Editor’s Note: For more on Freemasonry from this blog, see the Freemasonry category.
By popular demand from the followers of my Twitter stream, I’m cataloging my journey into Freemasonry. At this point, I have a vantage point of being involved for a few years, and so I have a bit of perspective on the events. From that perspective, I’ll say that all in all it has undoubtedly been worth it, although not in all the way I expected. Continue Reading »
It was awesome. Not just “a good lodge exprience”, or “a lodge with a lot of brotherhood”, but awesome. Literally awe-inspiring. And it was the first lodge I’ve ever attended which made sense of the ritual: the solemnity and the dignity and the calls to self-reflection and the focus on education were exalted in the ritual, but I had found them achingly lacking in practicalities. That was not the case at Saint Paul #3, and the genuine sense of brotherhood and strength were great.
If you are thinking about joining the freemasons, or if you are a freemason yourself, I suggest you seek out your local TO lodge. Next time you are in a city with an MRF lodge, you owe it to yourself to attend their meeting. Just don’t forget your tux!
I have and will continue to treat the topic of Freemasonry with fairness by allowing rebuttals to my claims, but I wont pretend that the organization is benevolent in any way.
Holycrap, Ican’tbelievetheysaidthat! Beyond these links, there are numerous quiet — often anonymous — acts of community support which will never get publicity or a web page. The Valley of the Scottish Rite that I belong to has a volunteer position — Almoner — devoted especially to giving aid in just such a manner.
But to say that Freemasonry is not beneficial in any way is just flat out wrong. It’s not truthful, nor is it loving, nor is it tolerant. It’s just wrong.
I don’t usually do this — those of you who followed me from LiveJournal can attest — but I’m going to spend some time thinking. I’m exhausted, stressed, pressed, anxious, proud, and excited…it’s really draining to be such a mix of emotions.
Near my computer is my lambskin apron, and on my hand is the Ring of the Lodge of Perfection. It’s amazing how deeply and quickly Freemasonry has touched me. I wanted to feel this way about ΘΧ, but I never really did: I admired the ideals of the Helping Hand, and I still appreciate the sentiment and feel close to many of my Brothers from there, but there was something missing from it, and I don’t know what. I’m sure everyone who knew me then could tell me what they thought was missing — I could tell you some possibilities, too — but Freemasonry has gotten to me in ways that ΘΧ never did. Freemasonry seems to be an excellent match for me, though: it’s an omnipresent organization dedicated to philanthropy, with high ideals and impressive rituals, based in a belief in God and a constitutional government but not particularly worrying about the details of those beliefs. It’s exactly the kind of thing I had been looking for, and I’m glad I discovered it while I was so young.
This weekend I’m going to Princeton to check it out. I’m still trying to decide between Columbia and Princeton — Princeton is really the foremost Presbyterian seminary, but Columbia has an exceedingly strong Old Testament history and (as far as I can tell) a lot of forward momentum. I’ve gotten onto the Presbytery Committe for Preparation for Ministry, and I’m going to talk to some of the seminarians about their experiences. I don’t know where the current candidates are from, but I’m looking forward to talking with them about their experiences. And I’m really looking forward to seeing what the process is and what the thoughts are for potential ministers — it’s such a unique life calling that it’s interesting to talk about people who want to do it.
In any case, I’m heading out to Princeton. I’m looking forward to it: I’ve not been on an Ivy League campus before. I went to Vanderbilt for a ΘΧ conference, which was as close as I’ve ever gotten. Vanderbilt was great — it’s a beautiful campus, and I liked Nashville quite a bit. I’m considering doing Vanderbilt for my Ph.D.: it’s got a lot of diversity of thought, and while Princeton is well known for its scholars, it is not well known for its diversity. That’s a decision that is a long, long time in the future.
There are lots of things going on right now — this year has had some astounding transitions. I’ve recently gotten in touch with my favorite high school teacher, and things have really been changing with him, too: it was weird getting coffee with him and being on a first name basis after walking that weird line between teacher/student and friend. I have also been trying to get in touch with a lot of the other people who helped shape me into who I am: I’ve got this sense that I’ve gotten a bit lost, so I want to back up and take another start at this.
I also want to get a Diplomacy game going soon. :D
I’d like to share something amazing that I recently encountered in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
No true Mason scoffs at honest convictions and an ardent zeal in the cause of what one believes to be truth and justice. But he does absolutely deny the right of any man to assume the prerogative of Deity, and condemn another’s faith and opinions as deserving to be punished because heretical. Nor does he approve the course of those who endanger the peace and quiet of great nations, and the best interest of their own race by indulging in a chimerical and visionary philanthropy – a luxury which chiefly consists in drawing their robes around them to avoid contact with their fellows, and proclaiming themselves holier than they. For he knows that such follies are often more calamitous than the ambition of kings; and that intolerance and bigotry have been infinitely greater curses to mankind than ignorance and error. Better any error than persecution! Better any opinion than the thumb-screw, the rack, and the stake! And he knows also how unspeakably absurd it is, for a creature to whom himself and everything around him are mysteries, to torture and slay others, because they cannot think as he does in regard to the profoundest of those mysteries, to understand which is utterly beyond the comprehension of either the persecutor or the persecuted.
Masonry is not a religion. He who makes of it a religious belief, falsifies and denaturalizes it. The Brahmin, the Jew, the Mahometan, the Catholic, the Protestant, each professing his peculiar religion, sanctioned by the laws, by time, and by climate, must needs retain it, and cannot have two religions; for the social and sacred laws adapted to the usages, manners, and prejudices of particular countries, are the work of men.
But Masonry teaches, and has preserved in their purity, the cardinal tenets of the old primitive faith, which underlie and are the foundation of all religions. All that ever existed have had a basis of truth; and all have overlaid that truth with errors. The primitive truths taught by the Redeemer were sooner corrupted, and intermingled and alloyed with fictions than when taught to the first of our race. Masonry is the universal morality which is suitable to the inhabitants of every clime, to the man of every creed. It has taught no doctrines, except those truths that tend directly to the well-being of man; and those who have attempted to direct it toward useless vengeance, political ends, and Jesuitism, have merely perverted it to purposes foreign to its pure spirit and real nature.
Mankind outgrows the sacrifices and the mythologies of the childhood of the world. Yet it is easy for human indolence to linger near these helps, and refuse to pass further on. So the unadventurous Nomad in the Tartarian wild keeps his flock in the same close-cropped circle where they first learned to browse, while the progressive man roves ever forth “to fresh fields and pastures new.” The latter is the true Mason; and the best and indeed the only good Mason is he who with the power of business does the work of life; the upright mechanic, merchant, or farmer, the man with the power of thought, of justice, or of love, he whose whole life is one great act of performance of Masonic duty. The natural case of the strength of a strong man or the wisdom of a wise one, is to do the work of a strong man or a wise one. The natural work of Masonry is practical life; the use of all the faculties in their proper spheres, and for their natural function. Love of Truth, justice, and generosity as attributes of God, must appear in a life marked by these qualities; that is the only effectual ordinance of Masonry. A profession of one’s convictions, joining the Order, assuming the obligations, assisting at the ceremonies, are of the same value in science as in Masonry; the natural form of Masonry is goodness, morality, living a true, just, affectionate, self-faithful life, from the motive of a good man. It is loyal obedience to God’s law.
That’s from the reflection on the tenth degree by Albert Pike in Morals and Dogma (cite). I’ll have more thoughts on it another time; I’m still digesting.
(For those of you on LJ, please click the link, register, and leave comments there — I’m not likely to see them if you leave them on LJ. Thanks!)
I am now employed — starting Monday, I will be working at a major Minnesota insurance company. The gig is at a good pay rate, reinforces my health care background, and is going to be the first step in establishing financial independence as I move forward. Hunting for a job was very scary, and it reminded me of just how screwed up it is to work for someone else, where one always relies on someone else’s action for their employment. That experience was harrowing and degrading, and I didn’t take well to it: it’s really fostered and bolstered my entrepreneurial spirit, and sincerely driven me to break out of the corporate world as soon as possible. As always, I have a couple of ideas as to how I might do this, but we’ll start with working for my own corporation that works for other people — at least there I get to decide my own benefits and get out from underneath taxes. We’ll see what else I do later on.
In other beginnings, I am going to be joining the Scottish Rite the week after next. The Freemasons, in general, are a pretty accepting and open-minded group — what would you expect from the organization whose principles spawned the acceptance principles of the United States? But, as much as the Freemasons may be accepting, the the Scottish Rite (an appendent body to Freemasonry) really takes the cake. This is the mission of the organization:
To seek that which is of most worth in the world; To exalt the dignity of every person; To maximize our service to humanity; To aid the individual’s search in God’s universe for identity, for development, and for destiny. Thereby, to achieve better men in a better world, happier men in a happier world, and wiser men in a wiser world.
And this is the creed:
The cause of human progress is our cause, the enfranchisement of human thought our supreme wish, the freedom of human conscience our mission, and the guarantee of equal rights to all peoples everywhere, the end of our contention.
This is the first post with real content here at EnfranchisedMind, so I thought I would start off trying to figure out what this is all about. The concept of an enfranchised mind is a powerful one, and it’s one that’s been slowly composing itself in my head for a long time. This concept plays off of many of the major issues that I have, and effectively expresses many beliefs all at the same time. Given that, it seemed only appropriate to use that label for my blog.
Let’s start by taking a look at this concept of “enfranchisement”.
In the 2004 election, I fell into a disenfranchised group in the electorate — the group of people who want privacy, who don’t like identity politics, and who consider the government (particularly the federal government) to need a major overhaul of efficiency. Low taxes are good, but tax cuts are earned through reducing the size and waste of the government or through improving the economy. We tend to call outselves “traditional conservatives” or “fiscal conservatives”, and it’s an unpopular viewpoint these days. Now, Kerry was campaigning on some of that, but also brought with him the big-government idealists and racial politics. Bush was a complete disaster for fiscal conservatives, as he both plied in identity politics — it was religious identity instead of racial identity, but it’s the same thing in the end. Sure, there were third party candidates, but in our plurality-takes-all system, voting for a third party is actually counterproductive to getting to your goals implemented in the system. So I didn’t really have a good option going into the booth, and I felt like my vote didn’t matter, because even if my vote is the one, single vote that won the election for someone, I was still voting for someone I didn’t really support. I — and those with opinions similar to me — were disenfranchised, even in this democracy.
As I was mulling this over, still feeling the sting from the entire 2004 election results, I began to move through the degrees of Freemasonry. There are many ideas in Freemasonry, and I certainly haven’t even picked them all out yet, but one that repeatedly surfaced is that a person is responsible for their actions. Interestingly, the Freemasons actually step up and go one step further: it’s through a person’s belief in the divine — that is, for some kind of spiritual judiciary — actually *enables* a person to be responsible for themselves. If there is no higher power than a person, then what does an oath mean? The only ramifications are worldly ramifications, and worldly ramifications can always be outweighed by worldly enticements or avoided through practical means.
This idea resonated with me, as well, because it plays off my religious beliefs. I believe that there are right ways and wrong ways for societies to work: you can tell, because societies that don’t work collapse under their own vices. Similarly, there are right ways and wrong ways for people to behave: you can tell, because people that don’t behave collapse under their own vices. I believe that those rules of behavior and rules of society are put into place by our Creator, and so I have no problem labelling self-destructive behavior as sin. Violating promises, particularly those promises made with the deepest and most solemn sincerity, is certainly self-destructive and therefore is most definitely sinful.
Which brings me to another kind of enfranchisement. Human beings are granted with the ability for self-reflection, and the most unique ability to reason and derive. We are great pattern finders, exceedingly creative, and have a built-in drive to avoid self-destruction (it’s called our “conscience”). It is in this aspect where I see humanity modelling their Creator; this intelligence is how we are made in our Creator’s image. This is another form of enfranchisement: our free will, our ability to make decisisions and be responsible for them, are granted from our Creator onto us by our makeup.
So, I am politically, socially, and spiritually enfranchised. Those bestowed freedoms bring with them a lot of responsibility, and so I endeavor to live my life with respect for those responsibilities. To that end, I need to learn, understand, and hash through many of these problems, and that’s what this blog is about: politics, society, spirituality, and how the individual relates to them.
This is also, of course, a personal blog, and so there will be various announcements made regarding my own life, including the various organizations that I am a part of. Those that have followed me from LiveJournal shouldn’t expect much different from what I used to post, with a possible exception of the frequencies.
