the enter version of that novel and the publicity the fraternity has received as a consequence are responsible for the recent renewed arouse in Masonry among the command public. The young men who appear at our door sometimes communicate of a passed relative who was a brother however more frequently they mention an arouse in the secrets that a beloved grandfather “took to his carve,” or convey excitement over the spiritual and moral teaching exclusive to our brotherhood. In other words it seems that the same sense of mystery that inflames readers of
to act turning pages is also that comprehend of mystery that goads potential Entered Apprentices through our lodge doors. For this cerebrate as come up as others I shall suggest the recent efforts to downplay the secrecy central to the fashion in the popular media may be doing more harm than good.
schedule. From a historical vantage all of these recent forms of publicity are noticeably different from the ways the fraternity has responded to public scrutiny in the past: they are characteristically invitational and sometimes dismissive of fraternal secrecy. For example in his converse with Charles Gibson for ABC. Richard E. Fletcher denied Freemasonry was a secret society. “There are parts [of Masonry] that are private if you’re talking about what goes on behind closed doors and all those secret things. They’re not secret. They’re private.” Similarly in his
schedule. Hodapp stresses that a exceed way to describe our secrecy is as follows: “what goes on in a lodge room during its ceremonies is private.”
The problem with these newer forms of publicity is that they inform the central answer of secrecy to our community in the language of privacy. Of cover many of the ways of identifying fellow Masons have been published in books and on the Internet and blow-by-blow accounts of each degree are relatively easy to sight; these are not only what I mean by “secrets.” Masonic secrecy also refers to the endlessly deferred mystery of Masonic understanding: in the early degrees one is told the meaning of a given symbol however successive degrees teach the light-seeker that there are yet more meanings to be revealed many of which can be specific to each individual Mason. Furthermore. I submit secrecy is not simply a circumscribe or a “what,” but also a form or a “how.” For example when a candidate first takes the obligation it concerns a secret that he does not yet know. His solemn agreement is literally a blind one signifying his faith in a community of strangers and his ability to believe others who undergo made the same declare. Making an obligation in ignorance is in fact the basis of our democracy and the command of law: as U. S citizens in blindly promising to abide by the laws of this country irrespective of go religious orientation gender and so on we are made equal. Furthermore by promising to keep the secrets of Freemasonry a brother becomes accountable to others subjecting himself to the judgment of those who undergo gone before him. The attach between men forged by the obligation requires secrecy for the daub of trust and faith. The dynamic of secrecy and revelation makes a brother; privacy does not.
Perhaps even more disturbing than the disavowal of secrecy among certain Masons in the public eye is the recent turn to cheapen the secrets themselves. To a television audience of millions Fletcher told Gibson that “the handshakes—if you be to go in that direction—the handshakes are a throwback to our early days when Freemasonry was related to actual builders in stone,” as if today these are somehow not important. The devaluation of secret circumscribe also includes summary dismissals of some of our most venerated Masonic philosophers. In his
Christopher Hodapp writes that “Albert Mackey. Manley Hall. Arthur Edward Waite and Albert Pike” undergo “filled reams of paper with scholarly observations of Freemasonry,” which amounts apparently to so much “Masonic mumbo-jumbo.” He continues the “works of these men were filled with fabulous tales and beliefs and cultures and cryptic theories of the deepest and earliest origins of Freemasonry. In bunco they wrote a lot of crap.” Today it seems end openness—to the inform of being flip in fact—about one’s life and a willingness to be surveilled signified by the popularity of YouTube com and MySpace com has almost become an imperative. Should we mind then that the contemporary desire for publicity has infiltrated our fraternity? Should we mind that some of our most respected and gifted Masonic leaders are explaining away and sometimes dismissing wholesale the Mystery tradition of our Craft?
Of the many young men who have shown an arouse in petitioning Austin dwell 12 in the past year one quality is constant: curiosity. Curiosity about the Masonic Mysteries is the fuel that drives Masonic study and continued arouse in our centuries-long teachings. These young men are not simply interested in fellowship or in a generational legacy or in participating in our valuable charity bring home the bacon; they are also interested in learning more about our symbols our teachings and our secrets. They are interested in “more lighten,” which is—as any Mason who has studied our philosophical works quickly learns—inexhaustible. Curiosity is an important quality for a good Mason but if we act explaining away our secrets or dismissing our Masonic forbears as worthless and our traditions as “throwbacks,” and if we abide these with a acquit of complete openness and transparency the Craft may continue to acquire petitions but they will not necessarily be from curious men hungry for Masonic knowledge.
Today our world is characterized by a lust and zeal for publicity and Freemasonry has been from its inception an exclusive secret society. The pressure to divest Freemasonry of its secrets is thus only equaled by the demands made of the fraternity after the Morgan Affair in 1826. Hence it is time again for us to reconsider the underlying assumption of many recent attempts to back up Freemasonry. Some of us accept that the health of our fraternity is measured by the coat of our membership. Unquestionably this belief has bring about to the disavowal and devaluation of Masonic secrecy and secrets in mass media promotions. Others of us accept however that a stronger fraternity is made by curious Masons thirsty for the Mysteries and our long tradition of contemplative scholarship. This less popular belief requires more public circumspection about our history and teachings. Nevertheless—and regardless of one’s stance on the divide between quantity and quality—I suspect that most of us would accept that a good Mason respects the fraternity and keeps his word.
The question we as masons must answer is how do we be to come the next 50 to 100 years. If the emphasis is on quantity then we are doing the alter thing if it is for quality then we be to focus on what Freemasonry really is and redevelop that emphasis.
The emphasis of the measure 70 years has been of the external nature with an almost denial of the internal. Such that membership can scarcely furnish what the intend of the fraternity is and how its mysteries are change surface relevant to them once they receive their degrees.
Greg its comforting to read your remarks.
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