There is no limit to the number of topics that could spark a spirited debate. Controversy is everywhere. Debate can lead us to question our assumptions, challenge us to defend our ideas, and prepare us to probe for a more complete understanding of the issues defining our times. Since at least 1740, debating societies have existed, but they were usually comprised of exclusive groups and more secretive societies. By the early eighteenth century, such organizations became prominent societal fixtures of life in London, largely due to increased membership from London’s growing middle class.
After the Constitution was written and adopted in 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in France. In that letter comes a quote we often hear. He wrote, Our new Constitution is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. We might add one more category and say,”… in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and the things Freemasonry notes in its minutes.”
How does a person or organization begin to successfully address and resolve an issue if they do not know what caused it to become an issue and when? Root Cause Analysis is a useful process for understanding, as well as solving, a problem. It is a useful tool to answer those questions when something goes badly but can also be used when something goes well. There are only three questions to research and ponder: What is the problem? Why did it happen? and What can or will be done to prevent it from happening again? Figuring out what negative (or positive) events are occurring answers the first question. Looking at and understanding the complex systems that surround those events answers the second. Identifying the key points of failure (or success) answers the third. The answers, when properly researched and analyzed, reveal the root cause. As simple as it may sound, and sometimes as simple as it is to do, the evidence is scant that American Freemasonry has regularly used root cause analysis when it comes to the issue of public image and awareness of the idea of Freemasonry.
The organizational structure and its culture consequences inherited by twenty-first-century Freemasonry often seems immovable to the point that even the suggestion of a balanced examination of other possibilities involving our structure evokes robust, sometimes heated, opposition. This is not a recent characteristic found in American Freemasonry, but one that settled in only decades following the formation of lodges. Scottish Freemason and writer, Peter Taylor, describes the reason for this stemming from unintentionally imposing a “horrendous superstructure on a very elegant organization.” The superstructure he refers to is grand lodges.
Historical change is not a difficult concept to recognize and comprehend. It takes place through the process of cause and effect ― the process by which one thing leads to another, which leads to another, and so on and so forth. Aside from catastrophic events, historical change usually has no single cause, but, rather, a variety of causes that occur over time. This is one reason it is easy to overlook or even ignore emerging patterns that are signals telling us we are in the midst of change―sometimes change that is occurring right beneath our nose―particularly in American Freemasonry. If you are looking for predictions about the future of American Freemasonry built on personal beliefs, anecdotes, opinion, or blinkered speculation commonly found in after-lodge parking lot conversations, this paper will not meet your expectations. If you seek more about where to find, recognize, and consider how both past and current patterns help us to better understand the course of our fraternity, and suggest its future path, this booklet is a suitable primer.
Vince Lombardi was the legendary coach for the Green Bay Packers from 1959-1968 and then coached the Washington Redskins for one year. His career stats included 96 wins to 34 losses, six Division championships, two conference championships, and winning the first two Super Bowls. He was named Coach of the Year in 1959, was inducted into the hall of fame in 1971, and is the namesake for the current Super Bowl trophy.
How Freemasonry unfolded and evolved as an organization in the United States is an interesting story. One of the fascinating parts of that story is in how clearly becomes the answer to the question as to why much of the fraternity looks and behaves like it does today and faces the same issues as the ones troubling it over the past 160 years or more. The story provokes thought, at least to the non-casual Masons who take the time to study the facts of the unfolding, because it makes clear what happens when a majority of an organization’s culture takes an artless stance, then hones and passes on that stance through generations who cling to the belief that adequate fundamental instruction and education beyond passing through ritual is unnecessary.
The song, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? was composed for a 1931 Broadway musical called New Americana and originally performed by a man playing a sort of American “everyman.” According to lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (who later penned Somewhere Over the Rainbow), the song was meant to capture the confused feeling of the Great Depression. “He’s bewildered. Here is a man who had built his faith and hope in this country,” he says of the character. Once everything begins to dwindle, the character cannot accept that the bubble has burst, but he still believes. He still has hope that things will turn around. “He just doesn’t understand what could have happened to make everything go so wrong.”
What is Masonry? What is it trying to teach? What does it seek to do? Above all, what can it do for the man who receives it into his heart, loves it, and lives in the light of it? You get the answers to these questions from reading Joseph Fort Newton’s 1924 book, The Men’s House. And the answers come from-a 20th century Mason who viewed Masonry through his faith and embraced a simple insight into the dignity and truths of its principles.
We don’t think much about polishing our shoes these days. In fact, interest in durable leather footwear has been declining for quite some time. The preference for the more casual convenience offered by a variety of informal footwear continues to alarm the leather and the old shoe industry. Droughts over the past decade have affected, and will, for years to come, continue to affect the cattle market, where most leather is produced, which, of course, affects costs in the manufacturing of leather shoes. Also, the onset of more ethically conscious shoppers demanding more alternatives to leather has led designers to utilize fake leather, as well as to companies switching to various other materials to signal their environmental awareness.