This week I’ve started and stopped writing 3 different pieces on the “Georgia Affair” because of a range of conflicting thoughts.
It seems that now, as the story has reached a wider National audience in the New York Times, the reporting is indicating that the charges brought against Gate City have been dropped, but that the court filing remains unresolved.
“Morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
In some respects it suggests that the wisdom of enlightenment has prevailed and that those operating under older concepts of right and wrong are re-evaluating them in reference to a more modern day enlightened understanding, that essentially to bar a man from membership based on race is not tolerable. And perhaps going further that to demand his expulsion from the craft, or those that admitted him, is also an over extension of the rights we can impose on someone else.
One of the many comments made was that changing men by coercion does not change their heart, that true change of heart comes in time.
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
Aldous Huxley
This may be true, but truly for a man to change his heart necessitates his openness to change in the first place.
My hope is that with this specter in the open that those dear brothers in the state who are not of like mind and can see past the tint of color and shape the fraternity there in the manner in which it deserves.
The fight is not over, but I hope that this conflict has passed and that in the truest sense the tenants and virtues of Freemasonry truly prevail. Otherwise, to leave it unresolved undermines the very virtues said to be the strength and beauty of our fraternity, and if that happens, truly what purpose does Freemasonry still serve?
Sir,
It was great to read your wise words in the face of this new/old controversy now facing Masonry in GA. As a person who is new to Masonry one of the questions that comes up is if Masonry admits blacks (sorry not very pc) to it’s ranks as some people read that we don’t…along with questions about being a cult or anti-Christian(evangelical).
One of the issues I have encountered is access or ability to attend meetings and receive degrees. I am currently a Fellow Craft. But my challenge is that since receiving my Entered Apprentice I have chosen a line of work where I now primarily live overseas. In essence I have become a “citizen of the world” as I really have no place I would call home where I could join a lodge. Right now I received my 1st degree in a N. California lodge then my 2nd in my fathers lodge in another city and now waiting for a time in the next year or two when I pass through CA again and have time for my 3rd degree and finally raised. Until that time I do not have privileges to visit other lodges as I travel the world. Masonry membership is based on a home lodge to attend and die in… but in this day and age many people like myself move constantly and may not settle again for years. How do we grow in Masonry when we may spend very little time in a traditional home lodge setting? I would think in this increasingly mobile world this is a challenge that will face Masonry as it attempt to remain relevant and strong in the 21st century.
If you know a good lodge in Johannesburg, where I am for the next year or two, please let me know.
Ron,
There appear to be at least six lodges in Johannesburg. Depending upon the particulars of your jurisdiction, a lodge in Johannesburg may could confer the MM degree on you as a courtesy for your home lodge. If this is possible, it will require a good bit of coordination between the lodges via the two Grand Lodges.
As I have said before (and probably much to the irritation of people FI) this is a cancer and should be confronted aggressively with those who are unwilling to live in the 20th century (maybe in a few years we can work on making it to the 21st) pushed out of the Fraternity. This story tars every Mason as racist. And it has now (as was inevitable) gone global:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/03/atlanta-georgia-freemasons-race
These stories in the paper, magazines, on television (and major news networks at that), radio, hurt everyone who is a Mason. The bigots guilty of kicking off this affair are guilty of un-Masonic conduct and sowing discord and dissension among the craft. Add to their blatant disregard for God’ law as well as Masonic tolerance and they need to be removed from the Craft.
And all of the Grand Lodges who sit silent or quietly working behind the scenes be forewarned:
Unless you speak up, pull recognition from Grand Lodges who tolerate these sorts of views among people who are leaders, or fail to recognize Prince Hall, society will rule against us and pull from us the recognition that we serve any purpose other than a divisive and destructive one.
There is no way to control these sort of foul and odious stories once they are out, and we all must suffer the consequences. As a result of all of these stories, and articles, I guarantee you that there is at least one more person in the world who thinks: Mason = Bigot.
Is this what you want???
About that program on Kabalah! More i study its freemasonery all over! But i wonder if praticing Kanalah on the good vibration with all the good intention, his’nt dangerous knowing the darker side of this world use the same tool, to arrive different goal??? that using the same conductor but with different vibes ,sound dangerous to me ! That why we can’t understand why brother like Crawley took a different path! It’s all about How can you handle IT ! THE TRUTH! Lets face it some of us are to PROGRAM to be able to reach that ying and yang point ……..the balance of existance! Am 35 and still trying to extract my fear and face them!
Caro:. AKA Queen of old ages
Sister from :Universal Loge *ELEUSIS* Of Quebec ,Montreal, Canada.