honest, it’s vinyl, some kind of plastic, made from petroleum.

Is that a suitable badge for a Freemason?

Is the lamb, an ancient holy symbol adequately replaced by plastic made from crude oil?

Lambskin aprons are available to us.

So, why do we do this?

Why do we take this ancient symbol and adulterate it beyond all reason?

Money.

We do not charge enough money for the Degrees of Masonry, in the overwhelming majority of Lodges, to be able to present our new initiates with an actual badge of a Mason. Instead of increasing the fees for the Degrees, we shame ourselves, our fraternity, and our newest Brother by giving him vinyl.

Do we really believe that if we doubled the fees for the Degrees so that we could afford to give our initiates that which we tell them we are giving them, we would end up with fewer men seeking initiation?

If we do believe that, we are dead wrong. The history of our Lodges shows that in the past men were willing to pay extraordinary amounts of money in initiation fees and dues. Only since the middle of the 20th Century did we start making financial commitments to Freemasonry an afterthought.

Let’s think about our building, and let’s try and picture it through our soon to be obligated candidate’s eyes.

Is it in disrepair? Is maintenance obviously being deferred? Does it need new paint and carpet? Is it clean?

Let’s face it, Masonic buildings cost a great deal of money to own and operate.

We need to figure out exactly how much money that is each year. We need to include budgeted costs for ongoing maintenance. Then we can subtract any income we might receive from the costs. The balance? Well, that’s the amount that we must get, from ourselves.

How much?

It’s easy enough to figure out, once we have determined how much money we need in a year to own, operate, and maintain our building, we simply divide that number by the number of Masons in the Lodge.

The dues we pay must, if we are to survive, be greater than that amount.

We have to raise our dues so that they are greater than that amount.

If the amount is so high that raising them to that level would be truly harmful to our members, then the answer is simple. We must sell the building and meet somewhere else.

For some reason, in modern times, our fraternity confused itself. It started to believe that owning a Masonic Temple was important. That we needed our own buildings, for our own exclusive use.

That belief is badly misguided.  Lodges met, for hundreds of years in the backrooms of taverns and restaurants, above stores, in lots of spaces that the Lodge did not own.  Lodges can do that again today.  Many would find themselves much more successful without the worry that comes with building ownership.

But let us return again to our newly obligated Brother, and the experience our finances allow him to have.  A few days have passed since he was initiated.  It is time to begin mentoring and educating our newest Brother. Freemasonry is deep and it is complex. He, like all Masons, must be taught.

If we own our own building, do we have a quality space to do this in? Do we have a warm and cozy space where two to four of us can sit together and learn from one another? Does it have nice, comfortable leather chairs surrounding an adequate table?

If not, why not? Are our low dues once again forcing us to fall short?

We know that they are, so why do we refuse to fix it?

As we are trying to get this new Brother started, probably not in a comfortable space as mentioned above, do we at least have good books in the Lodge library to get him going down his own Masonic path? Do we have titles such as Freemasons For Dummies, and Pike’s Esoterika, or are all of our books over fifty years old?

All of us who have traveled to Lodges know the truth. In most cases, Lodges do not own any newer Masonic books.

How sad is that?

Will we teach him using the dusty and outdated volumes?

Well, no. We won’t do that. What we will do instead, far too often, is we will not teach him at all.

In most Lodges, an extremely minimal increase in dues would allow a quality Lodge library to be created. Why in so many cases are we unwilling to do even this?

We must recognize that everywhere in the United States, lack of adequate Masonic finances, because of dues that are far too low and do not rise with inflation in most cases, are destroying Freemasonry. Not only because of the few examples given above, but truly in a myriad of ways.

Freemasonry must have adequate financial resources, adequate dues, if it is to survive and thrive into a bright future.

I hope that these few examples help to illustrate that fact.

I hope as well however that these few examples also point out that by having more financial resources, a better Lodge experience can be had.

A better Lodge experience justifies higher costs.

Most importantly though, a better Lodge experience will result in better men being attracted to our Ancient Craft, and more of those men remaining active Masons for life.

Let’s talk about those quality Lodge Experiences, and how we can provide them.  How we can work to improve the Lodge Experience for the Masons of Washington.

The first thing we must do is face the facts, and the facts are undeniable.  In the vast majority of our Lodges we have significantly more uninvolved Masons than we have involved and engaged Masons.

We are making Masons at a rate high enough to sustain ourselves, but we are not retaining a huge percentage of those men.

To my mind, the reason for this, the problem we face, is clear.  

In most of our Lodges, most of our meetings are as dry and dull as dirt.

Masonic education is an afterthought if it exists at all.  Meals aren’t particularly great in most Lodges, and opportunities to build fellowship are not provided. 

In some cases Degrees are poorly done, and in far to many cases quality Mentorship for our Candidates is either not provided, or is only provided as an afterthought.

We are going to change that.

The Freemasons of Washington are going to change that.  

We are going to focus our entire efforts on addressing this situation, focus all of our efforts on providing the men of this jurisdiction with a great Lodge experience and compelling reasons to attend Lodge.

Doing just that is not difficult.  It simply requires a break from the bad practices of the past few decades.  

Every Worshipful Master in this Jurisdiction is required to provide ‘good and wholesome instruction’ to the members of his Lodge.  In other words, Masonic education.

Too few Lodges fulfill that fundamental responsibility, and ignoring that charge will no longer be tolerated within this Jurisdiction.

Coming out of the pandemic, this is the very best time we have ever had to reset.

Our Lodges have not met in over a year.  All the bad old practices, and traditions that outlived their usefulness decades ago no longer exist.

This is the time for change.  The perfect time for change.

Let us face reality.  Lodges that are willing to up their game, that are willing to provide a great Masonic experience for their members will thrive.

Those that refuse to change, those that do nothing but read the minutes and pay the bills, well those Lodges are going to die.  To be clear, those Lodges deserve to die, for they are offering nothing of value to their Masons.

For all of the rest, for those that want to fulfill the great promises of Freemasonry, let’s talk a little bit about how a Great Lodge Experience can be provided.

It starts, or in some Lodges it ends, with an excellent meal.  Some Brothers are good cooks, some Brothers have wives who are both good cooks, and kind enough to cook for us.  If such is the case, then that is great.  If it is not, then I’m going to suggest that the Lodge either do as our Fraternity did for hundreds of years, and eat in a nearby restaurant, or have the meal catered.

We need to recognize that we can’t throw 5 or 8 dollar dinner donations down, and then expect to have a great meal.  McDonalds costs more than that nowadays.  We must provide whomever is doing the meal with enough money to pull it off.

Where I live in Lewis County we can get a superb catered steak dinner for $20.  In Seattle, it is going to be more.  That’s OK, guys in Seattle generally make more.  The thing is though, $20 for a great meal is not unreasonable, and not objectionable.  It is in fact fairer than $10 for a poor meal.

A feast has been a fundamental part of Freemasonry since its very beginning.  Organizing feasts was actually the stated motivation behind the formation of the world’s first Grand Lodge.

So let’s make our meals great.  And let’s include wine or spirits.  

Dinner with nothing but water, bad coffee, and off brand soda pop is not at all in keeping with the world’s oldest, largest, richest, and noblest Fraternity.

When did we decide that it was OK for our Lodges to become so common?  So cheap?

We need to ritualistically open our Stated meetings, and then immediately begin our Educational program.  

That program needs to be first on the agenda, each and every time.  It also needs to be allotted the longest time slot on the agenda.  

Masonic education, the very reason Masonry exists should not be given 5 minutes, when the dull business that no one actually wants to hear takes up an hour.

To be clear, the program should take up the majority of time in every Stated meeting.

Every single Worshipful Master in this Jurisdiction knelt at the Altar of God and swore that he would ‘propagate the knowledge of the mystic art.’  When did we decide it was OK for so many of our Worshipful Masters to violate their obligation while standing in the East?

I know that some Masters don’t feel confident about running an educational program. They don’t feel that they know enough. That is OK. They can let the Lodge run the program. All the Master has to do is randomly choose a small section from one of the three Degree Lectures. Read it out, and then have the Lodge discuss it, Round Robin style. Require everyone in the room to give their thoughts about it. You’ll be surprised at how much is learned, and how much the Brothers enjoy it, especially after the first couple of times, after they have a chance to build up some courage talking, explaining their own views of the ritual.

After the program, then it is OK to handle the business of the Lodge. Do so as efficiently as possible.  It will be found that by moving the business to the end of the agenda, there will be less interest in talking things to death.

When the business is done, close the meeting. Preferably less than one and a half hours have passed since it was opened. No meeting should ever go beyond one and a half hours, because that is just about the maximum amount of time men can give any meeting their attention. If it is going on too long, the Master should table some business, get the men out of there before they start going stir crazy.

After the meeting the Brothers should head out to the dining room, or if one is available, the library. Break out a fine spirit, and if legally allowed in the building some good quality cigars. This time should be used to enjoy each other as Brothers, over spirits, and maybe cigars. Toast each other’s successes, toast the Lodge, toast all the good things in life.

It is our job, as the members of this Fraternity to convince those Lodges within our spheres of influence to do these things, for if they do they will have created a compelling evening that men will want to go out of their way to attend. They will be providing both the education, and the fellowship that Freemasonry has always promised to provide, but all too frequently does not. Doing these things our Worshipful Masters will begin to see their Lodge start to thrive.

I understand that in many Lodges what I have outlined above is well outside of the norm.  That this will be a change from the practices of recent decades.

If a Lodge must break bad habits from recent decades, that’s OK, because what I have outlined above is Freemasonry.  Our Lodges should try it, if they do, and they stick with it, they will discover that they like it.

I’ve harped on all of this long enough.  That is what the Grand Lodge of Washington will be focused upon in the upcoming term.

We will convince the leaders of our Lodges to create superb Lodge experiences, both inside and outside of the Lodge.

This is the perfect time, because no one can now say that ‘we’ve always done it this other way.’  For truly, we haven’t done anything for over a year.  This is our opportunity for a fresh start.  Let’s make the most of it.

My Brothers, you have been extremely patient and kind, listening to me ramble on and on.  So, Thank You.

I look forward to working with you in the upcoming term.

I know that with all of us working together, focused on improving the Lodge experience, we will succeed.

We will see to it that our Lodges actually provide Freemasonry, and provide compelling reasons for the men they initiate to remain active and involved Freemasons for Life.

Freemasonry is the greatest organized body of men to have ever existed on the face of this earth.  It helped cradle the enlightenment which created our modern world, and it has supported the cause of freedom over the full surface of the globe, particularly here in the Americas where Freemasons threw off the yoke of european oppression in the United States, Mexico, and throughout Central and South America.

We are truly walking in the footsteps of the greatest men who have ever lived.  Freemasons.

We are the leaders of this noblest of institutions, the inheritors of an unmatched and unmatchable tradition.

Freemasons who came before us were willing to give everything, including their lives for this institution.

All we are asked to give is our time.

Please join me in giving your time.  As this pandemic ends, Freemasonry will be reborn, and working together we will ensure that it will be set on a firmer foundation than ever before.

The sun is indeed rising in the East once again.  Please join me in celebrating its arrival.

Thank you!

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Let’s Zoom

Like every Sunday, I’ll open Zoom at 7:30 this evening. Login information will go out via email to those with a paid subscription to Emeth at 5:00 PM Pacific Time.

If you would like to join in this Zoom gathering, but need to upgrade your subscription to do so, please do it before 5:00 this afternoon to ensure that you receive the information.

As in previous weeks, we can talk about what was discussed on Emeth over the past week, talk about what we would like to discuss in the future, and of course toast each other and our Ancient Craft.

The meeting agenda will be tight, and like always, limited to 40 minutes.

I look forward to seeing you this evening!

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Thank You!

To all of you who support Emeth. With your comments, by purchasing a paid subscription, buy reading and sharing. Thank You, from the bottom of my heart. This amazing project would not be possible without each and every one of you.

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Just in case you missed it:

The Forget Me Not