It seems a good moment to explain a bit about masonry. Especially in light of having been asked what we are and what is the point of Freemasonry.
Freemasonry probably has a different point to different people. You get out of it what you put in. Maybe to start with I should explain what convinced me to join. One evening I went to a "Ladies Night". A nice night of good food and drink, dinner jackets and ball gowns. it was very enjoyable. But that wouldn't have made me join. However I was struck by the fact that all these people were gathered together and it didn't matter what religion they followed or the colour of their skin, they were all brothers. I tire of seeing religion getting between people, I am convinced that is not what God wants. These people did not judge each other by what each believed but actually welcomed the diversity. I really believe that I haven't seen that often. In one moment I decided that these were good men and that I wanted to be a part of it.
Freemasonry probably has a different point to different people. You get out of it what you put in. Maybe to start with I should explain what convinced me to join. One evening I went to a "Ladies Night". A nice night of good food and drink, dinner jackets and ball gowns. it was very enjoyable. But that wouldn't have made me join. However I was struck by the fact that all these people were gathered together and it didn't matter what religion they followed or the colour of their skin, they were all brothers. I tire of seeing religion getting between people, I am convinced that is not what God wants. These people did not judge each other by what each believed but actually welcomed the diversity. I really believe that I haven't seen that often. In one moment I decided that these were good men and that I wanted to be a part of it.
Freemasons believe in a divine being but we allow each other to have our own understanding of that being, we do not impose. However that belief makes us strive to be better people. We try to live moral lives. We use stories in order to create guidance and hopefully to make us think of our fellow man more.
We raise money for charity. We raise a lot, and not just for masonic charities. We help people who are worse off than ourselves, again not just masons. Some is close to home, £5,000 given to Carlisle after flooding, some further away, over £850,000 given to support the work after the tsunami. Becoming a mason made me raise myself, I should still give more, but I give more than I used to.
What we also are is a group of people who like to get together, have some food and drink, and discuss the cricket, or digital cameras, or places we have visited. And often we involve wives and girlfriends.
I know I am never alone as a mason. Anywhere I go in the country I can find a masonic meeting, and they will welcome me for the evening and look after me. They need to know no more than the fact that I am a mason and I am accepted.
4 comments:
from memory of a previous post you made isn't it also that your dad is a Mason and you were to an extent brought up to that 'lifestyle'. Is/ how is masonry all that different to Rotary Clubs, Round Tables, Lions, Forestors, Orde of Moose (!) or any of the other similar organisations?
My father is a mason, but only for about 10 years before I joined, it isn't a family thing, and I haven't been brought up in the lifestyle. However I have a deep respect for my father, he is an honourable man, and I believed anything he would be willing to be involved in must be good. I make no claim that masonry is better than any of the other organisations you name.
I have issues with the fact that masons have "ladies' nights" - I'm not keen on anything that excludes people from joining just for being female.
Similarly-ish, to be fair, I went past a church today which I've thought about maybe trying and noticed that they advertise two events: "men's focus" and some sort of "ladies meeting in each other homes" thing. I don't want to be part of something where I'm supposed to sit and talk about knitting while the men talk about important stuff and go out hiking.
And I'm only being semi-facaetious here - I have experienced this sort of environment before.
There are ladies lodges so women are not bared from freemasonry (I am not sure if womens lodges have "mens nights"). If I would accept anything being brought against masonry, however, it probably would be this, although I don't know how comfortable women would feel baring their breast in a meeting full of men.
I don't view it as exclusion (and I fully expect liz to tell me that is because I come from a public school background and don't know how lucky I am). I think the things like ladies nights show that it isn't exclusion, we would be shallower men if we didn't have women at our side (I know what I want to say but I also know that that statement reads badly enough for someone to throw a snowball at me).
Basically I just don't believe that men and women have to do everything together and can enjoy different things (and there are a lot of female only things out there).
Maybe you should join the ladies group but then make sure that they talk about important stuff.
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