Masonic Exclusion

[dime_novel_hero]

Last week, the Sounds of Steam podcast with Travis Sivart and Wendy Callahan featured Charlie Stayton and Michael Jankowski speaking on Freemasonry. The general crux of the interview was essentially that the masons are just a bunch of guys who get together to “better themselves.” No big secrets. No vast conspiracies. Just a bunch of guys hanging out on a Friday night.

So much for the mystique of secret societies.

But a few things they talked about rubbed me the wrong way. And it’s not that I didn’t already know these things but to hear how casually they condescended without realizing it made it clear that the masons would never have me and I would never join them.

“The only thing you’ve got to believe in to be a mason is some type of great architect or a deity, and the reason for that is that you take an oath. and we believe that unless you have that belief in some type of supreme being, any oath you take doesn’t mean anything. it is a hollow promise.”

“So a man of his word is not worth anything if he’s not believing in a higher being?”

“Not necessarily, a man of his word is very important, but if you take an oath there is always a chance that even a man of his word realizes there is no consequence for that oath, he might just blow it off and disown it.”

Bullshit. If your oath worked, if your fear of consequences worked, then few people would lie in court. Criminals would place their hands on the Bible and, fearing eternal damnation or whatever else their god would mete out as punishment for oath-breaking, confess to their crimes.

Doesn’t happen does it? Instead, they lie their asses off because their fear of consequence has been completely circumvented by their sure and certain knowledge that THEIR personal deity has sanctioned their actions. They believe that their lie is justified by their god or that they will be forgiven the indiscretion.

On a deeper level, if a man of his word keeps that word only because he was fearful of breaking his oath to an invisible sky daddy, is he acting morally? Is he truly a man of his word? If one is compelled out of fear to commit an act of evil, say, for example, someone was holding a gun to your head, are you morally responsible for that evil? Conversely, if you are compelled out of fear to commit an act of goodness, are you morally responsible for that good?

I submit that a man of his word is trusted to be a man of his word, not because he said so and placed his hand on a book, but because he has shown a history of keeping his word.

And while we are on the subject of men, the question came up wondering why women were not permitted to be masons.

“Well, one word, we’re a fraternity, were not a sorority, and it’s a tradition.”

Those are two of the weakest arguments I have ever heard and, if that’s all you have, then you are way, way behind the curve.

“We’re a fraternity” is easily changed by using the word “social organization.”

And you need to ask yourself, if you were creating this social organization from scratch, would you exclude women? If not, then why are you continuing such a discriminatory practice? If you can’t think of any good reason other than that you are following tradition, you are sexist.

Oh, sure, they have the Eastern Star sister organization but separate is not equal. Freemasonry in France has decided that women have equal opportunity and equal rights within freemasonry, what’s your excuse?

What, indeed.