It is with a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to reflect upon and address some issues rising within our fraternity regarding various member Masonic organizations.
In years past I have traveled to many places and have had the honor to meet some of the greatest men I have ever known and this has given me an opportunity to reflect on the significance of Freemasonry in the historic evolution of the societies of the world, thus assisting me in comprehending some of the thinking of current Freemason Leadership.
I am going to be candid, not meaning to be offensive but with the realization that as we get older and our clocks are running down. In the limited time left, I hope to stimulate you to think about the direction our Fraternity is going; to think about what we are and to what end we should and can be; and cause us to understand a little more of the world of Freemasonry. It is my goal to cause you to think. If I fail to do that then I have wasted your time.
I could reiterate to you how great our Fraternity was or even how great it are. I could rehearse the enormous accomplishments that our brethren in the past have made to this world. I could review a list of those famous Freemasons whose influence changed the direction of civil societies and what the probable influence the philosophy of Freemasonry had on their lives. I could do all of this and you could walk away happy, satisfied and content with what has been said. But what value would that be to you? You have heard all of that before.
Brethren, we are living in a remarkable age for Freemasonry. Our craft in general is achieving continuing success, expanding into geographical areas where it has either not existed in the past or where it is reappearing following the fall of oppressive regimes. Indeed, we are probably growing more rapidly now than at any time in our history. There have been 26 new Grand Lodges consecrated in this millennium and they are attracting some of the more prominent personages in their societies. It is impressive to observe the quality of these new brothers, along with the attention of government leaders concerning the potential impact of the craft on the development of their societies. And yet, while we are thriving and expanding in some areas of the world we are declining in others, becoming less visible and less influential in society.
I have been considering some divisive issues in Freemasonry which may be contributing to this decline. There are numerous factors that are contributing to our increasing failure but the greatest problems facing Freemasonry today are quite different from those which were faced 50 years ago. The lack of vision in much of present-day leadership is causing us to concentrate more of our effort on mundane exercises of little consequence to the philosophical purpose of Freemasonry. In so doing we lose the opportunity to make contributions of the magnitudes for which the Fraternity has been known for in past centuries.
We have continued to rest on the glory of the past and of what value has that been? We have lost three quarters of the membership in North America. We have surrendered our societal influence and where we once were prominent have become almost invisible.
The time is long overdue for us to recognize that our attempts to regain our prominence in society have failed. We cannot continue to emphasize what we were and accept the responsibility that we assumed when we were given the privilege of becoming Freemasons. “If you always do what you have always done – you are going to get what you have always got.” We just cannot keep doing the same things, the same way, looking – wishing – hoping for different results.
We must confront the challenges of the present. In the past our greatest challenges were external. Our supreme enemies have historically been oppressive government and religious leaders. Please note, I said “leaders of governments” and not governments; “leaders of religions” and not religions. It is the leaders who create the opposition not the governments and not the religions.
It is also significant that the opposition of the leadership of both these entities opposed us for the very same reason, a need to control the minds and bodies of those under their influence. They would deny their people everything that Freemasonry stands for.
Today however, the greatest threat to the Fraternity’s future lies not from without but from within. There are far more divisive issues for Freemasonry today existing within the egos of the leadership of the craft than from challenges outside of it. Neither an oppressive governmental system nor any oppressive religious regime has been able to defeat the philosophy of Freemasonry. They have tried and they temporarily impacted us but none has destroyed us. We are now accomplishing what they could never do.
In much of North America over the past 30 to 35 years we have excised most of the intellectual and philosophical qualities of the craft, eliminating the stimulus to learn and removing the requirements to do so. Tragically, the result has been an erosion of our image along with a decreasing interest in the Craft. In doing so, we have surrendered the qualities that made Freemasonry such a unique entity. Freemasonry was one of the primary enclaves that provided the environment during the “Age of the Enlightenment” that attracted great minds and laid the framework for a democratic society. The United States of America is an example.
The greatest threats to Freemasonry’s integrity worldwide today have been the impact of appendant bodies interfering with Grand Lodge operation, the spread of irregular forms of Freemasonry and our willingness to accept them.
We must never accept that any organization appendant to Freemasonry has any influence over the operations of any Grand Lodge. The Grand Lodge is the supreme authority in all jurisdictions and any interference by an appendant body is unacceptable. The greatest challenges to the success of Freemasonry in Eastern Europe and Africa have been a result of interference by organizations that require Masonic membership for affiliation. Higher degree numbers does not mean higher status in Freemasonry. There is no higher degree than the Master Mason’s degree.
Irregular Freemasonry has been relatively quiescent and has offered little challenge to our success. Now, however, they are expanding into jurisdictions that have had regular Freemasonry for centuries. Our concern must be with the Masonic leadership of today being willing to accept and grant recognition to these irregular bodies.
Finally, our willingness to tell the world all they want to know about us has had a big impact on those who were attracted by the mystique and the unknown of the craft. When we take away the mystique we take away a stimulus for many who might have petitioned. Many of our leaders today feel the need to expose to the public that which we kept concealed or attempted to keep concealed for several hundred years. This created an aura around us and tended to lift us above other fraternal organizations.
In the past, there has been some debate regarding if the internet would make Grand Lodges obsolete. Some were of the opinion that it would not make Grand Lodges obsolete but would certainly change Freemasonry’s visible image to the world, and it appears to be doing just that.
We live in a society dominated by a concept of political correctness today, the attitude that everyone should have the same as everyone else regardless of ability, initiative or work ethic. Freemasonry has bought into that concept with a devastating effect upon the quality of the craft and as quality declines so does our image and our ability to impact the ongoing evolution of civil society.
In the internet our enemies have found a fertile field in which to plant the seeds of doubt as to what is our true purpose and intent. However, our misinformed membership probably does more harm than do our enemies. We should never cease being amazed at the misinformation that is offered by some brethren on the web who think they know and by those who have been members for a short period of time – having all the answers, yet never did heard the questions.
Over the last few years some have been attempting to place Freemasonry into what can be referred to some type of style, based upon operational philosophy. The structural philosophy of Freemasonry is universal and unalterable but the operational philosophy depends upon the response to the sociological pressures of the environment in which it exists. To date, some styles that have experienced levels of success but are beginning to fail in both numbers and influence due to the lack of vision and comprehension of Freemasonry’s significance. With the exception of the Freemasonry in Australia, North American Freemasonry is today leading the way in this failing.
Every style that exists today came from an origin emphasizing an intellectual foundation based upon emphasis on learning and with the philosophical intent to improve the individual man. It is when we began to lose sight of the real meaning of Freemasonry that we began to observe the failure of its influence.
The more one studies the craft the more impressed you become with how much its presence meant to the development of civilization. Freemasonry made this world what it is today; made it by taking the best man it could find and improving him. Consider the results of our early leadership with their long-range vision to produce what we have inherited. Then today, observe not only the lack of that vision but even of the lack of understanding of the Fraternity’s significance in the world. It is sad to see our willingness to lower the quality of the membership simply to maintain the quantity. It is sad to watch our efforts to support programs of a consequence that will never approach those of our past and it is sad to watch those leaders whose abilities will never match the size of their egos seriously damage our potential to influence an image to this world.
Freemasonry is a unique organization. It is what made the craft into what it is; the most outstanding and significant organization that the mind of man has ever structured and made this world what it is today. There has never been an organization that could approach the positive influence that Freemasonry has had on the evolution of civil societies. This influence was not generated by the quantity of the membership; it was generated by the quality of its members. It was generated by the wisdom and the long-range vision of its leadership; it was generated by the dedication of the brethren who saw in the philosophy of the craft the opportunity to change the world into something better than it was. It laid the foundation for democratic thought and provided the environment to stimulate it.
It is time now for us to lay our egos aside and contribute to restoring regular Freemasonry to the prominence it once had. I well know that no matter how important I may ever think I am to this world, a year after I am dead, the world will ask, Ken who? And, my brothers the same applies to you. We each have achieved what we have because we have an ego driving us. Our legacy will survive us but whether it is a benefit or detriment to the craft will depend far more upon our willingness to limit our ego than to exalt it.
Brethren, Freemasonry remains the most significant organization ever conceived by the mind of man. The present day leaders of this fraternity have assumed responsibility of perpetuating it. This heritage is the result of taking one good man at a time and influencing him to become a better man. After which, that man generated all that we have, all that we are. But it was not Freemasonry that made this world a better world. It was that better man that made this world a better world through the philosophical precepts of Freemasonry. If Freemasonry is not succeeding it is not the fault of Freemasonry, it is a result of its membership failing. Freemasonry does not fail – we as Freemasons fail.
Freemasonry can never be fully understood by someone who has not himself knelt where Hiram knelt. An outsider, however diligent their work is, without the benefit of actually undergoing the various degrees that take us on our own individual path of inner reflection that is the Craft, only sees the shadow cast by the fraternal influence and not what Freemasonry actually is itself. One must join, study, reflect, and grow in knowledge to truly understand what Freemasonry and the Fraternity are.
I hope these comments will influence you to pause and consider our responsibility not only to Freemasonry but to the Brethren who gave this heritage to a world that desperately needs it. We need to get our egos out of the way and learn to “improvise, adapt and overcome.” Be Always Faithful and be Builders.
Kenneth Dyer
Grand Master
