John W. Bizzack, Ph.D.

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.

Ridiculing and defamatory pamphlets, manuscripts, folios, newspaper articles, or advertisements purported to reveal Masonic lectures, test questions, or symbolic materials about Freemasonry began to appear almost as soon the Fraternity was formally organized. Some of these works were products of betrayal and, by that fact, suspicious. Others were clearly intended to antagonize the Fraternity. Some may have been published to help Masons learn rituals and processes and even as a publication to attract the attention of men who became interested enough to join the Craft.

History provides a real grasp of how the world works. To know why something happened, we must look for factors that took shape earlier―sometimes centuries ago.The low-hanging fruit of history can be easy to harvest. However, doing so overlooks large amounts of data. No one has found a way to pick only the history they like and agree with, reject the parts they do not, and then walk away with a clear picture or understanding of events.

Philosophical questions become the framework of our identities, and, our answers to them can determine the quality and even the trajectory of our lives. What we believe matters. Philosophy provides an equation to help better understand the nature of life, and can lead us to choose what we will believe. We all have a specific set of ideas. We all have basic concepts about knowledge, right and wrong, the value of things and about how to do something or how to live and let live. Whether our ideas are based on well-grounded philosophy or merely an opinion is worth examining.

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.”

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.