This tale starts in an email I received on Valentines Day. The email was a resignation, a coup de grâce on a loose affiliation based on a common passion about Freemasonry because of a personal (or privately cultivated) belief that this websites general quality was in deterioration.
I can surmise that most who read this site don’t like reading about the fraternal peccadilloes, the raw data of readers to each piece tells me otherwise. The highest day’s readership was on Monday June 22 of 2009 when I published a piece called “My brother’s keeper. Open Racism in Georgia Freemasonry” which, for the record, pulled close to 1500 views on the day it went up. Does it mean people like controversy? No, but it means Brothers want to know what’s going on across the spectrum of Masonry besides who’s speaking where or recognizing who is relevant to someone.
The complaint in this resignation was a building belief that some writers were taking on a voice of schadenfreude (the pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others). It’s an easy line to see blurred, and not a new complaint about the BeeHive. It’s a reason for a few hurt feelings and split relationships that lead to breaks over creative differences.
Through it all the, higher principal in operation on FmI has been to allow free speech with an open door for named authors or free volunteers to contribute to the dialog. My email is right there on the right… If its not a rant, send it to me, I’ll publish it.
In the 6 years that I’ve published this site I’ve received a whopping total of TWO (2) contributions to rebut something published here. I know that the posts are being debated, I go to the same forums you do and I can see when someone somewhere links back to an article, so I know people are talking about the subject matter. But no does. Its easier not to.
For a fraternity that instructs an initiate to seek out understanding for logic and rhetoric, two counter posts seem to smack of a lack of that study.
Maybe that’s the case. Maybe there is a disdain to speak openly about the elephant in the room or to address the problems “over there” when clearly there is no similar problem here. It smacks of the “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” mantra which the Urban Dictionary quotes Dane Cook defining the aphorism by saying “It happened. It only happened there. And it happened far enough away to have any negative effect on the “the here and now”. And anyone who wasn’t there at the time need not know about it. So stfu about it, and move on. But keep the memories.”
It’s the last part that those who want to keep status quo want you to remember: “…stfu about it, and move on.” For those scratching their heads wondering what stfu means, it means “shut the Fuck up” and their saying that because they don’t like to talk about the negative fraternalism, or their being called to task to defend their affiliations, or what they perceived as being so sacred is more subject to social influences than they care to recognize. Clearly, what happens in Masonry over there affects it over here especially in the era of national news coverage. Maybe if we STFU enough, we won’t have to say anything and then behind closed doors we’ll address the problem.
News flash – that’s not happening and no matter how tight we wrap ourselves in the comforting loops of the imaginatively historic “Mystical Tie“ and ignore the reality of what its binding the sooner it will become a noose that will suffocate out the creative life of what should be a bright and shining jewel of society.
It’s happened to me when a family friend who a few months back asked me about my involvement in Masonry (she is one of about 1400 friends on Facebook so she sees a lot of what I publish). She just happens to be very educated, Jewish, a feminist, and a lesbian, and she asked me what was with all this Masonic stuff since she remembered it from her fathers day as being a racist, anti-Semitic, male chauvinist society? Her question: “How can they [Masons] proclaim such high ideals and still be so upside down about religion, women and race?”
After she asked that question she then asked me “How could I be a part of such an organization given my enlightened liberal nature?”
I came up short. I didn’t really know what to say. Would you? My feeble response was to say that I write about it and still a part of it, to make these issues a thing of the past. Personally, I wanted to make racism a non-issue and to change the perception of the “enlightened” so as to see the fairest of the species in the same way that the rest of society see them – as equals.
What I do (and really why this site exists) is to remind my brothers, as Tim Bryce reminds me, and what I believe to be behind what the BeeHive writes is that “the Emperor has no cloths” and that we need to get our heads out of the sand about it.
So, as was so cavalierly published this morning, the author of the “47th Problem of Euclid” is no longer posting on this website and he has eliminated his past few contributions. His departure is because of a profound discomfort “…with where the website is going…” and a belief that it has “…chosen to ally [the BeeHive] with irregular and clandestine Freemasonry rather than commit to helping fix these problems.” But, I suggest that rather than offer a counter point or rebuttal or any significant material contribution – Euclid has chosen to quit publicly and with a flourish which is easier than adding to the conversation and shaping the dialog.
And that’s the reason why Modern Masonry is in the state it is today. When we believe the quality of something to be low (true or not since it’s all about our personal perception), we separate ourselves from it rather than adding to its material betterment.
I think it is an uncomfortable reality, for some, that Freemasonry, by it’s nature, is a metamorphosis. A unique system of symbols and alagory all pertaining to the construction of a Temple never completed. Each new stone laid, each new layer of mortar applied chages that temple in height, width, apex and nadir. Humans don’t like change. I don’t- it makes me itch. I know the devil I have, not the one I may get. Yet change is inevitable, and one of the lessons I most want to apply to my life is the subjugation of passions. Fear and anger being amoung them. I try, and fail miserably at times, to see and understand others diverse opinions. But, I too, have “cut people off” and stop participating because I decided their views were hostile, ignorant, or some other way, not up to my standards. So I accept that i too have made the mistake of walking away, rather than contributing to the betterment of the Craft.
Now, I look at this through the eyes of a “clandestine” Freemason, and so leave it to you Brother to share this post, or not.
Freemasonry would be perfect if there were no human beings in its ranks.
The reality is that the membership of Lodges all over the world has and will continue to have its share of men who have not and never will live up to the principals the fraternity promotes.
I have been a in the Craft for 30 years and belonged to Lodges in several parts of Canada and visited many Lodges in the United States and Germany. I have met brethren from all walks of life, some good and some that I was embarrassed to be associated with. Fortunately most have been fine upstanding sincere men.
It saddens me when I see good men chased away by egocentric jerks who are more hung up on their respective titles than they are on practicing what they allegedly preach. I have come close on several occasions to hitting the trail myself, but fortunately I have persevered and refused to give in. When I was much younger and more starry eyed I actually believed that the fraternity practiced what it preached but as I have aged I have learned that it is not the Fraternity that makes the man, it is the man that makes the fraternity!
Yes there are bigots and racists amongst our ranks. Yes there are men who think that their respective title or honorific entitles them to special treatment when it shouldn’t. ( If I was King of the Masons, we would all be called brother except when we were in a position that had a title and after the fact we would go back to being Brother!) Morphing a phrase from John Lennon, there are those who sit in the bleachers/sidelines (usually past masters) who rattle their jewelry and criticize everything.
But I and we cannot allow these people to destroy what has been proven to be one of the worlds greatest mechanisms to bring men of different faiths, colours and cultures together in the spirit of peace and friendship. Into a sanctuary where they could learn to respect each other without having to get into a fight. If for no other reason Freemasonry has to survive into the future and the status quo has to grow up and evolve.
We have to be very careful in this instant information age to not assume that what may be happening in our community is the same everywhere else. That is not realistic and frankly to assume that the way you do it in your immunity is the norm for everyone else. Prince Hall Freemasons used to be unrecognized in Canada, but we finally evolved into a more civilized society. Are we perfect? Not a chance but we are making progress on transforming our Grand Lodges from rough ashlars into something closer to what we should be.
My friends and brothers in some American jurisdictions, you still have a lot of chipping to do on your own ashlars, and it is high time you did. Bigotry and racism and the shouting down of others opinions has no place in our modern society and it never had a place in Freemasonry, but like I said we did allow humans in.
The one thing I have learned in my Masonic journey in Canada, the USA and Europe is that Freemasonry is culturally very different in different locations. The Craft my friends is like the proverbial onion with many many layers. Some of those layers are bunk, and too often that bunk is regurgitated over and over again by people who have never bothered to think or do any research. A good example is the usual dribble about the supposed Landmarks. There is a good reason why most jurisdictions do not adhere to all of them because many of them are not landmarks! Fanciful claims of antiquity and other fairy tales have nothing to do with the essence of Freemasonry. The fact is that Freemasonry like most of the major faiths, is fundamentally all about decency. The journey to decency has nothing to do with the ring you wear, how many dues cards are in your pocket or having a fanciful title. Decency has everything to do with courage. Be it courage of conviction, the courage to admit that one is wrong, the courage to allow yourself to see things in a different light. In other words I believe that the real meaning of Masonry can be defined as a man who freely chooses to have the courage to change himself for the better. Change is not easy, change is scary and it is hard work, but before we can change others attitudes we have to be able to allow ourselves the opportunity to change. I am not the man I was 30 years ago, I certainly am not perfect, but I have changed many of my attitudes and my biases and I can say without a doubt, Freemasonry has enabled me to change because of the good and bad men I have met in the Craft.
The good men gave me an example to aspire to and helped me develop the courage I needed to speak out against issues and attitudes that have no place in this fraternity. The bad men serve as an example of what not to be and through their reflection of darkness, they serve me and others as a beacon of light shinning on what challenges we still have to address.
Freemasonry has never been perfect and it never will be. But if more men concern themselves with their inward journey instead of fretting about the inadequacies of others and the petty politics of respective jurisdictions we would all be the better for it.
Stand up for what is right, you have a responsibility to do so, but don’t walk away and leave the Fraternity to those who should not be in it in the first place. Be beacons of light, appropriately challenge attitudes and actions that are fundamentally wrong. Have courage. Courage like love is contagious!
Just a quick note to state that I found Larry Burden’s response quite thought-provoking and informative; worthy to exist on it’s own as an article to read and not just a response.
Brother Greg,
I did enjoy your article. Keep up the good work. I also loved Brother Larry Burden’s response. I would like to get his permission to reprint it in the “Small Town Texas Masons E-magazine” at http://www.mastermason.com/sttm-emag/ if possible.
Corky
As an outsider (non-mason) I find the Bee-Hive’s perspective to be about sour grapes. He left mainstream Masonry because of the problems that he sees. Fair enough. Personal integrity matters. But I think it’s wrong to keep throwing rocks at something with nothing to lose. He’s no longer part of the mainstream. So why bother about it. If mainstream Masonry means so much to him, why not re-join and continue the fight from the inside (just like he does with his Catholic affiliation).
No one is writing about the problems of Prince Hall Masonry. I guess they must have no problems over there. I guess that’s why they are still “Black” Masonry. It must be that most white men are too racist to join them. Or maybe there’s some racism inside PH. Who knows.
In the end, I’ll keep reading FmI cuz I like most of it. The ranting about racism is tired though.
A Gathering Storm In Arkansas
http://freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.com/2011/02/gathering-storm-in-arkansas.html