Rough Ashlar No. 15: Truth and Other Masonic Conundrums

Increasingly, it seems to me that the majority in Freemasonry today, are incapable of using reason, or applying their masonic teachings, at least when it comes to their interactions with other Freemasons. It is the 21st century, folks. Wake up! You don't get to determine who is or who is not a Freemason based upon your own definitions of the term. This is true just as you do not get to determine who is or is not a Christian based upon your definition, nor who is an American, based upon your biases. Get over yourselves. You are individuals and members of an institution which is now a shadow of its former self. In other words, grow up!

Freemasonry is in serious decline.Deny it all you want, but it is all but dead. If it were a patient in an ER, they'd be calling in the priest to perform the last rites. We cannot afford to continue the old arguments over who is or is not entitled to be called a Freemason. That argument belongs to the 19th century not the 21st.  To put it in the most polite and Masonic language possible, get the... over yourselves.

Someone who says it with a lot more decorum then I do said this:

"Freemasons have long loved to hate other Freemasons, especially ones whose similarities are far more apparent to non-combatants, than their alleged differences.

Fervency and zeal are more often associated with superstition, ignorance, and hypocrisy, than with reason, understanding, and virtue.

Why is it that various systems of Geometry co-exist harmoniously, whereas slightly different systems of Freemasonry are embroiled in quasi-religious wars of annihilation?"

Peter Renzland, 

Toronto Society for Masonic Research

To put the lid on the coffin, although this reference relates to academia rather than Freemasonry, Henry Kissinger is credited with commenting about academic debates that "The bloodiest battles are fought in academia precisely because so little rides on the outcome."

Please have the civility to note that Brother Renzland is responsible only for his quoted remarks. He was kind enough to allow me to quote him, but the rest of these views are totally mine. If you object to my remarks, complain to me, not him. I am more than ready to respond. I am tired of hypocrisy.

Fraternally,

Eoghan Ballard