Calling a Spade a Spade, by Paterson Burns

Why should anyone apologize for calling a spade?

You shouldn't.

Imagine that you have just won the championship game and the ref comes over tells you that you're going to have to share your trophy with the losers, because they tried....?

Did they win?

No.

Why then, should they be recognized for losing?

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of trying, being the achievement of excellence, ie. winning, if you were willing to reward those who don't try as hard as those who win, with the same reward as those who try and succeed?

Sounds like a good way to engender and promote an entitlement society of whiners who expect to be rewarded or applauded for trying out for the team, let alone being on the winning team at the end of the season.

If someone quits the team, say a week before the final cuts from tryouts, before the season even starts,... should they be allowed to call themselves champions?

Or more rightly, wouldn't they be referred to as quitters?

Is calling a quitter, a quitter, a crime?

Me, I'd be awful proud to be on the winning team, holding that trophy and feeling the satisfaction that comes from actualizing goals, I can't see me handing over that trophy to the guy that quit the team before he could get cut, let alone play in a winning season with me and my teamates.

Are You a Regular Mason? by Paterson Burns

Are you a Mason? How do I know, if I don't know you?

There are those who are engaged in professional endeavors that require confidentiality and discretion, and then there are the rest of us.

So, with the rest of us in mind, how do we prove your regularity if you're anonymous and you would offer opinions about our Craft, yet not stand behind your own words, or prove your membership?

Since it is inevitable that regular Masons will want to communicate with regular Masons, on matters of shared interest and association, how does a discussion forum such as this prove that those who claim regularity, can prove the same?

Obviously we know this has been a contentious issue, that for the most part has been swept under the carpet on other discussion forums because the sponsors of the same believe in it to have too much potential for rudeness.

Well, I believe that a productive and represented discussion can be had here, by regular Masons, on the discussion of what is regularity in North American Masonry, and what isn't, without representing the opinions of irregular, clandestine or expelled Masons desiring to provide their agenda delivery to the conversation being had.

There are already a score of "Masonic" discussion forums that house expelled and clandestine malcontents for the sport of watching the fur fly, which is lame and in poor taste.

Nobody here has any discord for any of the individuals who have a shared interest in the other brands of "Masonry", there is no disdain for here for "Co-Masons", or "Female-Craft" or any of the other groups of searchers in the world who have been inspired by the tenets and traditions of regular Masonry, to explore the same in the form of starting new Masonic organizations, knowingly independent of recognition from regular Masonry.

Good for you. Emulation is the sincerest form of flattery.

We do appreciate the nod, it's nice to know that there are folks out there who are truly inspired by what we offer to our members, and seek to honor us by using our name in homage.

The problem is when the name and credibility of regular Masonry is used to represent credibility to the endeavors of those not entitled to call themselves "Regular Masons" or even Masonic, as they advertise themselves to an unsuspecting public, as a genuine article.

So, how do we know you're a genuine article?

Making Freemasonry Relevant, by Arthur Peterson

The young member of the fraternity today is much different than the member of yesterday.

Yesterday's Mason came to the fraternity mainly for the camaraderie it offered. Most served in WWII, the Korean War, and some even in Vietnam. They came to Freemasonry to have the feeling of comradery the had in military service. Freemasonry prospered during this time because it offered exactly what the young men of that era were seeking. While we may see an influx of members joining today for those same reasons due to the war in Iraq, they are not our primary source of new members.

So, what does today's American Mason want?

Today's American Masons are a very mixed group of men. Some come from single-parent households, most come from non religious families, and many have a different concept of morality than their older counterparts: the missing aspect of what these men are joining the fraternity for is meaning.

Freemasonry has always held a claim to the secrets of the divine, though this has often been down played by the Grand Lodges due to pressures from the religious right-wing. Publically, Freemasonry has always claimed to be a fraternity and nothing more. This has not stopped the conspiracy theorists and Hollywood from giving the impression that the fraternity is much more than we let on. Young men are coming to the fraternity because of these portrayals. They hunger for answers they have not found in life. They have lost faith in organised religion, they have lost faith in society, and many have lost faith in their families. They turn to the mysteries of the craft to renew their faith in all of these things.

Do these young men find the answers they are looking for within the Temples of Freemasonry? Sadly, no.

For one, they are no longer called temples in most places.

Outside pressures have caused the craft to de-emphasize the spiritual aspects and focus almost exclusively on just being a fraternity and charity.

Schools of instruction are often limited to nothing more than rehearsal of ritual.

Gone are the days of discussing the symbolism in open lodge.

Long forgotten is the spiritual development of the Mason. Regrettably, the prestige of being Freemason, is but a faded memory in the collective unconsciousness of society.

This is not to say that the work the craft does is not noble work. However, it is not the reason why young men are joining the fraternity today. They are joining for the exact reason Freemasonry is here, "to learn to improve myself".

No amount of charity work, ritual rehearsal, or memorisation of the lectures is going to accomplish that goal. Only by a deep understanding of the signs and symbols of the craft can we awaken the inner spirit to the degree necessary to enact true positive change in an individual. The only way to get that understanding is by discussing them, contemplating them, and from careful guidance from our more enlightened Brothers.

If Freemasonry intends to be relevant to todays man, she must look back to the days of enlightenment to find her foundation as an institute of the most sublime teachings and regain her place in this world as the keeper of universal truth.

If she does not, someone else will.

We are seeing this today with the strong presence on the internet of clandestine groups. The Grand Orient of France, LDH, Co-Masonry, and various off-shoots of regular Freemasonry are out there--promising to deliver that which we are not. They are selling the product we have, but do not utilise.

Freemasonry must step up to the plate and offer wisdom to those who are seeking it. Failing to do so will result in our demise as we are replaced by these clandestine organisations.

Freemasonry is many things to many people. Unfortunately, to most, she is irrelevant.

How do we change that?