Slate: 'What if the Solution to Men’s Loneliness Is… Freemasonry?'

Illustration by Logan Guo for Slate

by Christopher Hodapp

There's been no dearth of reports over the last few years about what many sociologists and psychologists are calling an 'epidemic of loneliness' among men under 40 or so. Several emails this weekend alerted me to an article on Slate – 'What if the Solution to Men’s Loneliness Is … Freemasonry? What makes a guy decide to join a really old fraternal order in 2024', by Allegra Rosenberg. It's a refreshingly evenhanded exploration by a non-Mason of what Freemasonry has to offer to men in today's society. 

Instead of talking to a grand master, or one or two of us regulars in the go-to lineup of high-visibility usual suspects who often get interviewed for these kinds of stories, Rosenberg put out an appeal for responses in the very active Reddit r/freemasonry community. She was especially interested in hearing from men under 40, and this article is the result. 

Apart from flubbing the date of the English grand lodge's founding as 1710 instead of 1717, I daresay that this would be a decent article for grand lodges to link to in their social media as information from a dispassionate third party as to why young men would be interested in our fraternity. If your membership committee is hunting contemporary motivations for joining, give this a read.

It features responses from many brethren as to their personal reasons for joining the fraternity, and one thing glaringly missing from previous generations is mention of dad, grandad or other relative who had been a Mason. This may be the first cohort of men since 1717 that is seeking out a lodge independent of a family tradition. Nor will you find a single reference to George Washington, or any other famous Freemasons. 

Whether you regard that as sad or not, it's the reality we have to deal with today.

Scottish Rite Research Society Symposium Tomorrow in Bloomington, Indiana: Agenda

by Christopher Hodapp

The 2023 Scottish Rite Research Society Symposium is being held on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Indiana tomorrow, Saturday, October 14. The event will be held at the new Center for Fraternal Collections & Research (CFCR) in the McCalla Building.

University Collections at McCalla

Indiana University

525 N. Indiana Ave.

Bloomington, IN 47408

Everyone is welcome to attend in person - not just Masons - or the presentations can be viewed via Zoom. CLICK TO REGISTER HERE

For those of us who will be there, lunch will happen at noon, and the speakers will begin at 1:00PM EDT.

The agenda for presenters has just been finalized:

Lunch & Social Hour 12:00 pm-1:00 pm

Welcome and Session 1 1:00 pm-1:30 pm

"Brother James Gardiner, Pioneer & Masonic Executive"

Speaker: Chris Ruli

Session 2 1:45 pm-2:15 pm

"The Franken Manuscript Revisited" 

Speaker: S. Brent Morris

Session 3 2:30 pm-3:00 pm

"Illuminism, Illuminatus, Illuminati: The Making of Modern Conspiracy"

Speaker: Erich Huhn

Session 4 3:15 pm-3:45 pm

"The Chaotic Westward Movement of Freemasonry in the US"

Speaker: James Graham

Session 5 4:00 pm-4:30 pm

"Creating the Center for Fraternal Collections and Research"

Speaker: Heather K. Calloway

Special Remarks 4:30 pm-5:00 pm

Gary E. Brinley, Grand Master of Masons in Indiana

The Indiana University Center for Fraternal Collections and Research is proud to host the 2023 Scottish Rite Research Society Symposium! Held at the historic McCalla Building on on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, the symposium features presentations exploring symbolism, philosophy, development and changes to ritual, and more.

Center for Fraternal Collections and Research

The Indiana University Center for Fraternal Collections & Research (CRCR) is devoted to the collecting, protecting, and sharing of fraternal collections for the sake of research and public engagement. CFCR improves scholarship and understanding of fraternal groups, explores their impact on American society, and elucidates their importance across time and to different social groups.

Scottish Rite Research Society

The Scottish Rite Research Society is one of the most dynamic forces in contemporary Masonic research, pursing a publication program that emphasizes quality-both in content and in physical form. The Society has grown to over 4,000 members worldwide since its inception. Its publications have redefined the standards of Masonic scholarship. The administrative offices of the SRRS are at the House of the Temple in Washington, D.C., under the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite. Activities and publications of the Society are governed by the Board of Directors, who are all Life Members of the Society, representing Scottish Rite valleys across the country.

For questions or concerns please contact: cfcrinfo@iu.edu.

For more information concerning this event go to

collections.iu.edu/fraternal-center/ scottish-rite-symposium.html

GM of Wisconsin Statement on Civil Disobedience

MW Kenneth C. Gorgen,
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge F&AM of Wisconsin

by Christopher Hodapp

In the wake of last week's protests in Washington, DC and the deadly rampage through the U.S. Capitol building, the Grand Master of North Carolina issued a statement denouncing the violence and exhorting his members to reject ignorance and intolerance.

Yesterday, MW Kenneth C. Gorgen, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge F&AM of Wisconsin issued his own statement on the events (see the message below). Like the North Carolina message, this one has also caused its share of heated online remarks and arguments.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

My Brothers,
January 6, 2021 was a time for the wheels of our government to begin turning for the four-year ritual acknowledging the will of the people and validating the selection of a leader for our beloved country. This ritual has been a legacy and part of our heritage for over 200 years. Unfortunately, on this day, a group of thugs decided to force themselves into this sacred process and stop these wheels from turning. They attacked the sanctuary which houses a place for our elected leaders to carry on the business of the Country. Regardless of our political persuasion or beliefs, as Citizens of the United States and as just and upright Masons, we should be sickened by the ruthless actions of these criminals.

Our Country is founded on a humble principle that “we the people” are entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. As Masons, we are charged to promote these principles to all people and as the ritual teaches, “…give every man his just due without distinction.” There is much work to do to make sure all people of this Country have an equal share of that dream, but the work of equality under the law and in this case, the peaceful transfer of power must never stop or be interrupted by force.

These criminals have in the past and on January 6th exposed everyone to the rhetoric and actions which promote mistrust, suspicion, discrimination, separation and hatred, which in the end resulted on an assault on the cradle of our government.

Masons who believe in the principles of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth cannot in clear conscience belong to any organization that teaches hate and supremacy of one person over another because of color, nationality, and religious beliefs. These organizations are in direct conflict with what we as Masons hold dear. It cannot be possible to hold membership in one of these subversive organizations and still be a Mason.

You were first prepared to be a Mason in your heart. I cannot condone one of our Masonic Brothers maintaining a membership in one of these organizations. If you hold a membership in one of these organizations, I encourage you to hold fast to your Masonic teachings and resign from that group. Otherwise, I will gladly accept your resignation from the Masonic Fraternity.

Sincerely and Fraternally,

Kenneth Gorgen
Grand Master of Masons in Wisconsin

 

North Carolina GM Issues Statement Over Capitol Riot

Getty images

by Christopher Hodapp

The miserable year of 2020 has now officially slipped into history, but it wasn't going to just go quietly without putting up a desperate struggle. On January 6th, tens (and perhaps hundreds) of thousands of supporters of Present Donald Trump assembled on the Ellipse in Washington DC in protest over the results of the November 2020 election. At the other end of the Mall inside the U.S.Capitol, the House of Representatives and the Senate were in the process of debating and formally certifying the Electoral College results of the presidential race.

Before the president's speech to his supporters ended, a large mob of people broke off, made their way to the Capitol, and stormed into the building. The unprecedented rampage that ensued (and covered in real time on television and the Internet) left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer who was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher, and one of the protesters, a 35-year old female Air Force veteran who was shot by an officer. Three others died from apparent medical emergencies. Members of Congress were hustled to an undisclosed 'secure location' as tear gas was used against the mob.

As with most riots and mass rampages, an adolescent glee for breaking things and invading symbolic seats of authority figures for the sake of selfies and high-fives from fellow mob members fanned the flames of frenzy. Knocking down symbols of power for the sheer fun of it is a common hallmark of massive mob protests, and this one was no exception. As more details became available, some of the participants posing for the cameras and egging on the crowd turned out to be known anarchic provocateurs seen at other riots and violent protests from earlier in the year. But the majority of the crowd that slowly moved into the rotunda and then on to the House and Senate chambers seemed more like several hundred dogs who had suddenly caught the UPS truck they had been chasing without a clue of what to do with it now.

It was not America's finest hour, and it's almost impossible to know how history will regard this event and the last year after all the dust clears and time softens the heated passions of the moment.

In the wake of this shocking (but probably inevitable) event, social media erupted as millions took sides over what was unfolding. The toxic political atmosphere of the last four years had finally taken its toll, as 50% of the country declared that the other 50% were their mortal enemy, and vice versa. And since the Internet, Twitter and Facebook have become the 21st century battlefields, there were Masons to be found on both sides of the political divide acting less than Masonically to each other. 

R. David Walker, Jr., Grand Master
Grand Lodge AF&AM of North Carolina

On Friday, January 8th, MW R. David Walker, Jr., Grand Master of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of North Carolina, issued a statement to the Brethren in his jurisdiction concerning Wednesday's events. The statement was circulated on the North Carolina grand lodge website and Facebook pages (click image to enlarge).

(To answer a question posed by many over the last few days, North Carolina also weighed in last summer with a joint statement with the MW Prince Hall GL of NC concerning the riots following the death of George Floyd. See it HERE.)

The condemnation of a mob attack on the very center of American democracy should scarcely be a controversial message. But almost as soon as the statement was publicly posted, an avalanche of positive and negative online reactions ensued. The message was greeted in several Masonic Facebook groups with appalling accusations, insults and reactions between Brethren, so much so that moderators shut down many of the discussions completely or removed entire conversations. The political vitriol that has become so commonplace in the profane world was on full display throughout the virtual Masonic community as well. 

The result is that I have now seen scores of Masons announce their intention to leave the fraternity, or at least reconsider their membership over it. Worse, the public can easily find these toxic exchanges, which only serves to smear Freemasonry as an institution that doesn't practice what it preaches.

It has been a cornerstone of Freemasonry since its official beginnings to prohibit the discussion of religion and politics within the confines of our tiled meetings because of the potential for heated divisions among our members. The online battles that have raged over the North Carolina statement are a clear demonstration of why that rule is necessary. Since the various riots and demonstrations around the country that began in summer of 2020, there have been no instances of Freemasons actually engaging in or organizing them AS MASONS. It's arguable that grand lodges issuing messages of support, solidarity or condemnation of political demonstrations and social uprisings have as much effect as Starbucks Coffee, Macy's, or the My Pillow company weighing in on political positions: regardless of the stance taken, the practical result is to needlessly conflict with a substantial proportion of existing customers (or members, in our case).

Grand lodges all over the country have been wrestling with adopting online social media rules of conduct over the last few years. Some have been minimal, common sense recommendations, but others have been needlessly detailed, draconian and picayune. The breakdown of social norms and the loss of what used to be called the 'civic virtues' that the Founders recognized as being the only way a democratic republic could endure have helped bring us to this gloomy moment in time. Historically, Freemasonry was deliberately encouraged to expand across America after our Revolution specifically to teach a rough, disparate and illiterate public how to get along with each other - to disagree without being disagreeable, and to unite men for the common good "among whom no contention should ever exist but that noble contention, or rather emulation, of who best can work, and best agree." Religion, politics, social and economic status, level of education - none of these were supposed to matter in the sanctuary of the lodge room or between Brethren in daily life, and those frontier Masons learned to sit side by side with men diametrically opposed to their own opinions.

 

It's probably irrational to believe that Freemasonry as a philosophy can successfully calm and subdue the passions of all of her members during this time of upheaval and 24-hour rage-making stoked by opportunistic activists, basement revolutionaries, keyboard warriors, politicians and media figures. Enforced isolation from the COVID shutdowns has prevented us from meeting face to face, Brother to Brother, for nine months now. But it certainly has no possible hope of succeeding with Masons who would rather quit than learn to coexist with their Brethren over politics. The COVID aftermath will certainly exact a dramatic toll on the fraternity from Masons who decide to drop their membership out of ennui caused by the shutdowns. Let's all hope that political strife and disagreements between Masons over transitory elections don't do even worse.

NPR: 'Freemasons Say They're Needed Now More Than Ever.'

by Christopher Hodapp

NPR is running a story this weekend that I was lucky enough to be a part of: Freemasons Say They're Needed Now More Than Ever. So Why Are Their Ranks Dwindling? 

I spoke with reporter Christianna Silva several weeks ago, and she actually comes from a Masonic family - both her father and grandfather were Masons. Along with myself, Ms. Silva included interviews with Illus. S. Brent Morris, author and editor of the Scottish Rite Journal, along with historians Dr. Jessica Harland-Jacob (Builders of Empire) and John Dickie (The Craft). 

From the story:

Freemasons argue that the reason to uphold the fraternity goes beyond maintaining historic traditions or belonging to something that once bore immense influence. It might not be a secret society full of presidents and powerful men pulling the strings of society from the shadows, but that's never been the point for these members. Instead, they joined to establish friendships outside of work, and vibe with a community that isn't divisive. At a time in which polarization and division in the U.S. is growing more intense, Freemasons say it's refreshing to spend time with people who aren't arguing.

"People are isolated," Hodapp said. "People are locked in their apartments, or locked in their parents' basement at the age of 35, and don't associate with each other, and social media has them screaming at the computer screen at 3:00 in the morning because somebody told them to get stuffed over something. Every Mason you talk to will stand there and say, 'Yeah, we're needed now more than we've ever been needed.'"

The challenge, he said, is finding a way to communicate that.

"How do you get the message of, yes, there is a place where you can go where people aren't at each other's throats, there's a place that deliberately stops the kind of arguments that are making your life miserable."

In response to the story this morning, I received a message from a gentleman in Washington, D.C. who turns out to be a man after my own heart. He's not a Mason himself, but mentions something I've felt quite strongly about for the last few years:

"I have a suggestion for rebuilding your membership: The most useful thing an organization like the Freemasons could do right now, to make themselves completely relevant and indispensable to the fabric of society, would be to become the ignition point for an American renaissance in civic duty, civic education, and an instrument for advancing the ideals of the enlightenment founded in reason and scientific inquiry, democracy, democratic institutions, the rights of all persons, equality before the law, and above all, the sanctity and liberty of the individual. Now more than ever, we need an institution which can polarize the American people toward decency, duty, and democracy. 

"In Washington-speak, they essentially need to become a think-tank like AES, Brookings, or Cato, but differ, with a powerful implementation arm that embeds civic education and reason into school curriculums, civic organizations, popular thinking, the media, and hold leaders and media accountable for upholding democracy, reason, and truth. If the Freemasons used their heritage, assets, and infrastructure to set about bring such a renaissance in thinking about, I might even join."

He's absolutely spot-on, and it's a mission I've proposed for Masons many times. 

When Masonry spread throughout the early years of the U.S., between about 1790 and 1826, it did so as part of an attempt by influential East Coast intellectuals to find a way to educate a rough, disparate, illiterate, and largely isolated pioneer population in the western territories about how to run this new democratic republic. The lodges forbade the discussion of both religion and politics in their meetings, the two subjects guaranteed to erupt into fights. And they taught their members how to hold elections, pass legislation, conduct trials, and lose arguments gracefully. In an age before widespread, organized schools, the lodge ritual introduced members to the concepts of the Enlightenment, of the liberal arts and sciences, of the importance of honor and duty, of the cardinal virtues, and more. It was a code of conduct for good citizenship during a period of expansion and chaos. Most of all, lodge taught cooperation among men who had almost nothing in common. The Masons were a finishing school for the 'civic religion' the Founders knew were vitally needed or the new nation would perish. Because first and foremost, when they adopted the Constitution, they recognized it would quickly fail without a population equipped with a basic code of conduct, truth and honor.

To coin an old marching song from WWII, we did it before. And we can do it again.

Washington's Albert Pike Statue: After the Fall

by Christopher Hodapp

On Saturday morning, the fallen bronze carcass of Albert Pike's once noble statue in Washington, DC's Judiciary Square was ignominiously hauled away on the back of a flatbed truck to an unspecified location. Pike's figure was toppled and defaced by a mob of protesters late Friday night. 

The Scottish Rite's Art De Hoyos was interviewed on the local NBC affiliate in Washington DC on Saturday for his comments on the incident. Unfortunately, little of Art's interview actually made it into the segment, which was edited to reinforce the false narrative that this was a 'Confederate monument.' NBC-4's 'fact checkers' were in such a hurry to do so that they misspelled Art's name.

To me, that's most frustrating about the incident — the dishonest media coverage and deliberate mischaracterization of Albert Pike and the statue itself. Of course this wasn't a 'Confederate monument.' It was a Masonic representation of Pike's accomplishments as an author, philosopher, orator, lawyer, historian, polyglot, and a soldier (not only in his brief stint in the Confederate army, but also in the Mexican-American War). He wasn't atop a horse; he had no sword dangling from his belt; there was no declaration of heroship, and no phony bromide about 'healing a divided nation' that are the hallmarks of Civil War statues. Pike stood there with a book in his hand and the inscription Vixit Laborum Ejus Super Stites Sunt Fructus. "He has lived. The fruits of his labors live after him." Yet few - if any - who tore it down had any interest in actually looking up what the fruits of his labors really were.

I find myself in a curious position over ol' Albert. I have never been a staunch fan of Albert Pike's writings. In the very first edition of my book Freemasons For Dummies written in 2004, I wrote about him because he was such a dominating influence on a large part of the fraternity, and because he was such a lightening rod for conspiracy theories. Albert Pike never had an unexpressed thought in his entire life — he wrote thousands of pages of books, letters, articles, rituals, poems and more, on top of his legal career, newspaper editorship, translations of foreign and ancient texts, and his role on the Arkansas Supreme Court before the war. Just by committing so many words to paper across his 82 years on Earth, that alone left an enormous pile of material that permits conspiracists to claim literally anything about him. And they have.

I had been a Mason for barely six years at the time I was writing, and I was not (and am not today) a member of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite - Southern Jurisdiction. In the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction we read and know almost nothing about Pike, nor did we adopt his rituals. The Northern and Southern Jurisdictions have almost nothing in common, ritualistically. Those of us in the fifteen northeastern states of the AASR-NMJ have never been handed copies of his masterwork, Morals & Dogma (as opposed to ALL Southern Jurisdiction members until the 1970s). So we have never particularly revered him or even studied his work, unless it is done independently by individuals. Until the advent of the easy circulation of information wrought by the Internet, quite literally half of the Masonic population of the United States and an enormous part of it outside of the U.S. would hear the name of Albert Pike and tell you, "Never heard of him." And they weren't lying.

In a sidebar section of my book called 'Mysticism, magic, and Masonic mumbo-jumbo,' I was speaking about a group of intellectual 19th century Masons who chose to believe that Masonry had far more mystical and esoteric origins than it likely had. I put Pike in that group of writers who had "dazzling intellectual and spiritual knowledge."  

"The works of these men were filled with fabulous tales of beliefs and cultures and cryptic theories of the deepest and earliest origins of Freemasonry," I confidently wrote.  

"In short," I said, "they wrote a lot of crap." 

Let's just say that in 2004, I had a less than serviceable appreciation of Pike's true scholarship. Since that time, I revised that passage of the book and removed that offhanded and ill-chosen dismissal of Pike and writings. Nevertheless, I find myself in the bizarre position today of pleading his case posthumously to an uncaring and prejudicial mob of press, civic officials, destructive protesters, and casual observers who have an even more superficial comprehension of Pike than I did 16 years ago.

There's no way of knowing how many people encountered the Pike statue over the last 119 years and said "Who the hell was this guy?" and actually tried to find out. But that is always the lingering hope when civic leaders erect statues to former icons - that future generations will try to discover why that person was considered honorable or admirable or heroic enough to be cast in bronze for the Ages. 

Apologists for the mob's destruction claim Pike's bronze figure's very existence caused 'pain,' but not because of anything actually on the statue itself. It could only cause distress if a person believed the lopsided message that Pike's brief time in the Confederate army was the defining aspect of his life (which it certainly was not). Or the completely unproven allegation that he had anything whatsoever to do with the Ku Klux Klan (which he disparaged). Or that he was an ardent proponent of slavery (he was not, and wrote against it on numerous occasions). Or that he was a bigoted racist who really hated people of color (he lived among the Indians, defended their rights and interests to the U.S, Supreme Court, learned numerous languages, studied and admired numerous non-Western cultures, religions and peoples, and assisted the Prince Hall-descended Scottish Rite by becoming friends with its African-American Commander and giving them copies of his revised ritual).* Scraping Pike's image from the face of the Earth doesn't change a single person's life, save a life, sustain a life, or improve anyone's life in any way. 

Yet, passing by or reading about Pike's statue and making a note to follow up and see WHY he was revered can, and has, changed lives of men who joined the Masons because they were intrigued by Morals & Dogma or Esoterika or other writings of Pike's they stumbled into by accident. No real way of knowing how many, but I'll bet a functioning kidney that far more were influenced positively by it than those who truly were genuinely emotionally distraught over its existence. 

And now, that influence no longer going to be possible. 

As society changes, so do the people we admire and honor as a combined culture. I occasionally ponder who the current society we have really admires now by general agreement and acclaim. We don't erect many statues of individuals anymore in the West, not because they have fallen out of favor, but because we as a society no longer agree on admiring ANYONE anymore, unless it's a sports figure or some anonymous 'Everyman' sort of generic representation of the Common Man/Woman. Politicians, explorers, writers, artists, musicians, scientists, inventors, theologians, philosophers, military figures – all those areas of achievement used to be celebrated and honored, and sometimes even rose to the stature of 'heroic.' But we've become so used to tribalizing, trivializing, snarking, digging for dirt, picking at scabs, and otherwise seeking the tarnish on every person who rises to prominence because they don't fulfill some impossible level of perfection and purity. Miserablism as a teaching method has triumphed, and we have become incapable of discovering individual heroes worthy of memorializing For the Ages anymore. The best we can seem to work up in 2020 is a participation trophy-style of group heroism and admiration, like 'our first-responder heroes,' our 'medical personnel heroes,' our 'brave restaurant workers.' One idly wonders if 50 years from now anyone will propose a Washington DC memorial installation to their memories.

The social commentator Theodore Dalrymple writes, 

“[T]hose who want to manage the whole of society love the kind of history that sees no grandeur, beauty, or achievement in it, but only a record of injustice and misery (which, of course, really existed, and all of which they, and only they, will put right). The real reason for the enthusiasm for pulling down statues is to destroy any idea of the past as having been anything other than a vast chamber of horrors, and since everyone has feet of clay, and the heroes of the past always had skeletons in their cupboard (to change the metaphor), reasons for destroying statues, even of the greatest men, can always be found.”

I wonder what Joseph Campbell would make of our civilization right now, knowing that humans have always craved the lone figure of 'The Hero' for inspiration and emulation, and seeing that Western society is incapable of it anymore.

In February 1993, the Philalethes magazine published a piece about the Pike statue controversy that was raging back then. It was written by the Reverend Howard L. Woods, a Christian minister who served for ten years as the Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas F&AM. In 1991, he had been invited as the Lecturer for the Philalethes Society, the first Prince Hall Mason ever asked to do so, and still many years before Prince Hall recognition became widespread. GM Woods wrote before more recent scholarship has brought to light more of Pike's writings and verification that Pike did indeed provide his revised Scottish Rite rituals to help the Prince Hall aligned Scottish Rite.

The Reverend Grand Master Woods' perspective in 1993 deserves to be repeated now, in light of what has happened this weekend.

The Albert Pike Statue: Let It Stand

There is no love lost between Prince Hall Masons and the memory of the late Albert Pike, Masonic Historian, writer, alleged ritualist for the Ku Klux Klan, but, if Freemasonry is to remain the bulwark of free-thinking people, then, "Let the statue remain!"

Like the natures he wrote about, Albert Pike showed the light and dark sides of his own soul, when with one breath he spoke of his willingness to give up his Freemasonry rather than recognize the Negro as a 'Masonic Brother' and with another breath, declared that every man should be free, for a free man is an asset, while a slave is a liability. Mankind is that way, and as long as the statue stands, America and Freemasonry will survive.

Let the statue be torn down and America and Freemasonry will be in jeopardy, for one would have to wonder, "What would be next?" As a Prince Hall Mason, an African American and supposedly free-thinker, I can see a higher power than the mortal mind of Albert Pike guiding his pen as he wrote such beautiful words of life without an occasional helping hand from someone "bigger than you or I."

Let the statue stand, even if it is proven that Albert Pike did write ritual for the Ku Klux Klan; more ignoble deeds have been done by others without sacrifice of their historic heroism.

Let the statue stand as a reminder that the good and evil of men are in equilibrium within us, and we all should strive for perfection now and in the future, not in the past. Let the statue stand!

 --Rev. Howard L. Woods, Grand Master, Prince Hall Masons of Arkansas.

*NOTE: Between 1887 and 1891, Albert Pike happily shared personal, autographed copies of his Scottish Rite Masonic degree rituals with his counterpart, Thornton A. Jackson, in the parallel Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction for black Prince Hall Masons, in order to assist their fledgling organization. Pike's correspondence has not survived, but in writings of the period, Jackson described Pike as his friend. Later comparisons of their two sets of rituals confirmed that the Prince Hall AASR-SJ today remain very close to those Pike wrote in the years before 1887.

Photos by Brother Efrian Olujimi Dalle; H/T to Brother Michael Wright

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As a final post script to this entry, the following message about the Pike statue incident was issued on Sunday by MW Michael D. Nicholas, Sr., the Grand Master of the District of Columbia:

Grand Master's Statement

My Brethren,

This communication is directed to the Freemasons in the Grand Lodge, F.A.A.M of Washington, DC.

Most of you know of the recent destruction of the statue of Albert Pike in our Nation’s Capital. Regardless of your personal opinions about Albert Pike, I hope we can all agree as Masons that mob violence is not the way to resolve differences of opinion. The statue, which belongs to the U.S. National Park Service, was erected by an Act of Congress in 1898 and has been controversial from the beginning. Since its placement, neither the Scottish Rite nor our Grand Lodge has had ownership, responsibility, or control over the maintenance or fate of the statue.

To ignore the many positive contributions that Albert Pike made to Freemasonry later in his life, or to ignore the several controversial issues that his biography raises, would be equally disingenuous and dishonest. None of us are perfect human beings. Were we each to be judged solely by our bad decisions, rather than the totality of our life’s work, there would be very few statues indeed.

Those who vandalized the Pike statue are entitled to receive that same consideration. I hope you will choose to focus on the values of redemption, forgiveness, and love when forming your perspectives of this incident – towards both factions. Our task as Freemasons is to build bridges of communication and understanding. By looking forward instead of backward, we make progress in improving ourselves and our nation as we strive to build a more perfect Union.

The main purpose of this message is to address the here and now. What happened last Friday night is neither the beginning nor the end of these struggles toward the realization of the more egalitarian and representative society that our ritual teaches. And many of you are rightly passionate about these issues.

As we engage as members and leaders of our communities, I ask you to remember some of our core lessons, where we are instructed to “keep our passions within due bounds.” The ‘secrets’ of Freemasonry are not about some hidden treasure, but about how to control ourselves. It is a daunting challenge. Today’s abundance of social media outlets offers each of us almost countless opportunities to stress the limits of that control.

For your consideration I offer here the “Conclusion” of our Grand Lodge Social Media Policy, available on our website:

"Posting a comment related to the Fraternity and then posting a disparaging comment about a social or political stance can easily mislead a reader to believe your stance is representative of Masonry and all Masons. Remember that the public and members of the Masonic Fraternity are reading your posts online. You should always maintain your online conduct in a manner that elevates non-Masons’ image of the Craft and of your own dedication to it, and avoids any implication of improper or un-Masonic behavior as defined in the Code of our Grand Lodge."

Brethren, I ask you to heed this advice. Help to lower the temperature, not raise it. Be extremely conscious of the choices you make. And when you choose to comment on social media or provide remarks to the press, be aware that you speak as an individual. You are certainly – and hopefully – informed by your Masonic knowledge, but you do not speak for our Grand Lodge, nor Freemasonry in general. There is only one voice temporarily burdened with that responsibility.

In the absence of a clearly evident rationale for it, we must control our ego and avoid associating ourselves with our Craft in social postings. Let us be particularly vigilant to avoid using our wonderful but confusing honorific titles that cause further consternation among non-Masons.

Brethren, be part of the solution and do not exacerbate the problems. Together we can take up the challenge to circumvent divisiveness and act to help heal our Nation.

I want all of you to know that the leadership of your Grand Lodge is very much aware of the situation, and we are constantly looking to foster and promote the concepts of Freemasonry in our wonderful city of Washington, DC.

Thank you. May the Grand Architect continue to bless your families and your endeavors.


Sincerely & Fraternally,

Michael D. Nicholas, Sr.
Grand Master
The Grand Lodge, FAAM of Washington, DC

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And the following statement was issued by the Grand Commander James Cole of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction (click image to enlarge):

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Can We Quit With the Requiems for Freemasonry?

by Christopher Hodapp

As we all sit barricaded in our private COVID dens of ill health, there's no time like the present to go through the rubble on our deskstops - real or virtual - to see what's been buried over the last few years. I myself haven't seen the flat, uncovered surface of my desk since before the first Clinton administration, and the very prospect terrifies me. So instead, I'm going through some old unposted and unfinished blog entries and came across this one.

Back in 2018, Lance Kennedy over at the FreemasonInformation.com website posted two thought-provoking articles about the future trajectory of American Freemasonry, and I can summarize them for you pretty easily: Freemasonry, as a large, institutional fraternal organization, is rapidly marching towards the tar pits. Of course, making that claim is something akin to shooting a school of carp trapped in your bathtub with a 12 gauge shotgun.

Brother Kennedy chose the subtle approach by entitling his requiem: Freemasonry Is Dying. 

Click that link and give it a read. Also read Lance's companion piece, Two Trajectories For American Freemasonry: Consolidation Or Implosion. 

After having spent more than twenty years worrying about this and doing what I can to halt this trajectory almost every day of my life, I freely admit that I had frustration with reading more of these obituaries of the fraternity. I've been reading them since before I was raised, and there's nothing new about staring at the undeniably alarming historic membership statistics from the Masonic Service Association and considering an aborted suicide attempt. Figuratively, of course. 

I even wrote a swollen chapter in Heritage Endures about the steady 60-year erosion of Masonic membership and what grand lodges have attempted to do to halt it over the last three decades: 

• advertising
• dropping petitioning age to 18
• reduced proficiency and near elimination of memorization
• open solicitation
• one-day classes
• lifetime memberships
• easier to read ciphers
• and even fully-written ritual books

None of it has had a substantive effect on attracting and retaining enough new members to reverse, or even slow, the trend.

Brother Kennedy is approaching this as a numerical or statistical issue, and it's almost impossible to argue with his conclusions, which grand secretaries have been telling us all for several decades now. As the numbers in Masonry continue to decline, more of these sentiments are being expressed nationwide, especially by the younger Masons who see a bleak future. There's zero comfort in knowing that these "If We Don't Do Something Immediately To Fix This..." articles have been rephrasing the same ideas for at least a quarter century. Then the traditional/observant/European concept/best practices Masons roar up and declare "Good! Smaller is better, Masonry is elite, and we're supposed to be no bigger than a group of Japanese tea cozy collectors!" 

Lance's contention is:

"[I]t is necessary for every Mason to come to terms with our present state. This awareness was the goal of this article and I hope you will take a moment to soberly ponder the very real possibility that Freemasonry in the US will go the way of the Elks or Odd Fellows, that is into the fraternal graveyard."

The problem with these dirge-like examinations of Masonry's decline is that everyone wants to dance around the societal issues involved that are much larger than "what are we doing wrong?" We're NOT doing anything overwhelmingly wrong per se (although every jurisdiction has its own Big Issues to deal with). 

Sociologists and demographers have been exhaustively studying the steady erosion of local community adhesion for more than 30 years, and time and again the smarter brainboxes in the room zero in on the closures of churches, local committees, and civic and social groups like fraternal lodges that were the hallmark of America for more than two centuries. How and why that happens is a long and twisting lineup of falling dominoes, and because history is fluid, you can't pinpoint the very first domino that tipped over to smack down all the rest. (I explored some of these factors in previous posts, like How the 1960s Really Killed American Freemasonry's Future.) You CAN pinpoint a raft of contributory factors after 1959 that snowball into a veritable avalanche of destructive forces and influences that led to isolation and tribal atomization we have now that caused the destruction of local middle class communities. An excellent starting place if you're new to the subject is Charles Murray's seminal work, Coming Apart.

Roger Van Gorden has been quoting an old Allen E. Roberts saying since the day I met him: "All Freemasonry is local." Roberts was actually paraphrasing the long-gone Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill who always said, "All politics is local." O'Neill said it in the 1980s, and he was absolutely right then. Yet, paradoxically, it's not quite right anymore, and hasn't been ever since we all put smartphones in our pockets. Suddenly in the last dozen years, Americans don't know or seem to care what goes on in their towns, cities or states anymore. The only politics we know about are national ones now, and I'll bet fifty quatloos that 95% of American citizens can't name their own mayors anymore. 

Local businesses and business owners are gone, in favor of massive chains and franchises that are faceless. Newspapers? What's that? No one knows or cares what the city council or the state legislature does anymore, what legislation they pass, or what bureaucratic annoyances they suddenly baked up. Nobody knows their local banker through whom you always got your loans - now you apply over your phone to a faceless corp in another state, and never once speak to a human being. Human beings? What are those? Ditto with your old, friendly insurance agent or investment broker or furnace repair guy or dog groomer or the kid who cut your grass. There are now apps for all of that, and if you play your cards right, you will never have to actually see any of those people again. How often has someone told you, "Don't bother to call me, I never talk on the phone. Text me." Use the self-check at the grocery and you don't even have to chat with the girl in line behind you or be forced to mumble an answer to the cashier when he asks, "Did you find everything today?" 

In short, what's gone is the one-on-one human interaction between physical neighbors that must exist if any community is to thrive. And THAT, my Brethren, is why Freemasonry is headed to the boneyard to be buried with a sprig of acacia through its heart. It's because our communities died first, or at least at the same time. The isolating development of suburbia in the 1950s that let more people get away from each other began the slow dismantling of the close-knit communities that used to result in a Masonic lodge every five miles in America. And after multiple generations of increasingly acquired numbness to that indifference to the people next door and down the block, this is where we are today. 

My friend Ed Sebring once suggested that the real murderer of widespread fraternalism was, of all things, the credit card. And he's not wrong.

About 1900, business was conducted with a handshake. There were no credit bureaus. A merchant extended credit based only on his view of the customer's character -- and a lapel button or ring instantly vouched for a man's character. Remember how Rose Hovik, Gypsy Rose Lee's mother, in the musical "Gypsy" had a piece of silk in her purse with dozens of different lodge buttons to claim assistance from men when her family was in financial difficulties. That is my point. My dad was born in 1889. I remember hearing a tone of pride in his voice when someone's name came up in conversation, and Pop would say about him, "He's a Mason," or "He goes to our church." Today, anybody can whip out a piece of plastic. Where is the honor, pride and character in business today?

*(To explore some more of this in depth, read From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State by David Bieto. And have a look at Brother Stanley Bransgrove's essay about fraternal groups on the now-defunct Mill Valley Freemasonry website, that fortunately still exists on the Internet Archive.)

Members of fraternal groups like the Masons were deemed admirable because admittance into a lodge meant other important people in your community decided you were worthy of their trust and respect, too. Your membership signaled to the outside world that you were honest, trustworthy, a good risk, and that you had been vetted by other equally trustworthy men. That was back when it still mattered that "the neighbors might talk" and a man's reputation was paramount. Now, a person can obtain a home mortgage for hundreds of thousands of dollars entirely through an online application and automatic approval without ever seeing or speaking to a human being. Trust, honor and respect never enter into the equation anymore. Much less, reputation. In fact, such judgements are now considered illegal in most transactions in 21st Century America.

This is usually when the traditional/observant Masons leap up and declare that the fraternity must again become tiny, rare, more urbane, more scholarly, and - face it - more impressive. That train of thought is that we must "again" become the premiere society of gentlemen and be more like the lodges that attracted the men of the Royal Society, royalty itself, scientists, diplomats, composers, and the like. 

The Masons (and grand lodges) who recoil from this vision deride these Masons and their lodges as a collection of overdressed snobs. Two centuries ago, the sneer against them was that they were 'silk stocking lodges,' (or 'blue stocking lodges') suitable only for rich, college educated men and other highfalutin' riff-raff. 

Both sides declare the other guys are doing it all wrong.

In short, we're living through a modern day Moderns vs. Ancients fight. The English Moderns wanted to attract the cream of English society, while the Ancients sought to improve the common working man through their Freemasonry. The Ancients' side largely won the argument after the American Revolution. That brand of Freemasonry was sent westward into the wilderness to help educate and civilize a rough and rugged frontier collection of mostly uneducated pioneer settlers. And the rest, as they say, is history.

If you've only hung out in shrinking city lodges or struggling suburban ones, take a drive to the country. To this day, some of the most successful, most active, most close-knit and happiest Masonic lodges you will visit are in tiny, usual rural, communities. It's not a rule, but fewer city and suburban lodges anymore have the kind of total involvement and cheerfulness you'll find in a lodge that exists in a smaller town where everybody cheers on the local high school teams, and everybody knows everybody else. People there don't move in, move out, or move away all that often. Most work at local businesses, and the big box stores and franchises are rarely seen unless it's out on the highway. You'll still find the yard sales, the bake-offs, the local fund raising, the family nights and picnics, the pitching-in to help the guy whose house burned down or crops needed harvesting while he was hospitalized, and the pride in their lodges. Coming to lodge isn't a chore, frequently their ritual work is exemplary, and their wives and children are often hanging out in the dining room during meetings. Those lodges are an extended family for their members, which is ehat was always intended.

It is in those places that Freemasonry is not dying, and never will. And they won't take too kindly to being told they're doing it wrong, because they aren't.

In short, all Freemasonry is local. 

Lodges should always have the latitude to adapt to the needs, desires and preferences of their own members. 

At this precise moment in history, consider the global experiment we are living through, as the Coronavirus has quite literally shut down the entire world. Nothing has ever accomplished that before in all of human history. Suddenly, people everywhere are deprived of most in-person, human contact on a wide scale. And more than a few are suddenly reaching out and discovering (or rediscovering) their neighbors, and gaining heightened awareness of their local governments - maybe for the first time in their adult lives. Only time will tell if a sea change happens and communities rediscover themselves again, or if everyone goes back to staring into their phones and remaining isolated again once the bread and toilet paper shipments return to normal. 

Rising Farmer Suicides: Are These Your Brethren?

by Christopher Hodapp

Are you a member of a rural American Masonic lodge? A recent in-depth USA TODAY report has highlighted an alarming topic that may unexpectedly touch some us directly in our lodges, even if you're not aware of it. 

Nationally, suicide rates among men are already higher than they've been in thirty years, especially among the middle class. But the farmer suicide rate is even higher. Between 2014 and 2018, more than 450 farmers killed themselves across nine Midwestern states alone, according to data collected by USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The real total is probably higher because not every state provided suicide data for every year, and some redacted some of theirs. Most of the affected farmers are between 40 and 70, and many of them may be our own lodge members.

According to a January study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, farmers are among the most likely to die by suicide, compared with other occupations. The study also found that farmers' suicide rates overall had increased by 40% in less than two decades, and it's doubtless even higher, since deaths might be mis-classified as farm-related accidents. 

This isn't just "somebody else's" problem to deal with. Rural Masonic lodges are usually much more closely connected to their communities than urban ones. But rural lodges have been closing left and right for four decades now, and the remaining ones are farther and farther away from even their active members.

Nobody is telling you on the 24 hour news networks, but U.S. farmers are saddled with near-record debt, declaring bankruptcy at rising rates and selling off their farms in the midst of a turbulent market, caused by everything from shifting weather patterns and wildly fluctuating crop prices, to tariffs and bailouts connected to the current trade wars. Phone calls to Farm Aid's crisis hotline that formed back in the 1980s to deal with then-record farm failures have soared — more than a thousand people dialed the hotline in 2018 alone. But, feeling isolated and with limited access to mental-health care, hundreds are dying by suicide. In 2008, Congress approved the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network Act to provide behavioral health programs to agricultural workers via grants to states. Yet they appropriated no money for the legislation until last year — after more than a full decade and hundreds of farmer suicides. 

Back in the Olden Days (by which I mean 1998), the New Radicals sang, "You get what you give." Up until the 1910s, Masons understood this. Lodges actually cared for their brethren, their widows and orphans. Not through industrial-sized charities or retirement homes, but by actually doing the legwork (before telephones existed) and checking up on each other. 

My friend Roger VanGorden has always said, "All Freemasonry is local," and that really used to be the case. Lodges were local in every sense of the word, since you were FORCED to belong to the lodge physically closest to you. You went to lodge with your neighbors, the guys you walked to the local factory with, the guys in your surrounding farms, the guys who ran the shops you went to every day. Being forced to belong to that lodge only, you were also FORCED to all get along with each other, in spite of your differences outside. That was always the whole point behind Freemasonry to begin with - to cement friendships among men whom otherwise never would have spoken to each other. Lodges were small, usually under 50 members, and you knew every one of them. (Look up "Dunbar numbers" about optimal group sizes sometime)

After the 1920s, grand lodges began grading and ranking lodges based, not on their care of their members, but on scoresheets for ritual proficiency and bookkeeping. You get what you give. We got perfect ritualists and some fine looking cashbooks and ledger sheets. But personal care and contact among all brethren dropped off as the major charities grew. Lodges swelled in size (some well over 1,000 by the 1950s), and men stopped showing up for meetings. Charity stopped being about checking on each other and actually caring for our brothers and families, and became just another line on a grand lodge scoresheet, a box to be ticked on the official grand lodge donation form, and a bigger check to be written. And then those enforced territorial rules were largely dropped, too, so a man could join anywhere he wanted. And members became strangers, not neighbors.

Smaller, more isolated country lodges in very small towns or wide spots in the county road are frequently still operating under the old model, but even they are susceptible to the pressures of the Modern Age: loneliness, isolation, lack of participation, Internet anti-social media, tinier (or nonexistent) young families to carry on traditions and businesses, extended family members who move farther and farther away, along with the devastating pressures of the farm industry. The creation of the FarmersOnly.com matchmaking service for farmers and country people didn't just grow out of thin air. This isn't just an economic issue. 

Devastating economic events on their own do not cause suicides, experts say, but they can be the last straw for someone already suffering from depression or under long-term stress. And almost as commonly, their wives buckle, too. No one really bothered to register the suicide rate among farmers' wives. Thousands of farmers have lost not just their livelihoods, but their longstanding family homesteads that often date back a century and more. Too many times, they feel ashamed by what they see as their own failure.

The article zeroed in on just farmers, but much of the psychology of it applies also to men who have lost their jobs or careers after decades of working. They feel that same kind of shame, as though they had the power to prevent it. Men have historically identified themselves and their very characters with their careers, especially when that career has dominated their lives for decades. For so many men, "you are what you do." This fact alone has been the greatest tragedy of the gutting of the American working middle-class over the last 40 years as high-paying manufacturing jobs were exported overseas. A generation later, the men who "learned to code" are pressured by cheaper immigrant labor or offshoring of computer work. You no longer have to be over 50 or 60 anymore to lose your lifelong career, "what you do," and "who you are." And the gig economy is no substitute for what used to be job security. Especially if you have to work two and three jobs to come close to what you earned before.

If Masons are to be relevant to our communities and society at large again, we need to look to the past to rediscover our future. If your lodge is in a rural area and you have farmers as members, go out and meet them, offer them a ride to lodge night, or buy them a cup of coffee and just listen to their life for a while. If he's a farmer, he's getting squeezed on all sides now, and no one is really shining a spotlight on their plight. While you're at it, ask about his neighbors. Those guys are in the same boat, and as a Mason, you  need to care about your whole community. Joining a lodge might be just what they need right now.

Likewise, if you are in a more urban setting or suburban location, you are still surrounded by Brother Masons who have suffered in silence from having their livelihoods cut out from under them.  Maybe retirement - forced or voluntary - is depressing the hell out of them. Maybe you joined your lodge long after anyone recalled their name, but they're still on the rolls. Maybe they stopped coming to lodge, or dropped their membership because they couldn't afford it anymore, and figured no one would miss them - and they didn't. 

Make it your job to miss them and find them again. You, not the Secretary. You're a Brother, too.

With the latest fiasco and hysteria over the coronavirus presently going on, isolation is being enforced by circumstances for the moment. Masonic lodges everywhere have been forced by grand lodges to shut down operations and gatherings in person until at least the end of April, but no one can predict the real end of it. Be damn sure that none of your members wind up as a tragic statistic in the coroner's office because their lodge Brothers couldn't be bothered to check on them. 

If that hasn't happened already. 

It's a crying shame that all U.S. Masonic jurisdictions don't uniformly require a 'closing charge' at the end of every meeting, because the most commonly found one around the country contains the most important message our fraternity is supposed to be teaching. Our Chain of Union is supposed to reach beyond just the eight guys at your stated meeting: 

"Let the world observe how Masons love one another. These generous principles are to extend further. Every human being has a claim upon your kind offices.Do good unto all. Recommend it more especially to the household of the faithful.

"By diligence in the duties of your respective callings; by liberal benevolence and diffusive charity; by constancy and fidelity in your friendships, discover the beneficial and happy effects of this ancient and honorable Institution..."

If all of us heard that every month and followed its admonition, we'd all be better men for it.