Where have all the good men gone?

Recently, PGM Cameron Bailey wrote about how other organizations have been able to grow their numbers for their fraternity. A few things come to mind, and were mentioned by Cameron in the article.

The first was that the fraternity of note, the Knights of Columbus have a captive audience of sort. Since they are part of the Catholic church, they have the ability to cultivate men into their fraternity. This is luxury that we as Freemasons do not have. We have to grow organically rather than having a funnel of men. This is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that we can work with more ‘quality’ than ‘quantity’ when it comes to those who decide to ‘knock on the door of Masonry.’ The curse is that we don’t have a funnel. We have to work harder to promote ourselves to men who may have never thought of Freemasonry before.

This isn’t to say that we should be shaking the hand of every man and handing him a petition to join. What we, Freemasons as a whole, need to do is re-work our mission and vision of what we are about. “Making good men better”, “2B1ASK1”. These were great slogans for my grandpa. It was easier to pass these phrases on because nearly 25% of my grandfathers generation was a Freemason. Those that left the military after World War II longed for the pact of Brotherhood again, and joined Lodges.

Todays man, me, will ask a Mason, “How do you make good men better?” This is a legitimate question. How do you answer it? I’ve heard brothers say, “Well, its complicated, there are lot of things I can’t tell you unless you decide to petition.” This is a bad way to get a man interested in filling out a petition, doing a background check, and waiting two plus months to find out that they don’t like something. Shaking hands, eating dinners, watching others go behind closed doors. These actions can become intimidating.

If someone asked me “How does Masonry make a good man better?” I would tell them that ‘based on the like-minded men around me and the topics discussed within our Lodges and in our handbooks I am able to identify the qualities that I want to improve upon and can do that work with the help of other Masons that want to improve the community of men at large.’

To me, this answer does a few things. It explains how I become a better man, but also states that I do that with help. Men today need to know it’s okay to ask for help, it’s okay to be vulnerable to become a better version of themselves.

The next dusty slogan - “2B1ASK1” this is a great bumper sticker to see on a long road trip, something that kids can Google, or maybe a man riding as a passenger because he’s bored. This isn’t something that should be on a hat, or shirt in my opinion. Can it start a conversation, sure, however it’s usually another Brother asking what Lodge that Brother belongs to.

Changing this slogan to something more open would be better. We can’t use buzz words that we know like “The Craft”. It would need to be something that will cause the target audience to stop and ask the Brother. “Hey, what’s your hat/shirt about.”

Lastly, this is something that is personal with me. Freemasonry and the Blue Lodge itself needs to stop hiding behind the Shriners and Scottish Rite. This is not to say that these bodies aren’t fantastic to the right Brother, they just should not be the ‘face’ of Freemasonry. Lodges need to invest in pop up tents, they need to get to Farmers Markets, and other social events where they can advertise. As much as we want people to knock, they need to know where to knock, and if they knock on the door of the Shriners or Scottish Rite, they are going to get told “Well, you gotta do all this work first to get back to this door.” Guess what, you lost a ‘customer’.

I’ll end with this poem that I think is fitting:

My Creed

Edgar Alan Guest

To live as gently as I can,
To be, no matter where, a man
To take what comes of good or ill
To cling to faith and honor still
To do my best and let stand
The record of my brain and hand
And then, should failure come to me,
Still work and hope for victory!

To have no secret place wherein
I stoop unseen to shame or sin
To be the same when I'm alone
As when my every deed is known,
To live undaunted, unafraid
Of any step that I have made
To be without pretense or sham,
Exactly what men think I am.