The bad thing about the basic tenets of Freemasonry is that they don’t change very much. And the good thing about the basic tenets of Freemasonry is that they don’t change very much.
The simple concepts and goals of Freemasonry apply as much to today’s world as they did to our grandparents’, and they’re certainly needed every bit as much now as they ever were:
- Making good men better ones: Freemasonry was never intended as a refuge for fallen men in need of reformation. It doesn’t save souls, cure alcoholism, reform straying husbands, or put chiseling CEOs back on the road to honesty. In fact, its rules and customs are specifically designed to keep such men out. Freemasonry has always had standards of conduct for members and hopefuls.
- Building confidence: The lodge lets you bond with a small group of men from all walks of life and get to know them on an individual basis. Performing the ritual ceremonies gives members confidence and experience speaking in public, along with connecting them to traditions that go back a thousand years.
- Fostering brotherly love: Freemasonry’s ceremonies join men from diverse backgrounds and from all over the world through common experiences shared in the lodge room. Freemasonry brings together men who might otherwise never have met, and it cuts across all social, economic, racial, religious, and political lines.
- Offering relief: Freemasonry encourages its members to take a greater part in the community. It inspires Masons to volunteer, to donate, and to become engaged in their neighborhoods, places of worship, and governments.
- Searching for truth: Lodges are not places of worship and lodge meetings and rituals are not intended as a substitute for going to church, temple, or mosque. Freemasonry does encourage its members to take more-active roles in their religious communities.
- Providing timeless principles: The principles of Masonry are simple. Reduced to their most basic level, Masonry provides its members with a place to go for a while to escape the strife and struggle of the outside world, leaving the most contentious topics between men outside its lodge-room doors.
Freemasonry has always changed to accommodate the needs of its members throughout its history, while retaining its character, forms, and overall philosophy.
Author: Christopher Hodapp
