WHEN TWICE TWO IS FIVE
"Masonry is contradictory!" sighed the Young Master
Mason at refreshment.
"I am sure I will never get the right of it in my stupid head!"
"It is something to recognize that it is contradictory!" smiled the
Old
Past Master. "But just what particular contradictions are worrying you
now?"
"Oh, a whole lot of them. For instance, we do not recognize Negro Masons,
yet I am told there is a lodge composed of Negroes in this country, which
is a part of, and works under, one of the regular, recognized State Grand
Lodges. I read that there are women Freemasons abroad and yet we are taught
that no woman can be a Freemason. I have just read the wonderful story of
Roosevelt Lodge in Providence, R.I., and thus found out that there are
lodges which refuse to admit foreigners and Jews; yet we teach and claim
that Masonry is universal and without sect or creed. Kipling, in his Mother
Lodge poem, has a Roman Catholic a member of it, yet everywhere I hear that
Masons are opposed to Catholics. I am told in Lodge that there is no
religion honored in Masonry, yet there is a Grand Lodge, I am informed,
which bases itself and its teachings on Christianity!"
"Well, you are rather up against it!" smiled the Old Past Master. Yet
is
really very simple. Let me ask you a few questions."
"Shoot! If questions will help me, I'm here to answer!"
"What do you regard as the most civilized nation on the face of the
earth?"
"America, France, England, I don't know which."
"What is the abiding principle of Christianity?"
"Love."
"What is the fundamental of all foundations of this government of
ours?"
"Freedom, liberty, I suppose."
"Is war civilized?"
"Certainly not! It is barbarous."
"Is murder a matter of love?"
"Gracious no!. Matter of hate, I should say! What are you getting at,
anyway?" asked the Young Master Mason.
"Can you think of any examples in our national life in which liberty is
abridged, either within or without the law?"
"Plenty of them!"
"Well, then," explained the Old Past Master, "we have
civilization which is
contradictory, government which is contradictory and the greatest and most
far reaching religion which the world has ever known, contradictory!"
"Oh, no!" cried the Young Master Mason. "Because we made war
doesn't mean
civilization is a failure; we failed civilization. Because murders are
committed by Christians doesn't mean Christianity failed; the murderers
failed. Because some people violate the laws of liberty doesn't mean our
government fails; they fail."
"You are a bright scholar!" admitted the Old Past Master. "And
because
there are contradictions in Masonry it doesn't follow that Masonry is
contradictory, but that Masons contradict each other! It is true that we do
not recognize negro Masons, as a general rule. It is true there is a
recognized Negro lodge under a Grand Lodge of one of our States. It is the
exception which proves the rule. History tells you how it happened.
"According to our ideas, no woman can be a Freemason. It is unthinkable as
to suppose a woman could be a father. But some foreign Masons have made
what they call woman Freemasons. Their apostasy doesn't affect any one but
themselves. It is too true that some lodges in this country won't have Jews
or foreigners in their membership. That is their privilege. But that
doesn't make Masonry contradictory; it makes those Masons contradict what
they were taught. There is no Masonic reason why a Roman Catholic cannot be
a Freemason; the reason they cannot is because their Church forbids them to
join oath-bound societies outside of their own. Some Catholics in foreign
countries have done so; honor the lodge broad-minded enough to receive
them! We do not receive them; we contend that a man owes his allegiance to
where his faith is given; if a Catholic applies to us, knowing that his
Church forbids it, it is evidence that he is ready to disobey where he has
promised obedience. Therefore, we don't want him.
"Masonry opposes the Catholic hierarchy. We defend American institutions
from Papal encroachment. It is their organization, their political
ambitions we oppose; not that they choose to worship God in ways which are
strange to us.
"Masonry is not Christian. It is not Mohammedan. It is not Buddistic. It is
not of any faith or creed. Because some one lodge or Grand Lodge declaims
that it is, does not make it so. Masonry does not contradict itself; Masons
contradict themselves!
"Men are not perfect. If they were, there would be no need of Masonry.
Masonry could not function in a perfect world of perfect men. There would
be no use of a system of morality when all men were moral; no need of
teaching anything by symbols or any other means if all men were wise. But
men are not perfect; they quarrel and disagree and take exceptions to each
other's ideas and beliefs. But it is the men, not the Masonry, which
contradict!
"Life is all a compromise, my brother. Practical Masonry is a compromise.
Never can we all be perfect. And one of the greatest teachings of Masonry
is toleration; toleration of the other fellow's idea, his viewpoint, his
belief. When you are intolerant of these contradictions, you are yourself a
contradiction of Masonic teachings. If I taught you that Masonry
contradicted herself, I would be a contradiction!"
"I will not contradict you!" smiled the Young Mason, "unless you
say I am
not grateful."
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