I'm glad Masons aren't Bigots.

... usually. *sigh*

I've been having a stressful day. I've been ill for a couple days, but on top of that, I feel like my last post got tarred and feathered, not by any of my Masonic brethren, but by some anonymous drive-by bigot. Well, at least he did the tarring. The feathers came first with a well meaning Mormon chap whom may turn out to be a friend once I get to know him. The thing that is sad to me is that when this kind of thing happens, my regular readers, whose opinions I actually want to hear, probably get turned off by it, and don't want to jump into the line of fire. I don't blame you. I would almost revoke the post or delete the comments if that sort of thing weren't against my personal blogging principles.

Masonry is personal, deep, and can be religious (although it is not a religion), and to each brother unique and profound meanings may be discovered. While the Lodge isn't generally the place to promote these discoveries, there is benefit in sharing them in a forum such as online, when appropriate, as long as we aren't trying to say our idea is the only correct one. I believe I see what my Christian brothers find in the fraternity, and I would love to hear details about what Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Native American, and various types of Pagan brethren find in it. It is a joy to me to see a brother taking the symbols and applying them, and finding greater depth. Moreover, many of the ideas any brother finds may apply, perhaps with some minor adjustments, to my own belief system as well.

Among our Brethren, generally, we have a good respect for one another. I know I feel loved and accepted among my brethren in spite of my odd beliefs. Not all of them know exactly how odd they are, but those that have had discussions with me and do know some of my ideas still treat me with dignity, and never make belittling remarks. Well, usually. There can be a joke now and then, but such is made in good fun, and not meant as an attack, and I don't take it as such.

Why do these anonymous buggers have to come and ruin my day by thrashing on Mormonism and post links to anti-Mormon propaganda when I am clearly not their target? I don't even agree with such basic things as Mormon theology or scriptural canon. You're attacking the wrong guy, you anonymous a$$#@!%s -- but alas, that's not the point! WHY are you attacking anyone? It's rude. It isn't righteous. It makes you look like fools, and it couldn't possibly be helping any religious agenda of your own. You are just trying to pick a fight and be a nuisance. Well, guess what: If that's all your agenda is about then you don't matter at all. You're small, like an ant. I can squish you with my mental power alone.

Brethren, thank you for being with me as I rant.

A Violation of Masonic Law

Reading the recent post at Audi, Vide, Tace has raised some interesting questions in my mind concerning how Masonic law applies to people who hold Dual Membership between Grand Lodge jurisdictions.

In the post, a Mason from Kentucky holding dual membership in a New York Lodge was charged with visiting a clandestine body when he attended a PHA meeting in Iraq.

In the eyes of Kentucky (or at least one individual from Kentucky) their rules of recognition supersede the rules of the Grand Lodge of New York, when the Mason concerned is outside the territory of both Grand Lodges, and presumably even within the territory of the GL of New York. I think on the surface it would seem somewhat reasonable to expect the Brother to hold the most conservative practice between the two sets of constitutions and edicts from the Grand Lodges. However, upon deeper consideration, I see a grave problem:

In my state it is a violation of Masonic law to intentionally deviate from the ritual adopted by the Grand Lodge. If I held dual membership between states, I would likely be a member of a Lodge under a Grand Lodge whose rules also include some similar stipulation. If I were then assisting in opening, closing, or degree conferral at my "new Lodge" I would undoubtedly be deviating from the ritual as specified by my home GL, in order to accommodate the ritual put out by the second GL. The most conservative interpretation of the law, where I would not be in violation of either rule would require me to abstain from all ritual entirely. Obviously, this would not be acceptable. The real answer is that when in the jurisdiction of a Grand Lodge, do the ritual as that Grand Lodge does. It is so obvious what the correct interpretation is in the case of ritual, why is visitation any different?

In my Masonic obligations I promised (I paraphrase, here) to uphold the laws and rules of the Lodge of which I am a member, and also to support the constitution and edicts of the Grand Lodge under whose jurisdiction I reside, so far as they come to my knowledge. This is a curious situation indeed. It means that I am to uphold the laws of my Lodge (or Lodges? It's left ambiguous in the case of plural membership), but more explicitly, that I am to support the constitution--not of the Grand Lodge from whom my Lodge received its charter--but rather, the one under whose jurisdiction I reside. This would seem to imply that as I move from place to place, I am obligated to the rules of the (regular) Grand Lodge in that area, and explicitly not to the rules of any other Grand Lodge -- unless the laws of the Lodge of which I am a member require me to do so.

I am aware that in other jurisdictions the obligation has a slightly different connotation in relation to which Grand Lodge is given allegiance.

Moving to a different imaginary example, what if Speculative Lodge #1 was in an area that didn't recognize PHA, and John Q. Mason, who was raised in Speculative Lodge #1, received dual membership in Example Lodge #2 which made him an officer, and Example Lodge #2 had an annual visitation, mandatory for officers, to their "sister Lodge", PHA Lodge #3. Would John Q. Mason be neglecting his duties as an officer of Example Lodge #2 if he did not attend PHA Lodge #3 with his brethren? Further, what if he received a summons to appear at PHA Lodge #3?

"In Ancient times no Master could be absent from the lodge, especially when warned to appear at it, without incurring a severe censure."

I think it is most important, that when we are put in a situation where we may pass judgment on another brother, that we do not wrong him out of the value of his Masonic membership by making harsh judgments. The American York Rite has, in fact, more than one degree where the legend involves this very lesson of not being too hasty or quick to judge, which we would do well to take to heart.

A Dilemma of Politics

Brethren, I seek advice.

As many of you may know, I run KingSolomonsLodge.org. In order to help support the site, I have advertising on the site in the form of Google AdSense. Usually these advertisements are for things such as Masonic regalia, jewelry, or books, and many of them are actually helpful to visitors since they are on-topic. Today I went online to see what articles were listed, and I was confronted with a political advertisement for a presidential candidate. This was not an innocuous three line text ad, either, but a full block animated graphical advertisement. It doesn't matter to me which candidate or party, but rather the fact that a political advertisement is being propagated onto the website at all, when I view our brotherhood as a great place of unity between members of various political parties and religions. I am distressed, and I don't know what to do. Part of me says it is free speech, and if they pay for an ad, they should be able to show it there. Part of me says its a conflict of interest, or it may drive away certain visitors. It probably won't be there forever. Must I resort to turning off advertisements during election years? On the other hand, maybe my Brethren have enough understanding and tolerance to "put up with" the ad, even if it doesn't suit their fancy. I seek advice, my Brethren. If you were in this situation, what would you do?

AMD: II - Order of the Secret Monitor

If you haven't done so yet, read my Introduction to the Allied Masonic Degrees, to which this post is a follow-up.

A degree of Brotherly Love, demonstrated through the example of David and Jonathan.

Originally, this degree was conferred by any Mason who received it. In England, there was a Grand Council of the Order of the Secret Monitor formed in 1887. Until 1894, the Grand Council and AMD disputed over right to confer the degree. In 1931, the Grand Council was given control of this degree and it was removed from AMD in Europe, but it remains part of AMD in the USA. In Europe, there are now provincial Grand Conclaves just as there are provincial Grand Mark Lodges. Shown here is the banner of the Grand Conclave of the Order of the Secret Monitor of Great Britain. The emblem in the center, consisting of the Star of David, with the three arrows and the initials D and J, is the general emblem of the Order of the Secret Monitor, and is the emblem used by AMD in reference to this degree.

This is considered one of the happiest, and friendliest of Masonic Orders. Local bodies are called Conclaves, and when operated under the Grand Conclaves, rather then under AMD, each Conclave has four officers titled Visiting Deacons, who are assigned a portion of the members which they personally visit between each meeting, to extend their support and help in any way needed, as well as to invite the Brethren to the next meeting, an example I think all Masons should undertake to follow.

This degree is important because it symbolically demonstrates that the Masonic principles which survived the flood with Noah were yet alive among the children of Israel, providing a link between Antediluvian Masonry and the "Solomonic" Masonry which is commonly known to us.

Calling all recognized Ancient Craft Masons...

I'm a bit concerned that the Internet today isn't reflecting the Masonic reality. Why? There is a disproportionate amount of what Timothy Bonney at Freemasonry Resources calls Fake Masonry, in fact, it feels to me that the Masonic blogosphere is about 30% of this flavor and 70% Recognized Masonry, when in reality the number of recognized Freemasons in the english speaking countries probably dwarfs the others at around 99%. If you were only going by Grand Lodges in the US alone, there are approximately 70 recognized Grand Lodges (counting Prince Hall) that are highly active and no more than 4 (and I'm being generous) unrecognized Grand Lodges that are also very active. That's still 95% recognized. The Internet gives voice to whoever writes on it. Google does not discriminate. KingSolomonsLodge.org has chosen to discriminate ONLY on informational content and not on recognition in order to avoid politics and verifying recognition and authorship at the listed blogs. Yahoo!, MSN, blogspot, Wordpress, etc... They do not discriminate. And this means that whoever yells the loudest looks the biggest.

Well, I'm calling for Recognized Masons to Yell Louder! There are probably many Masons out there who would actually be very great at running their own blog and sharing their thoughts and insights into Masonic education. I am not trying to declare a war on unrecognized Masonry, I am simply asking that those of you who are able to, please blog about YOUR Masonry, so that the statistics will begin to come back into the balance and accurately reflect the real world.

I will gladly assist any Masons who wish to begin an adventure in blogging to get started, just contact me by email or comment and I will do whatever I can to assist.

Lets spread the light of Ancient Craft Masonry - please do not take this as a message to bash on clandestine or unrecognized groups - that is FAR from my point, but rather demonstrate that genuine recognized Masonry is alive and well. At 95% we would take our rightful place as the defacto Internet voices of the craftsmen, and the other 5% would still be able to speak but their audience would be more deliberate instead of people generally seeking Masonic information.

We need more Masonic bloggers!

Note: I hold a certain amount of respect for those who are participating in some of those groups that are currently unrecognized. It must take some guts to take such a leap of faith, and I trust that the majority of them are decent men. However, on both sides of the fence some of the individuals and groups are lacking in judgment and are bringing discredit to the good name of the Fraternity. I value personal integrity very highly, and as such, I recommend that all Masons live up to every aspect of their Masonic obligations to the fullest extent possible. If everyone would do this, we would not even have this issue to begin with!