"Tolerance: The capacity for or
the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs
or practices of others."
- TheFreeDictionary.com
Have you ever seen a Masonic Lodge that basically is an entity unto itself? In other words,
the Brothers of the Lodge do not like to visit other Lodges and Masonic visitors are not really
made to feel welcomed in theirs. Instead of the benefits of a true fraternity where you
practice universal Brotherhood, the Lodge behaves more like a club or tight knit clique. Such
attitudes are a microcosm of some Grand Lodges who do not like to communicate or cooperate
with others. Some Grand Lodges even want to go so far as to control communications between
Masons. To illustrate, communications between Brothers in two different Grand jurisdictions is
theoretically suppose to go through the Grand Lodges. If we were to take this to the extreme
though, it would be a violation of Masonic law to communicate through e-mail or any other
Internet protocol. It was this logic which led to my censorship on the Internet about a
year and a half ago by my Grand Master at the time.
Let's consider another incident though; Masons in the Philippines recently wanted
to hold a reception for all Masons in the area, regardless of the jurisdiction they
belonged to. As I understand it, the idea wasn't to hold Masonic communications but
rather to simply enjoy some Brotherly love and harmony. Learning of this meeting,
the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines (GLP) issued an order prohibiting
members of his Grand jurisdiction from participating in the reception. The thinking
here was that Masons in the GLP would risk exposure to clandestine Masons which, I presume,
would result in some adverse affect (although I'm not too sure what).
As I interpreted the purpose of the meeting, it was intended to simply be a "mixer"
whereby the parties get to know each other, and essentially would be no different
than if Masons were to meet with the Knights of Columbus, Elks, Moose, etc. Even the clergy
practices such "mixers" for the purpose of promoting understanding and building goodwill
between religions. Interestingly, Freemasonry appears to be one of the few institutions
that openly resists any attempts to promote such understanding and goodwill.
As we all know, there is a variety of interpretations of how Freemasonry is to be
implemented; the Grand Lodges, the Grand Orients, Co-Masonry, Prince Hall, and others.
To my knowledge, none practice devil worshiping, but rather, peace, cooperation, citizenship,
community involvement, and philanthropy. I find this all rather ironic; on the one hand,
Freemasonry practices religious tolerance, yet on the other it steadfastly opposes fraternal
tolerance. So much so, one could conclude that Masons treat Masons like some Religions treat
Masons (badly).
All of this points at the territorialism ingrained in Freemasonry and instead
of being a universal system aimed at promoting Brotherhood, it has become a series
of "good ole boy" clubs, hence the proliferation of politics in our institution
in recent times. The difference between a true fraternity and a club is you either
believe and practice its social principles on a universal basis or you do not.
In this way it is somewhat like an organized religion in that you have the
"faith" and the various churches to implement it. The difference in Freemasonry
though is that the churches (Lodges) do not cooperate and try to sequester their
flocks from each other. The Grand jurisdictions should be reminded that it is not
a question of protecting the sovereignty of a particular jurisdiction, but practicing
True Masonry instead. Those that practice territorialism in Masonry have essentially taken a
beautiful concept and turned it into nothing but a club.
When we read of Freemasonry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we marvel at
how Masons traveled the world and were warmly received by their Brethren. True there
were differences between the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but on
the whole they tried to promote the universality of the fraternity. And it was this
thinking which led to the conquering and settlement of not just villages, cities and
states, but whole countries and continents.
Now, instead of finding ways to work together, we viciously fight over territory and
who has the correct interpretation of Freemasonry. One thing is certain,
fraternal tolerance is essentially no different than religious tolerance, and
as long as we practice one and not the other, we will look as foolish as the
religious institutions that censor us.
Keep the Faith.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in this essay are my own and do not
necessarily represent the views or opinions of any Grand Masonic jurisdiction
or any other Masonic related body. As with all of my Masonic articles herein,
please feel free to reuse them in Masonic publications or re-post them on Masonic
web sites (except Florida). When doing so, please add the following:
Article reprinted with permission of the author and www.FreemasonInformation.com
Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.
To receive notices of Tim's writings, subscribe to his Discussion Group.
You can also "tune in" to Bro. Tim's audio podcasts at the "Lodgeroom International" (UK):
http://podcast.lodgeroominternational.com/
Also be sure to check out Tim's "Pet Peeve of the Week" (non-Masonic related) at:
http://www.phmainstreet.com/timbryce.htm
Copyright © 2008 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
|
