Vote No!

For the good of Freemasonry

This essay is specific to Freemasonry within Washington State. To all my readers elsewhere, I’m sorry about that. I try to keep Emeth focused on the broader picture. But, perhaps you will find this interesting, no matter what Jurisdiction in which you reside.

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Photo by Cyrus Crossan on Unsplash

In a few days, at the Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Washington, we will be voting on a particularly misguided Resolution. Ordinarily I would not write about an upcoming Resolution, but in this case I feel I must because while reviewing it for the vote, our Jurisprudence Committee made an extremely significant error. An error that may well result in a distorted outcome.

The Grand Lodge of Washington has always left the Landmarks of Masonry unwritten. We have never adopted a written list. And that has served us well since 1858, thirty-one years before Washington even became a State.

This may seem strange to Masons from Jurisdictions that have codified the Landmarks, but in fact it is not unknown in western society. The United States does of course have a single written document that serves as the Constitution of our country. Just like the U.S. the United Kingdom has a Constitution that serves as the fundamental law of that country, but it is not a single, written document. It is uncodified and largely unwritten.¹ ²

The long term success and power of the U.K. clearly proves that fundamental law does not have to be written down in order for it to be valid.

The Grand Lodge of Washington has published unadopted, uncodified lists of Landmarks, but only to serve as educational material. Indeed, the following disclaimer has been published alongside those lists:

“The Grand Lodge of Washington never officially adopted a list of Ancient Landmarks. The following lists are included here as educational material only, in order that the origins and traditions, the usages and customs, the heritage of our Fraternity may be preserved.” -Emphasis added by author.

But in just a few days, we will be faced with a Resolution that, if passed, will result in the Grand Lodge of Washington having official, written, codified, Landmarks.

To be clear, a Landmark is:

“The Landmarks are those essentials of Freemasonry without any one of which it would no longer be Freemasonry” -Melvin Johnson, Past Grand Master of Massachusetts, 1923

“The best writers are unanimous on two essential points, the two point test: a landmark must have existed from the "time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary" and a landmark is an element in the form or essence of the Society of such importance that Freemasonry would no longer be freemasonry if it were removed. In other words, they are something perpetual and unchanging.” -Website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon³

“About the middle of the nineteenth century Masonic lawyers in this country began to feel that Freemasonry, like a political state, must have a ‘constitution’ consisting of fundamental and indispensable principles, immune from legislative change and to which all Masonic laws, ordinances, edicts, and resolutions must conform.” -Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia

“those peculiar marks of distinction by which we are separated from the profane world, and by which we are enabled to designate our inheritance as the ‘sons of light,’ are called the landmarks of the order. The universal language and the universal laws of Masonry are landmarks, but not so are the local ceremonies, laws, and usages, which vary in different countries. To attempt to alter or remove these sacred landmarks, by which we examine and prove a brother’s claims to share in our privileges, is one of the most heinous offenses that a Mason can commit.” -Albert Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Emphasis in original.

“The landmarks of the Order, like the laws of Medes and the Persians, can suffer no change. What they were centuries ago, they still remain, and must so continue in force until Masonry itself shall cease to exist.” -Albert Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

In my own words, our Landmarks are those universal practices of Freemasonry, so fundamental that if even one did not exist in what we were doing, whatever it was that we were doing would be something else. It would not be Freemasonry.

These are the absolute, fundamental tenets of our Craft.

And this year we are faced with a Resolution that seeks to adopt and codify a written list of Landmarks, seemingly willy nilly, without much thought at all, and little opportunity for the assembled Craft to properly pass judgement.

This Resolution is the most troubling that I have ever encountered during my time as a Freemason.

It is Grand Master’s Resolution 2024-13, and can be found on page 45 of the Resolution Booklet that you may have received through the mail, or can find on Grandview.

Let’s go through it:

Right near the top of Resolution 2024-13, we encounter the following explanatory text:

“Whereas: In 1951, the Conference of Grand Masters of North America created the Commission on Recognition which, in 1952 established guidelines for recognition of foreign jurisdictions. These include ‘Adherence to the Ancient Landmarks - Specifically, a Belief in God, the Volume of the Sacred Law as an indispensable part of the Furniture of the Lodge, and the prohibition of the discussion of politics and religion.’”

Sure, these facts are true. In 1951 the Conference of Grand Masters of North America created the Commission on Information for Recognition. And yes, that Commission created standards. Including, but not limited to the standard quoted in the ‘whereas’ above.

But while those facts are true, their incomplete selection and inclusion within this Resolution are misleading. They imply that the Commission on Information for Recognition gives a weight to the version of Mackey’s Landmarks that are later listed in the Resolution that it does not give.

In point of fact, the standards utilized by the Commission on Information for Recognition to make its findings about those Jurisdictions that come before it are three in number, and are summarized as follows:⁴

“1. Legitimacy of origin.

2. Exclusive territorial jurisdiction, except by mutual consent and/or treaty.

3. Adherence to the Ancient Landmarks – specifically, a Belief in God, the Volume of the Sacred Law as an indispensable part of the Furniture of the Lodge, and the prohibition of the discussion of politics and religion.”⁵

Not Albert Mackey’s list of 25 written in 1858, and not the changed list of 24 purporting to be some version Mackey’s list in this Resolution.

Currently the Grand Lodge of Washington publishes Mackey’s list of 25 Landmarks in Appendix I of the Washington Masonic Code, Along with Pound’s list of 7 Landmarks “as educational material only.”

Resolution 2024-13 would, if passed, do a number of things:

1. Delete the information in Appendix I that explains the origin of these lists of Landmarks, and the explanation that the lists are provided as educational material only.

2. Delete entirely the list of 7 Landmarks enunciated by RW Dr. Roscoe Pound (Dean of the School of Law at Harvard and Deputy Grand Master of Massachusetts) in his address to the Conference of Grand Masters in North America in 1952.

3. Make further changes to 6 of the 24 Landmarks that would exist if this Resolution were to pass. None of these changes are properly explained as to why they were chosen to be made, nor how they were purported to be made.

4. The complete deletion of Mackey’s 25th Landmark. Conveniently this is the one in which he declares that his list can’t ever be changed.

5. Codify this new list as the fundamental governing document of Freemasonry within the Jurisdiction of Washington.

I am deeply disturbed by the fact that Mackey’s list was changed, without any meaningful explanation of the changes made, nor any explanation as to who suggested and stands behind those changes.

It seems to me that any change to what is sought to be made into the most fundamental part of Masonic Law in this Jurisdiction, the very foundation upon which Freemasonry is purportedly built, would be very carefully considered by the best Masonic scholars available within the Jurisdiction. Not just thrown out there on a whim. I fear however, and I have neither seen nor heard any evidence that these changes were suggested by anything more than a whim.

I think that we must also consider that the list of landmarks purported to be created with the passage of Resolution 2024-13 is overly simplistic. No proposed Landmark is over a single short sentence long, and all of them fit on just over a single page, in a large font, double spaced.

But when Mackey published them in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry each of them were long paragraphs of multiple sentences. In font so tiny and closely spaced that I have to use quite a bit of care to read it, Mackey’s list, in his own words takes up four pages in a large sized book.

This is quite similar to the standards adopted by the Commission on Information for Recognition mentioned above.

Three little standards. A total of 53 words.

But the book explaining those 53 words is 76 pages long.⁶

So, if you, like me, love the work of Mackey, don’t be fooled into thinking that the list proposed in Resolution 2024-13 is faithful to Makey’s work. It’s a shortened, condensed, simplified, mish-mash.

A great many of our Lodges have copies of Mackey’s encyclopedia available, so you can easily see for yourself just how different what this Resolution claims to be Mackey’s work actually is from Mackey’s work.

The bottom line is that I don’t think that our Grand Lodge needs a codified list of Landmarks, and this Resolution would create exactly that. I am tremendously proud of the history of the Grand Lodge of Washington, and I believe in learning that history that we have done quite well with unwritten Landmarks since 1858.

If you are on the fence about that, I urge you to consider the words of Trevor McKeown, in his superb essay The Landmarks Of The Order.⁷

But, I also recognize that men of goodwill can and do disagree about what is best for our Gentle Craft. So, I can see why some Masons may desire for us to adopt and codify a written list of Landmarks.

If we are going to do that though, it can’t be on a whim. It can’t be the idea of one man. It can’t be the work of one man.

Something as fundamental as the Ancient Landmarks of Freemasonry, the very foundation of our Craft, if they are to be written, need to be considered by and written by a recognized and respected group of Masonic scholars, then well explained to the Craft as a whole, so that Masons can make a truly informed decision based upon solid reason.

But as mentioned above, reasonable people with the best of intentions can and do disagree about what might be best for Freemasonry. I do not doubt but that our Grand Master offered this resolution with the very best of intentions.

So, all of that is out of the way.

I have more things to say about how I find this Resolution misguided, but I’ve got to end before I put you to sleep.

But none of the things discussed above are the really bad problem with Resolution 2024-13 as it has been presented to us.

The huge problem is that our Jurisprudence Committee utterly failed in its duty to protect the Craft in our Jurisdiction.

It erroneously declared that since this Resolution only addresses an Appendix, something currently listed as existing “as educational material only,” this massive change to Masonic Law in our Jurisdiction can be made with nothing more than a simple majority vote.

It is an error of immense proportions.

Consider the following:⁸

-It will take a 3/4 Super Majority vote for the Grand Lodge to allow Lodges to Install their Officers in the summer months.

-If a Lodge wants to order a 25 Year Pin for one of its members from the Grand Lodge Office when that man has been a Mason for 24 years and 11 months, it can’t currently do that. We’ll vote to allow a Lodge to do that, to let them get a pin for their Brother a month early. That will take a 3/4 Super Majority vote to pass.

-To change the Masonic funeral service within the Standard work will take a 90%, near unanimous vote to pass.

-To declare it a Masonic offense for a Mason to publish our Standard Work in plain text (other than the Grand Secretary) in any language other than English (currently doing so is only prohibited in the English language) will require a 90%, near unanimous vote to pass.

-To require that the Grand Lodge Budget be separated from the Reports of the Finance Committee, so that it can be voted on individually will require a 3/4 Super Majority vote to pass.

-To add a new Grand Lodge award that Brothers can earn by demonstrating excellence in their ritual work will take a 3/4 Super Majority to pass.

But…

But…

Wait for it…

To fundamentally alter the entire foundation of Masonic Law within our Jurisdiction…

Will only require a simple majority to pass.

We can’t create a new award to give guys who go above and beyond in their ritual work without a Super Majority vote. We can’t change a single word in our Standard Work without a near majority 90% vote.

But we can adopt and codify a written list of Landmarks that will govern the Craft in Washington from 2024 forward, that will override all other aspects of Masonic Law, with nothing more than a simple majority.

The review process clearly failed.

I can’t know why this happened. But I can know that it is wrong. Dead wrong.

And we, the Freemasons of Washington shouldn’t tolerate it.

We must vote a resounding ‘NO’ on Resolution 2024-13.

We must do so, for the good of Freemasonry.

1. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/defence-unwritten-constitution

2. https://consoc.org.uk/the-constitution-explained/the-uk-constitution/

3. https://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/landmarks.html

4. https://masonicrecognition.org/

5. Much more detail about each of these three standards, and the formation of the Commission on Information for Recognition can be found in the book Grand Lodge Recognition, published by the Commission and printed by Macoy Publishing in 1956. Copies of this book are available at the Grand Lodge of Washington’s library.

6. Grand Lodge Recognition

7. https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/landmarks.pdf

8. Each of these examples can be found in the current Resolution Booklet.