Masonic Papers

Educator, public official, and political reformer, John W. Gardner, may have said it best, “History never looks like history when you are living through it.” The direction of the Institution of American Freemasonry, much of its administration and many of the practices used to deliver the promise of Freemasonry have always been influenced by external circumstances, situations, and conditions. Not every response from the Institution to past external influences has been artful and rippling effects from the decisions and choices made during challenging times prove to affect American Freemasonry long after they are made. There is no reason today to believe the same will not happen as the fraternity moves through the current situation created by the global pandemic. In some ways, shifts in our thinking has already started as we travel closer to this latest crossroad.

Society, in general, has and continues to be dumbed down. If you don’t think so, you may possibly be among those who may be counted as victims. The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs commissioned a civic education poll among public school students. A surprising 77% didn’t know that George Washington was the first President; couldn’t name Thomas Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and only 2.8% of the students passed the citizenship test. Along similar lines, the Goldwater Institute of Phoenix did the same survey and only 3.5% of students passed the civics test.

In 1966, the Masonic Fraternity in America was eight years into an annual steady membership loss that has lasted to this day. That year around 155,000 Masons that were on the rolls in 1959, were gone. In another ten years, 477,000 more would disappear from the rolls. By 1986, another 631,000 names disappeared and a total of 1,263,000 men were no longer counted as Masons in America. Although the losses varied in each jurisdiction every jurisdiction felt the pang of the losses. The average loss was 25,250 Masons per state over that 27-year period.

If a Mason has been fortunate enough to witness or participate in the 3rd Section of the Hiramic Legend of the Master Mason Degree or to study it, he knows that when Grand Master Hiram Abiff does not show up for work one morning during the construction of King Solomon’s Temple the craftsmen became confused. They were horrified that no designs were drawn on the trestle-board to instruct them on the work to be done that particular day. Abiff was nowhere to be found; their leader had not set them to work for the day, much less provide wholesome instruction about the manner of carrying out the work on that day. As a result, there was confusion at the temple. One of the many lessons from the Hiramic Legend is the clear need for planning. When there is no plan, confusion should be expected and is the net result.

Tonight, I want to share with you some a few things about the season we are in. At its surface, the Christmas holidays have no intrinsic connection to the fraternity. What I mean by that is nowhere in our degrees do we find Freemasonry linking itself to any nationally or world-practiced holiday. Now, we all know Freemasonry is not a religion nor a substitute for religion. It requires of its members a belief in a Supreme Being but advocates no sectarian faith or practice. Masonic ceremonies include prayers of course – both traditional and impromptu – to reaffirm everyone’s dependence on the Supreme Bring and to seek divine guidance.

This essay is about origins, but not the origins of Freemasonry. This writing is about the cause and origin of a phrase found in Masonry for at least the past 180 years: Masonic ignorance.
Abraham Lincoln was supposedly fond of asking, “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?” “Five,” his listeners would invariably answer. “No,” he would politely respond, “the correct answer is four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.” Like Lincoln’s audiences, who were willing to call a tail a leg, many Masons subscribe to similar thinking: calling all members of the Fraternity Freemasons actually makes them Freemasons.

In many jurisdictions, the Tyler is the first officer of the Lodge to be installed. When the sword is placed in his hands, the officiate reminds all present that: “As the sword is placed in the hands of the Tyler to enable him effectually to guard against the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers, and suffer none to pass or repass except such as are duly qualified, so should it admonish us to set a guard over our thoughts, a watch at our lips, and post a sentinel over our actions; thereby preventing the approach of every unworthy thought and deed, and preserving consciences void of offense toward God and man.”

As noted in the introduction of Bending Granite, the collection of writings in this book grew from various projects and presentations made over the past two years. Many carry the same premise but are presented from different angles. These writings outline how the fabric of Freemasonry is like a patchwork where pieces are missing, others have not worn well, some have been sewn in where they do not exactly fit, and how that has made American Freemasonry more of an ongoing development or an accumulation, rather than a creation. The idea of organized Freemasonry cannot be broken, but the Fraternity that surrounds it continues to use the patchwork as if it were the historical and intended purpose of the original idea.