tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25683662.post3499809398798652246..comments2024-03-26T12:05:58.591-04:00Comments on Freemasons For Dummies: Attracting Masonic LeadersChristopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25683662.post-2524471723625241682016-03-06T00:51:56.953-05:002016-03-06T00:51:56.953-05:00Thank you Bro Hodapp for your support. The Brothe...Thank you Bro Hodapp for your support. The Brothers of Alcyone Lodge No 695 F&AM ccnabloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15461159496161908748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25683662.post-83749480910206830212016-02-24T10:14:36.865-05:002016-02-24T10:14:36.865-05:00MW Bro. Brian addressed the leadership crisis in t...MW Bro. Brian addressed the leadership crisis in terms of requiring fewer years of service of the Lodge leadership. In our day, the reality is that people "drop out of the line" all the time, often because they move to another location. (That certainly happened with me, when I dropped out of the line of my mother lodge in Florida to move to New York.) It is thus less likely, in our time, that someone would actually serve for a full six years in the line before becoming Master. <br /><br />The leadership crisis is, to some extent, of a piece with the membership crisis. We fail to retain some members because the emphasis on Masonic education is so low in so many lodges. Instead, we emphasize lodge "business" in our meetings--dry as dust, and unnecessarily so. <br /><br />Here's some news that shouldn't be news at all: <b>Men who are have leadership ability have great demands on their time. They do not spend time on activities that they perceive to have little value for them--so they leave, from lodges that do not emphasize Masonic education.</b> Basically, we <i>alienate</i> good leadership by emphasizing business over education. And, of course, we alienate all sorts of members as well.<br /><br />Either Freemasonry will face the need to reorient itself to its true purposes--the development of good men into better men--or it will disappear.<br /><br />Bro. Paul Rich's comments are very well taken.Mark Koltko-Riverahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11173090767545559729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25683662.post-29501992403029851972016-02-23T10:47:55.546-05:002016-02-23T10:47:55.546-05:00Brother Rich, Thank you for sharing your astute ob...Brother Rich, Thank you for sharing your astute observations. I agree that Freemasonry's ideals have contributed mightily to the development of Western society since the 18th Century. I agree too that there is an amnesia regarding our history and not one we can forget lest we lose our direction permanently. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04510559929697688290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25683662.post-89927700309541629202016-02-20T00:19:38.991-05:002016-02-20T00:19:38.991-05:00The grand masters should appreciate that we do nee...<br />The grand masters should appreciate that we do need younger leaders and we need younger leaders who are aware of Masonic history.<br /><br />The sad problems that Freemasonry is facing are partly because the leadership is unaware of its history. Notice that I don't say unable to understand, as I think most grand masters have the ability to understand if they had the will to understand.<br /><br />Some have only the vaguest idea of what the place of Masonry in the Enlightenment was about, of the differences between the British, French, and American Enlightenments, and of the role that Masonry played in the creation of all three and of an open society and all the benefits that that special environment created. Hence we find that the Founding Fathers rather than acknowledged as freethinkers with little patience for orthodoxy are depicted as religious zealots who wanted to found a sectarian Christian state.<br /><br />The consequence is the current crisis in the fraternity is that the the country has gone into the future while the Craft faces a crisis as great as that of the Morgan affair by jettisoning that openness to differences and diversity embodied in recent Supreme Court decisions and in the views of the age group it desperately needs to attract.<br /><br />The genius of Freemasonry was its generosity of spirt, its resolute advocacy of individual freedom, and its exasperation with dogma, all of which is summed up in the symbolism of its rulers occupying the chair of Solomon. Not is trials of people for their friendships and loves.<br /><br />At a time when America is strained by confrontations, when there is talk about civility but little civility, the historic insistence of Masonry on tolerance should not be compromised by the personal religious views of leaders. An understanding of our past testifies that we are not a Christian fraternity, we are not a Trinitarian fraternity, we are not a Bible-based fraternity, we are not a fraternity whose idea of the moral good is a denominational one. That is not to criticize those with those views, but we are simply not about those views.<br /><br />We cannot continue with the racial and relationship positions that some have adopted in our name, a stance which is accelerating our decline. An abyss faces us.<br /><br />Paul Rich<br />Bro. Paul Richhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06435030965629467739noreply@blogger.com