National Public Radio Broadcast Addresses Freemasonry
The following article is edited from an interview with two well-known Masonic scholars. They were guests on a National Public Radio show on July 31, 2002. It was broadcast to 30 public radio stations across America and, via the Internet, to persons around the world.
S. Brent Morris
Nnamdi: From WAMU at American University in Washington, D.C., this is Public Interest. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.
You know they say ignorance is bliss; it can also be pretty funny sometimes, because when Peter Carlson started writing an article for the Washington Post Magazine last year [Nov. 25, 200 1] about Freemasons, he was, well, truly ignorant about Freemasons. Here's what he thought: 1) that the weird pyramid with the eye on top of it that appears on the dollar bill is some kind of Masonic symbol; 2) it's a secret society that conspiracy theorists believe is plotting world domination; and 3) the geezers who wear funny hats and drive goofy go-carts in Memorial Day parades are Masons.
Well would those people be planning world domination? That is the conspiracy theory that some people associate with Freemasons. But what is the truth about Freemasonry? That's what we're going to discuss this hour. And in order to help us in our Washington Studio is Brent Morris. He is a Masonic Historian and Director of Membership Development for the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, [Southern Jurisdiction]. Brent Morris, welcome to our studio.
Morris: [In studio] Thank you, Kojo.
Nnamdi: Peter Carlson in the afore mentioned article also describes you as a Royal Arch Mason and a Cryptic Mason and a Knight Templar, a Perfect Elu, a Grand Pontiff, a Knight of the Brazen Spirit, and a Master of the Royal Secret. You are a 33° Mason and there is no 34°? What does that mean…….a 33°?
Morris: Well, the 33° is a recognition for service to the Fraternity. About 1.5% of the Scottish Rite Masons in the United States have received the 33° in recognition of their service.
I guess that about 30% or 40% of the Masons in the United States have joined the Scottish Rite, something on the order of 600,000 Scottish Rite Masons out of about 1.7 million Master Masons.
Nnamdi: Joining us now by telephone is Steven C. Bullock. He is a professor of History at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is also author of the book Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840. .
Steve, welcome.
Nnamdi: Tell us a little bit about the founding of the Brotherhood, and some people trace it-some Masons do-back to the Crusades, Pythagoras, and Euclid, even to the pyramids of Egypt. Any truth to that at all, starting with you Steve?
Bullock: People trace it back all the way in the 19th Century ...some people trace it all the way back to the beginning of the world, saying that Masonry's principles were universal and come directly from God. The actual modern Masonic Fraternity, that is an organization not of builders, not of people engaged in actual stone masonry or. ...
Nnamdi: But, Freemasonry started out as an organization of people working with stone masonry.
Bullock: It started out that way. That's right. But those organizations go back probably into the Middle Ages, We don't know much about that, but we do know that around the beginning of the 1700s, there developed a fraternal group which had no real relationship to actual building with stones and which instead attempted to build men. And this organization began probably around England; the key moment seems to be 1717 when you not only have a series of Lodges, but an organization which goes above them, the Grand Lodge. And this is a group that begins in the early Enlightenment. Many of the Founders were members of the Royal Society, which was the premier scientific organization of the time, an organization headed by Sir Isaac Newton. In fact one of Newton's close associates in the Royal Society was a key member of the early fraternity, so, of course, out of that early 18th century world. ...
Nnamdi: Well, I would like both of you to answer this question because Steve Bullock is not a Freemason. Brent Morris is. Let me start with you, Brent. Why is there so much mystery and secrecy surrounding, the Freemasons?
Morris: That's part of the baggage that we carry. Let me back up a bit, if I may just a second and tell what are the "secrets" and how believe they originated. Freemasonry evolved from a labor union, a building guild. And at the time Freemasonry were largely illiterate; they were skilled craftsmen, but the. ...
Nnamdi: And they were called Freemasons; because they were allowed to travel around Europe,
Morris: That's right, They were free to travel as opposed to the other serfs who were bound to the land. Because once you finished working on the bridge or the church or the castle, there wasn't any more work, and you had to travel to the next site. So they were distinguished by being free to travel. But, if they ran out of work at one site and wanted to travel to another, how would they prove that they were a member of the union? Well, they couldn’t read, they couldn’t write, and so what developed, what we believe developed, was a series of passwords. So, I would finish working on the site in Sussex, or they wouldn't need my skills anymore, and then I would travel to another site, I would introduce myself to the Master of the site, I would step over to the side, he would ask me some questions, I would tell them the secret password, and then I would be ready to work again. It's very much like a member of a trade union today
Nnamdi: How did you gain an interest in Freemasonry?
Morris: I was back in college. In fact I was curious about the "secrets" of the Masons. So I went to the college library, and I started reading in the library. I wish I had a good book like Steve's Revolutionary Brotherhood, but I read what I could find. Then it turned out that a college fraternity brother made an off-hand comment that he was getting ready to join his Uncle’s Masonic Lodge, and I said, “Hey, if you wait three months until I turn 21, I'll join with you.” And there it is.
Nnamdi: The rest, as they say, is history. Steve, what is the origin of your interest in Freemasonry?
Bullock: It is primarily academic. I was in graduate school and looking around for something to study and finally recognized what a wonderful topic Freemasonry was. I only later found out that, like huge numbers of people, that one of my grandfathers was actually a Mason. So I do have a personal connection that I did not realize when I got into it.
Nnamdi: Well, my father was actually a Mason, and the Freemasons have been accused in the past, Brent, of promoting segregation. Any historic truth to that?
Morris: I don't think it’s so much promoting segregation as we are an unfortunate part of the American history of segregation. Nothing would make me happier than to say that every relative I had believed the "right way" about every issue. Nothing would make me happier than to say every organization I belong to believed the “right way.” In fact, what happened is interesting.
Back in Boston in l775, 16 free men of color in the city of Boston were made Freemasons. They wrote to England, and said, "Can we have a Charter?" And England said, "Sure!" So African Lodge No.459 was created in Boston. This was along with the Lodge of St. Andrew, which was Paul Revere's Lodge, and several other Lodges. There didn't seem to be any problem with this.
The Revolution comes about. Then after the Revolution started, the Freemasons in the United States weren't quite sure what to do. They were in the same awkward position as the Anglicans. The Mother Church or the Mother Lodge was in England. What should we do? Well, as it happened, the decision was that the states in the United States started declaring their independence from the Grand Lodge of England, and they would create their own state organizing groups called "Grand Lodges."
Massachusetts formed a Grand Lodge, and not all of the Lodges in Massachusetts affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. African No. 459 remained loyal to England, and the Lodge of St. Andrew remained loyal to Scotland. Records at this time are weak, and, as we go forward in time, we see that finally in 1813 the Grand Lodge of England renumbered all of its Lodges, made the false assumption that every Lodge that was in the United States was no longer affiliated with it, and dropped them off the books. Now, we know that in the interim we found records where African Lodge No.459 and its Master, named Prince Hall. ...
Nnamdi: That's how the Prince Hall Freemasons came about.
Morris: Exactly, after their first and most famous member, Prince Hall slave, and who became free and went on to organize a new association, now in some ways very much a part of the founding of America. There are other leaders. Masonry in the period before the Revolution is an organization primarily of well-to-do people, but that one of the primary concerns is creating connections with other people in different areas and even across the Atlantic. Masonry considered itself a sort of universal fraternity. And that's in some ways what Masonry was about during the Revolution. When the American leaders attempted to create the Revolution, they weren't so much concerned with creating a new country, with becoming a nation in themselves, but with establishing a universal kind of set of beliefs and values that everyone could accept. And that's why the ideals of liberty and equality and as the French said fraternity, which is something I think that Americans leave out, but which I think a lot of American leaders in the founding period would have thought of as being part of these universal ideals. So Masonry is involved right from the beginning..
Nnamdi: How did the disappearance of William Morgan stir up public uprising against the Masons?
Bullock: What happens is that after the Revolution to bridge this gap here from 1776 when America declares independence to 1826, 50 years later, when Capt. William Morgan disappears in upstate New York Masonry in those 50 years grows dramatically; it becomes a sort of symbol of the country. It's an organization used to lay the cornerstone in the United States Capitol building in 1793. It spreads into every small town in America, and what happens is there is a reaction against it in the 1820s. Originally, with this man William Morgan, that you mentioned, who was actually a real stone mason besides being a Freemason in upstate New York, and he decided that he was going to publish a book revealing the rituals of the fraternity, something which is part of the "secrets" of the fraternity that Brent was talking about, and many Masons not officially, but unofficially decided that this is a very dangerous thing, that Masonry needed to be protected, and so what they did was attempt to pressure Morgan to stop, and when that didn't work, eventually kidnapped him and took him up toward Niagara Falls, around there, and from there we are not sure what happened to him. Some people later on claimed that they had killed him, they'd thrown him in the river; other people said, well, he went on to Canada and lived his life out there.
Nnamdi: And some of this may have given rise to the Anti-Masonic Party that arose in the 1820s and apparently had some influence at the time. Brent Morris is a mathematician who is also a Freemason. What did you write your dissertation on?
Morris: I wrote my dissertation on the mathematics of card shuffling.
Nnamdi: The mathematics of card shuffling?
Morris: I looked at issues of how well can you randomize a deck of cards with different kinds of shuffles. I claim to be the only person in the world with a PhD. in card shuffling.
Nnamdi: Okay, back to the discussion on Freemasonry. Think of that what you will. We also know, of course, that Brent Morris is a Masonic historian, and so you can pick up the conversation about the Anti-Masonic Party that came up in the 1820s.
Morris: One of the things that I figured would be great for Jeopardy: the Anti-Masonic Party was the first political party in the United States to hold a nominating convention. So just remember that if you are ever on Jeopardy; I'm sure that's a good answer.
One of the ironies about the !Morgan Affair. ...the Freemasons in upstate New York were indeed concerned that their "secret" rituals were going to be published. What they were unaware of is that the Masonic rituals and their "secrets" had been in continuous authorized publication since 1723. They're secret only from someone who doesn't know how to use a card catalog.
So, what Morgan was going to publish was nothing that wasn't already known. There are theories about what happened. Was he murdered? Did he migrate to Canada? Some people claim to have seen him later, but as it happens, is was a good enough excuse to start a panic and a fear. Lodges were burned in this Anti-Masonic period. The Anti-Masonic Party was the first third-party in the United States, the first significant alternative party in the United States. They had a presidential candidate, William Wirt; I think that was the election of 1836. They elected a governor of Vermont, I believe. Freemasons in Vermont went completely out of business during this period. The number of Lodges in New York State dropped by 90%. If you can imagine a ripple radiating out from New York, the further you get away from upstate New York, the less impact it had. But it had impacts even as far south as North Carolina and as far west as Michigan.
Nnamdi: The party merged with the Whigs in 1838. Steve Bullock, back to you. Religion and Masonry: How does religion play into idea of Masonry?
Bullock: Religion has been part of Freemasonry right from the beginning. In some ways the fraternal society, begins at a time of enormous religious upheaval, after a century in England where you'd had two revolutions which had been largely about religion. And what Freemasons argued is that religion is significant, it's important, but yet the differences between different groups, different religious groups, are not necessarily all that significant. This is what is known at the time as "Latitudinarianism," a long term. Essentially "wide latitude" is the term we use today. It's believing that if you are a Presbyterian, a member of the Church of England, an Anglican Episcopal, that those two beliefs are not necessarily in sharp conflict with each other, but there are areas of agreement, and so Masonry begins there and goes on throughout its history to have a very strong religious kind of roots.. On the other hand, many religious groups have opposed Masonry. So there is this other side to....
Nnamdi: The [Roman] Catholic Church is a bit leery about Masonry, isn't it?
Bullock: The Catholic Church ever since, if you have the beginning of Masonry in the 17 teens, by 1738 the Catholic Church, the Pope himself has come out against Freemasonry, and, so, in fact, that rule is still in existence today, although there are some local, some local organizations, some local leaders seem to allow Freemasonry. But there is also a very strong Protestant opposition as well, particularly Fundamentalist Christians often see Freemasonry as being a dangerous thing. And I think what unites them is the fear that an organization which allows people to make connections with people beyond the bounds of that religious group in some sort of religious setting is sort of a challenge, a danger to a church which sees itself as being the center of all sorts of religious things.
Nnamdi: Knights of Columbus was set up by Catholics as a response to the Masons, was it not?
Bullock: Knights of Columbus, I think it's 1882. ...
Morris: Well, if you talk to Knights of Columbus historians, they will bristle that they are a "Catholic response to the Masons." In fact this period at the end of the 19th Century was the "golden era of fraternalism," from 1870 to 1920, and in roughly half a century over 300 American fraternal organizations were formed. This is one every other month. You have the Knights of Ben-Hur, the Daughters of Pocahontas, the Elks, the Moose, the Benevolent Protective Order of Reindeer-for heaven's sake, the Orioles, the Owls. You have the Shriners created during this period. So in this period, Catholics found that they could not participate in what was, at that time, the great social activity of belonging to fraternal organizations. Because typically these organizations would otter a prayer on behalf of all the members at the beginning of the meeting, they would offer a prayer at the meal, and the prayer was unsupervised and uncontrolled, and so the Knights of Columbus were created. It's become a powerful, powerful fraternity, with an amazing Insurance program, and their charitable works are just phenomenal today.
Nnamdi: Mark in Reston, Virginia. You are on the air, go ahead please.
Mark: I was wondering where did the hostility between the Catholics and the Freemasons start from and why is it such an ordeal?
Nnamdi: Well, did the conversation you just heard answer your question? Or you didn't hear the conversation we just had?
Mark: I heard part of the conversation
Nnamdi: Oh, okay. Allow me to ask Steve to reiterate some of it for you. Steve?
Bullock: I think it is a key concern. And part of it is back in the mid-1700s. It's in virtually every society, except perhaps England and America. It's considered the normal function of a government to watch out for all sorts of organizations, to sort of prevent people from getting involved in organizations which seem dangerous or just seem to challenge the ruling group. So there is that element, I think. There is also the fear of a society which sort of claims to be religious, which is not simply Catholic. So that broadness, that universalism of the fraternity, is truly frightening, I think, to many religious groups.
Morris: And to expand that a little bit, in the late 19th Century, Pope Leo XIII, issued a series of Bulls against the Masonic fraternity. His most famous one was Humanum Genus issued, I think, in 1884, and in there he said the Freemasons believed that the citizens could change their government whenever they wanted to, that citizens were free to choose their own religion, and that parents were free to instruct their children however they felt like instructing them. And those were all dangerous. And for those reasons, Freemasons were condemned.
Nnamdi: So today you can be a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a Christian, or Jewish, and be a member of the Freemasons.
Nnamdi: We got an e-mail from Tom in Springfield, Virginia, who says, "Would you ask your guests to comment on conspiracy theories, which if taken seriously would indict the Founding Fathers of the United States in conspiracies like the Illuminati? Most specifically, what do they think of the claim that the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States the side with the pyramid refers to the New World Order?" That it is a code word for modern conspiracy theorists? Care to start on that one Steve?
Bullock: I'm going to defer to Brent on the question of the Great Seal, because he has written the sort of definitive work, but I would just say there are all sorts of stories like this, that the more you get closer to the actual sources the harder it is to find anything of that sort. There are fears of the Illuminati, a group that actually did have a real existence in Bavaria in the 1780s but seems to have died out. And there is no real evidence that it came to America, and of all the people in America who get very concerned about this, almost all of them except, the Masons, say it is not our American Masons who are involved here. So it is hard actually to see anything of that sort actually going on, as for the Great Seal I'll let Brent take over.
Morris: Thanks Steve. In fact, it's nice to chat with you again. The Great Seal of the United States is notorious for having on the back the uncompleted pyramid composed of 13 steps and at the top of it is the All-Seeing Eye of Providence. The motto is "Novus Ordo Seclorum" which is not "A New World Order." It is not..
Nnamdi: Can I interrupt? Morris: Please, Sir.
Nnamdi: To have Chris ask you that question, that you were just about to explain. Chris, is that your question?
[On the telephone] It sure is. The question stems on the back. It says "Novus Ordo Seclorum." I was always told that it means "New Secular Order." Is that true? Does it mean "New World Order," and how does that kind of play into the Masons sounding?
Morris: Well, the first thing is, who-ever told you that it means "The New Secular Order;' I believe ought to go back and study a little more Latin. Secula is a word that means "an age or a generation" and Seculorum is the plural genitive of Sec!lla, so Novu., Ordo Seclorum is "A New Order of the Ages" or "A New Order of the Generations." This motto was taken from Virgil, the poet, and it means nothing about the New World Order. I mean, you can go back and read the minutes of the committee that designed it and read how they selected the motto and what it means.
Now, the Seal itself is composed of the pyramid of 13 steps or the uncompleted pyramid of 13 steps. Well the 13 steps are the 13 colonies; the pyramid is uncompleted because additional states were going to be added. At the top is the Eye of Providence, overseeing everything and showing Providence has interspersed itself into the history of our nation.
Now, the Freemasons do indeed use the Eye of God as a symbol. And in fact this was a …just as if you were to see a political cartoon with a skeleton figure inside of a black cowled robe holding a scythe, you would immediately recognize this as an emblem of death. It has become an icon. The Eye of God- the Eye of Providence-in the sky is similarly an icon. Sir Walter Raleigh in his book The History of the World has the Eye of Providence on the top of the frontispiece overseeing everything. It's an image that shows that God knows everything; He pervades the innermost recesses of our minds and our hearts. He watches our deeds and actions, and will take care of things in the end. So, this was added with that intention.
Now, the Freemasons use the All-Seeing Eye. On the committee, of all the committees that designed it, there was only one Freemason, and that was Benjamin Franklin. The first committee was Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams.
Nnamdi: And Adams and Jefferson were not Freemasons.
Morris: There is zero evidence that they were Freemasons.
Nnamdi: Okay. Chris thank you very much for your call. Steve, to pick up, Masons are often accused of conspiring for bigger more sinister motives, such as world domination. Did you find anything in your research that would lead you to support any such conspiracy theories?
Bullock: I really didn't. As an academic, you know it might have been a good thing if I had found something like that.
Nnamdi: Sell more books, huh?
Bullock: Sort of appealing in some ways, and so I. ..it wasn't something I went in sort of looking for. If I had discovered that Washington and Franklin had worked together, tried to change the society in a way which we don't know about, that would have been sort of interesting, but, you know, unfortunately, from that one perspective, I didn't see anything.
It certainly is true that Freemasonry provides the way for people to make connections with each other. Connections which they wouldn't necessarily have before. So if you are a businessman in Washington, D.C., and you need to order goods , from Baltimore, it may actually be very helpful to have some kind of connection between you and the person in Baltimore. In the 1600’s and 1700’s quite often people would send different members of their family there. One brother, the son of the same father, would go to another spot, and they would then be able to trust each other more.
Well, Freemasonry attempts to create that without actual blood families, but actually through an organization. And so there's no doubt that Masonry provides a way of doing this, and, from the outside, it can seem, I think, to the people of that time and maybe even today, as if there is some sort of unfair advantage there. But Freemasonry is open to all people-- and at least to all men-- and so there is that "voluntary-ness" which makes it a way of making connections which is very useful.
Nnamdi: On now to Gene in Charlotte, North Carolina. Gene, you are on the air, go ahead please.
Gene: [On the telephone] Thank You. My concern is, being an Evangelical Christian, the oath that one has to take to join the Brotherhood. And I was wondering if one of the gentlemen could recite or at least say part of that oath?
Nnamdi: Brent?
Morris: Well, I think, Gene, if you are interested in doing that, if you are willing to spend 15 minutes on the Internet, you can find anything you want. There are several kinds of “secrets,” Gene. There are real “secrets” and there are "symbolic secrets.” The "secrets" of the Masons are "symbolic secrets.” I mean they have been in continuous print since 1723. We are listed in the telephone directory; you drive up to a Lodge and it tells you when the meetings are held; we have stickers on our bumper plates. This is not a good way to run a really secret organization! The "secrets" of the Masons are entirely symbolic. I promised I wouldn't tell anybody what they are. It doesn't matter if you know; it does not matter if Kojo knows; I promised I wouldn't say. It's the symbolism of me keeping a promise. Now, I consider my promise a sacred thing, and I have no intention of breaking it. So, do a little research on your own.
Nnamdi: Gene?
Gene: [On the telephone] Yes?
Nnamdi: Looks like you are going to have to get that information on your own.
Gene: [ On the telephone] Thank you.
Nnamdi: Thank you very much for your call, Gene.
We got an e-mail from Jeff who says: "Correction to Prince Hall's birth. Prince Hall was born in Bridgetown, Barbados. ..listed September 12,1748. He was free-born. His father, Thomas Prince Hall, was an Englishman and his mother was a free-colored woman of French extraction. In 1765, at the age of 17 he worked his passage on a ship to Boston where he worked as a leather-worker, a trade learned from his father." It goes on to talk a little bit about how he got involved with the Freemasons, and it relates to the part of the conversation we had earlier about the Prince Hall Masons, which is the African-American form of Freemasonry as it exists in the United States.'
We got a question from Mike by e-mail, who says, "I have heard of the Scottish Rite Masons and recently learned there is a York Rite. How are the two groups similar? How are they different?"
Morris: I'll be glad to tell you about that. Freemasonry evolved in London, it started in 1717. The transformation from a labor union to a fraternity was in the 1600s. What I'm going to try and do, Kojo, for Mike is to take what could easily be a one-hour lecture and condense it down into about two minutes, First, there are three basic levels of membership in a Masonic Lodge that correspond to the levels of membership in a labor union: an Apprentice, a Journeyman, and a Master. You can go today to the carpenters, to the electricians, to the plumbers, and they have a very similar structure,
Freemasons, having evolved from a labor union in England, maintained similar levels of membership. Entered Apprentice is the first level. The Apprentice joins the Lodge, and his name is entered on the roll. There's the Fellow craft, that means he is a "Fellow of the Craft;' or a Journeyman laborer. Then, after achieving a great skill, he is recognized as a Master Mason.
The guild legend that came with Freemasonry concerns the building of King Solomon's Temple, and problems that arose in building the Temple, and how those problems were solved. It was a fairly straight-forward story. In fact, Masonic Degrees are like small morality plays. Imagine the story of the tortoise and the hare being told to you, and at the end of the story they don't add the tag line: "Slow and steady wins the race." They just tell you the story, and they say, "Go think about it." Then you have to decide for yourself what the moral of the story is. So that's the basic structure in 1717-1730 of the three levels of membership.
As Freemasonry expanded across the world, and in particular as it went to the Continent, there seemed to be a desire for more levels of distinction. This idea of all men meeting in a Masonic Lodge on the level, that there was no distinction within the Lodge, except for Masonic distinction, did not seem to sit as well with Frenchmen. They wanted to have: everyone was equal, except some were more equal than others. So additional Degrees or levels of membership started to be added. These were additional morality plays. You have the tortoise and the hare, you have the fox and the grapes, and so on, and each one of these stories as they're added are usually centered around the building of King Solomon's Temple or legends concerned with King Solomon's Temple. They expanded the legends, and they expanded the opportunity for moralizing. Now something like 10,000 different Degrees were created, and over about a century they coalesced into two major groups that we have in the United States: the Scottish Rite, which is basically from France, and the York Rite, which is basically American and English.
Nnamdi: Okay, back to the telephones and starting here with Mickie in Helena, Arkansas. Mickie, you are on the air, go ahead please.
Mickie: Yes Sir. I'd like to ask the gentlemen: I'm an only child, and my father is the middle of three children, three male, two brothers, and at my father's funeral, after my mother put the first handful of dirt into the grave, seven to twelve men lined up, that nobody in my family knew, and each one of the men had a forget-me-not. And each man went into the front of the grave, not sideways, going lengthwise, and each man bowed his head, put the forget-me-not in, and said some words. I was so distraught that I didn't know what words they said. And as I recall there were 12 men, and each of these men did this.
Nnamdi: And you never had a chance to ask them about it afterwards?
Mickie: And I never asked them if they were Masons and how they knew my daddy. Is this part of honoring a Mason at his funeral?
Nnamdi: Brent Morris?
Morris: Yes, indeed it is, Mickie. It's the Masonic custom at the funeral of a Brother to put into the grave a piece of evergreen. And though I wasn't at your father's funeral, I'd be willing to bet that was evergreen, not a blue forget-me-not. But, it is a symbol of the immortality of the soul, and the words they probably said were something like: "We cherish his memory in our heart, and commend his Spirit to God Who gave it."
Mickie: Well, it was a beautiful thing. And I was so sorry that I didn't individually thank each man because it was just….....for a stranger to do something for someone you loved as much as I loved my father, I will forever be grateful to the Masons.
Nnamdi: Mickie, thank you very much for your call. Now to Joseph in Kansas City, Missouri. Joseph, you're on the air. Go ahead please.
Joseph: [On the telephone] Yes, good afternoon gentlemen. Look, I have a question to ask, and the question is simply this: I know that all the organizations in the United States, the not-for-profit organizations, are registered. And each one, when they register, has a mission statement they have to fill out. What, specifically, is the mission statement of the Masonic fraternity? And the other part of the question is: I know that you have two patron saints, John the Divine and the other John. What is their connection with early Masonry? And if you could answer that, I would appreciate it very much.
Morris: Joseph, I would be very glad to do that. In fact, Steve, I don't mean to take your thunder, but if you'd like to jump in here, you can.
Bullock: Go ahead, I'll jump in later.
Morris: Okay. First with the Saints John. They are the patron saints of Freemasonry. In fact, it is one of the mysteries: How did they get to be the patron saints of Freemasonry? For example, St. Catherine is the patron saint of fireworks makers, because she was martyred on a burning rotating wheel. You can still buy today a pin- wheel, called a "St. Catherine's Wheel:” But why the Saints John were the patron saints of the Masons is one of those guild legends that are lost.
As to the mission statement, I am not aware that we have filed with any body a formal mission statement, but I can tell you it is to take good men and to make them better. It is to make our communities a better place, it is to provide philanthropy, and charity, and help to those who need. Freemasons in 1995, the last year for which we have data, contributed over $2 million a day -- over $750 million that year -- to help the needy in the United States.
Nnamdi: And thank you very much for your call, Joseph. On now to Richard, in Alexandria, Virginia. ….. no let's go to Mike in Middletown, N .Y. Mike, you are on the air. Go ahead please.
Mike: [On the telephone] Ah yes, I would like to hear something more specifically to the effect of how men are made. And I hear a lot of talk of skill and craft and specifically the use of mind-altering ritual or psychoactive substances in the making thereof. I will take the answer off the air.
Nnamdi: Steve Bullock. Anything in your research indicating mind-altering substances?
Bullock: [laughing] No mind-altering substances. There was drinking of alcohol. And so I suppose. ...
Nnamdi: That's a mind-altering substance
Bullock: There was some of that, and right from the beginning there are charges that Masons drank too much. Although, you know, that doesn't seem to be necessarily any more unusual than anyone else at the time. I think it was...he was saying mind-altering in the chemical sense. The idea of the rituals is that they are meant to be altering. That it is a transitional thing from being an outsider to being a member of the fraternity. And you are made a Mason because you asked to be one. There is not supposed to be any official -- 0r some people say even unofficial -- request to people to become Masons.
The person who wants to be a Mason is supposed to ask. He is investigated. In some cases in early America this was a fairly complicated sort of thing. Clearly, people were asking around to see if the person was someone who was of high standing, someone who was not a crook, someone who was not a bad person, someone who beat his wife, or who stole things. And he would be checked out, and only then would he be allowed to enter the Lodge and go through this ritual which made him a Mason. And the idea was that he would experience something that would mark that development.
Part of it as Brent, I think, was saying before, is teaching him new Things --- creating connections between building tools, the square, the com- passes, and moral sorts of things --- with the idea that he would learn these lessons of morality better by having some sort of physical connection to them. There is also a sense in which you feel you are a part of the Brotherhood, just like college fraternities or all sorts of organizations like that, who feel they have to have some kind of initiation that makes it clear that you are not simply paying your dues, paying money to something and becoming a member as some of the organizations are today, but it actually is supposed to mean something in your daily life.
Nnamdi: Brent, we got an e-mail from Elizabeth in South Bend, Indiana, who says: "One of your guests is in charge of membership development for the Scottish Rite Masons. He would seem to have his work cut out for him. Everyone I see heading to our Scottish Rite Temple is an octogenarian, at least. What membership development strategies does he have, and how does he see the future of the organization?" Membership nationwide, Brent, I'm told, has shrunk by more than one-half over the past 40 years or so. I guess that really adds a sense of urgency to Elizabeth's question.
Morris: It's always fun to have a challenging job! [laughing] That's putting a positive spin on it. Membership in Freemasonry peaked about 1959 with something like 4,200,000 Masons, and, as Elizabeth said, we have declined slightly over half to slightly under 2 million --- 1,900,000. Something like that. This is part of a larger societal trend that Professor Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, you interviewed him. ...
Nnamdi: Yes, I certainly did.
Morris: Putnam has pointed out that every voluntary association in the United States has a declining membership. And, if not in actual numbers, if you look at it as a percentage of their base population, there are fewer. This is [true for] civic groups; this is sports clubs; this is every type of organization --- all showing a declining membership. Masonry is not immune from this, and, in fact, Elizabeth, you are absolutely right. It is a problem facing us. At the moment right now, we are in the process of short-term remedies. Short-term remedies are looking at our list of members who have dropped out, seeing if we can induce them to return, trying to stop our members who are on the verge of dropping out from doing that. Then we are trying to retool the entire organization so that, in the process of joining, the members are enrolled, they are engaged, they are activated into the organization, and it becomes a more vital activity for them.
Nnamdi: Well, you will be heartened to hear that we got an e-mail from Peter, who seems to be listening to us on the web in Kenya in East Africa. Peter's saying: "It is wonderful to hear this from the United States, and I hope they can continue to get the same success and membership and interest as the rest of the world. I am proud to announce that as a 32° member in Africa, we are experiencing a great number of new members, and the Craft is, again, becoming relevant to the world." So, you may be growing internationally.
Morris: Peter, glad to hear from you.
Nnamdi: Another e-mail from Barry who asks: "Would you please ask if women have full membership, meaning rights to all learning and information?" Steve, can I throw that your way?
Bullock: This is an issue that goes back right to the beginning, right from the start.. Masonry has been a male-only fraternity. Partly because, as Brent has been suggesting, a group that grows out of the work organization. There were not women who would do these kinds of jobs so this follows right into the fraternal organization, something which was not that unusual at the time. It was considered to be the norm that women and men would socialize separately. Women didn't get to vote in America until the 2Oth century. Now early on in Masonry it becomes an issue. People begin to ask that question, "Why is it that if Masonry makes people better, why can’t women join?" Women are known to be more moral, at least in the 19th century, and people say why they have that? And so there is a whole history of concern about that. As you get into the middle of the 19th century, there are organizations for women. Women connected with Masonry in some way can join. The Order of Eastern Star is still a very popular [organization]
Nnamdi: I guess I'm going to have to rush it forward to the present day because we are running out of time. Brent Morris, how is it today? .
Morris: Well, in 1855 with the Eastern Star... this is a radical step forward to allow women to join a group with men. And in 1880 in France, the first woman was initiated into a Masonic Lodge, and that Masonic Lodge was promptly expelled, and then they said that's fine, we'll form our own group. But when it tried to move to the United States, the Eastern Star had already established itself so well that the ladies did not want to leave the Eastern Star and be CoMasons. Today , in the United States, the dominate way for women to become involved in Masonry is through the Eastern Star or another ladie’s groups, but there are Lodges of men and women, and Lodges of women only.