Reading, reading always reading

I have been reading quite a bit. Mainly the books that are mailed to me from the GLoNY Livingston Library. I have also read one or two that are not on the reading list just to get a feel for what else is out there, in print anyway. I am working on “The Builders” right now and will have it finished before the middle of the month. When not reading from the library I am scanning the web for information. I came across a blog from a brother in Georgia that has me perplexed. The brother who writes the blog is a younger brother and has only been in the Craft for a few years. He states he was very active within his lodge and the brothers in is lodge we happy that he was so. At some point things seemed to go terribly wrong for this brother. The description of events that he relates seems almost too fantastic to have happen the way he has written them.

The first event was that, as he was webmaster, he posted information about another brother that had been convicted (plead guilty to) a serious crime involving a child. Then when asked to remove the information he refused. I should say that at this time I believe he was the Junior Warden of his lodge. Now I am still a fairly new Mason and only hold an appointed position in my lodge and by no means and expert on Masonic etiquette or Masonic jurisprudence, although I am the webmaster for our lodge (lead by a committee). That being said, I would not have posted the information on the web site of the lodge until after getting the approval of at least the Master of the lodge and the Senior Warden. Even if I thought, as this brother did, that I had the right and obligation to do so.

The crime that the convicted brother had perpetrated in at least my opinion is one of the most heinous you can commit short of murder. This is doubly true for a Mason. In the end the brother also was brought up on Masonic charges and there was a hearing in the lodge and he was expelled from the fraternity, as is right, if the brother blogging the story is in fact relating the story truthfully.

As a result of all this the brother that reported the story was made to feel very unwelcome in his lodge. I realize that his zeal for his new found place in the fraternity drove him to want to stand out and show the brothers that he could make a contribution. I have that same zeal or enthusiasm for Masonry. The problem however is that I know I have to temper my zeal with respect for those who have gone this way before me. As Geddy Lee of Rush sang, “He knows changes aren’t permanent, But change is.” All people I have ever met in my life have had or expressed at least some resistance to change, some more than others. As a newly raised brother I would not assume to try and change Freemasonry to fit what I thought it to be, even when I reach twenty years. We should however make sure Masonry is what it was intended to be, the gentle Craft. Sometimes it is not about the individual it is about the group as a whole.

Now the story I am relating is written by a brother (?) of a lodge in the State of Georgia who seems to be aligned with or at least sympathetic with the expelled (suspended/ demitted) Masons who formed the Grand Orient of the US (previously the Grand Lodge of America) or GOOFUS. I have done some cursory investigation and found Bro. Ed King’s page here to be very informative as to the events and history surrounding this escapade. I have to admit that while reading the blog in question I was concerned that this kind of disharmony could exist in a Masonic Lodge. As I dug just a little deeper I did find that it did indeed, but to my relief it seems to be centered on a dozen or so people.

I asked to join Masonry only after some research and personal investigation. I found the history and moral teachings to be sublime. I will keep reading and learning and I hope that the individuals that have been making such a ruckus will find what they are looking for. For it certainly is not Freemasonry. Over the 300+ years that Freemasonry as existed or evolved, of course there have been upheavals and scandals. As with any large organization, unfortunately this will happen. It’s akin to when airplane crashes killing all aboard; the reason it makes the front page of the paper is because it is a unique event and not often seen. As much as I despise that example it seems apropos. Well as I am off to Washington DC on business next week, I am hoping to get some time to see the G. Washington Masonic Memorial and/or the Scottish Rite temple.


Brethren,

Meet on the Level…always..