Being recently raised to a Master Mason of the 3rd degree in Centerville Lodge #371 in the great state of Ohio, I have been trying to absorb all the Masonic information I can to better learn all that I can about this ancient fraternity. My goal is to become a better person by following the teachings of the Masonic Order, not only for the betterment of my personal life but also for the betterment of my family, through the fellowship some of the groups available through Masonic channels such as DeMolay and the Eastern Stars.
I had not heard much about Freemasonry till a few years ago when I was asked to run the sound system for a Mason dinner at the University of Rio Grande. I was intrigued by all the members they had and, living in a small community, I knew or had at least heard of most of the men in the room. Every last one of them, that I knew, where all good men and well respected in the community. Men for whom I trust, respect and generally enjoyed being around.
After the dinner was complete I inquired but joining and was promptly told what my next course of action should be and soon after I was raised to the 1st degree to start my journey as a Freemason.
I am a Christian and belong to the Methodist church and I am also an educated man who never takes someone else’s word on anything without first researching all the facts. This holds true for politics, general life and religion. If the pastor says that according to this verse in the bible I should do this, the first thing I do is look it up for myself, figure it out and make up my own mind.
I get this trait from my mother who, in her younger years, was a Minister, Christian radio talk-show host, bible study moderator and all around good Christian. She was the one who taught me to believe in my faith and, if something doesn’t feel right, research the topic and make my own conclusions, to trust those conclusions and defend those conclusions at all costs. However, with this advice came a stern warning to always keep questioning my beliefs, never stop reading and never be afraid of saying that I am wrong and that my conclusions are always going to change when new information presents itself.
When I told my father about joining the Freemasons I asked him if we had any other family members that were also Freemasons. His reply was “no, we were all Christians.” This puzzled me a bit because I never thought or heard of Freemasonry as a religion and promptly went to work researching this claim.
Boy, did I ever open a can of worms!
Just do a simple search for the words freemasonry and religion and you will find no less than 842 gazillion results!
Picking the first few and quickly scanning the pages, I began to find references to some of the rituals that I had already taken part in and found some interesting claims from “past masons” explaining the symbolical meanings of those rituals and of the lodges “furniture”. Oddly enough I found that most of what I was reading had to do with the Masons being devil worshipers, terrorists and all around bad guys.
I found references to certain books that I quickly either bought or downloaded and began reading everything I could to gain enlightenment on this newest adventure of my life.
This blog is dedicated to my findings, good or bad, and will serve as a diary, if you will, to my travels as a Freemason.
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