Norman Cohen,
32°
Masonry today remains reactive, rather than proactive. Long ago, we should have eschewed tradition and created a whole new way of Masonic thinking and conduct.
In the January 1998 issue of the Scottish Rite Journal, Ill. H. Douglas Lemons, 33°, Lt. Grand Commander and S.G.I.G. in California, lamented Scottish Rite membership losses over the past 16 years and the lack of attendance at meetings. He likewise noted that other fraternities are incurring similar problems.
Among Ill. Lemons’s several astute observations, I deem two to be of paramount importance. One, "We can no longer afford the luxury of basking in the greatness of accomplishments long since forgotten," and two, "The cradle of Freemasonry is the Symbolic Lodge. It must survive and prosper for Masonry to succeed."
All Appendant Bodies look to Blue Lodges for candidates. If the Appendant Bodies are to remain viable, the Grand Lodges and their Constituent Lodges must grow and prosper. The naked fact is that most Grand Lodges are dying, membership is declining rapidly, and attendance is mostly dismal. If this trend continues, those of us with honors and worthy titles will become past officers of extinct Masonic Bodies. Some who read these words will consider me an alarmist and an extreme pessimist. Yet the fact remains that few, if any, Grand Lodges have been able to report any membership gains for many years, and the reported annual losses have been staggering. The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, which I deem to be quite progressive, has embarked upon a program to reverse 35 consecutive years of membership losses. I hasten to compliment Pennsylvania on this efforts to reverse this trend. They have produced a video extolling the virtues of Masonry and have placed suitable advertisements in local newspapers. This might cause some Brethren to throw up their hands in horror. Masonry does not advertise, we present "information." Call it what you will, but we do and should advertise our "wares." We have an excellent Fraternity and should not hesitate to proclaim our greatness. Yet we are reluctant to depart from the old taboos and traditions that are hindering our progress.
We bask in the past glories of famous Masons such as Washington, Franklin, Truman, Sousa, MacArthur, ad infinitum. But these are former glories and past greatness. What about the Brethren who we should be considering? Masons who may be named Smith, Jones, Kelly, Riaz, Wisnowski, Goldfarb and others who we were elected to serve, and those non-members we are trying to recruit? These are the people who are and, hopefully, will be the salvation of our Fraternity. If we are to survive, we must attract new members. The Grand Lodges of Oklahoma and Hawaii, as well as other Grand Lodges, have made innovative approaches to counter membership losses by authorizing one-day conferral of multiple Degrees which would have been unthinkable a few years ago. More Grand Lodges are contemplating similar actions. Whether we agree with this concept is immaterial. What is important is that serious and concrete actions are being taken to stem the hemorrhaging in our rolls, and traditions, long considered sacrosanct, are falling by the wayside.
The average age of the membership of the Grand Lodge of Ohio is 63 years and other Grand Lodges are experiencing like escalation of maturity. Clearly, death will decimate our ranks in the near future. Also, we lose members because of the attacks of some zealots who, under the guise of religion or for their own financial aggrandizement, make it their crusade to terminate our Fraternity. Lately, a number of our educated Brethren have reacted to counter this negative publicity. Note that although we are readily assaulted from the pulpit and through the media, we remain reactive, rather than proactive. Long ago we should have eschewed tradition and created a whole new way of Masonic thinking and conduct. Yes, I must assault the mindset of some of my colleagues who are traditionalists and protectors of the status quo.
We must look to bringing Masonry into the 21st century immediately and plan on needed changes to perpetuate our Fraternity in the centuries beyond. I know of no one panacea for our problem, but I can restate what other learned Brethren have suggested: for starters, we must update our rituals, make attendance at our meetings more of a pleasure, and establish better practices to avoid becoming more of a financial burden upon our Lodges, Orients, and Valleys.
The staid Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland have also produced videos. Unfortunately, I doubt that those videos have received as extensive distribution as the adverse publicity we endure. The articulate leaders of our various Masonic Bodies should make every effort to seek invitations and appear on talk shows, give interviews to newspapers and magazines, and vociferously counter all derogatory and libelous comments by Masonry’s enemies. While no one Grand Lodge can reverse our declining membership trend, we as a Masonic community have that power—if we have the courage and will to use it. It will require the Grand Lodges, the Scottish Rite and York Rites, the Shriners, and other Masonic Bodies that owe their existence to a Blue Lodge dues card to join forces and work together and not act as competitors.
I submit that we must place suitable advertisements in nationwide newspapers such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, local newspapers in highly populated areas such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, etc., and in magazines like Time and Newsweek. Tell who we are, what we do, and that we invite good men to join our ranks. Such an effort will require the financial and administrative support of ALL the Masonic community. It will require that the Masonic community elect or appoint a small task force (not a bureaucracy) to administer the program, hire a suitable public relations firm to prepare the campaign, and then oversee expenses and results.
We must change our methods of candidate selection. While the Rites and Temples can solicit Masons to join their ranks, Blue Lodges are not presently sanctioned to directly invite quality candidates from the general public. This must change. We must become more involved in social events and place our prestige behind worthy and acceptable programs.
We have to examine and scrutinize our operations as businessmen. How much do we take in each year, and how much of those funds are used for the benefit of our members? Are we assisting our subordinate organizations by providing no-interest loans to make repairs to their edifices? Are we underwriting social events that will allow our sub-units to create a suitable environment to inspire potential candidates and their families to join our ranks? And how much of our income supports our own bureaucracy? Are we being wasteful, like some governmental agencies, and not using our funds wisely?
The present U.S. economy remains strong despite some slips in the financial charts. Our members can afford to support their Blue Lodges and Appendant Bodies. What will happen if and when the economy strongly retrenches? In a recession, suspensions for non-payment of dues increase and our problems are exacerbated. We cannot justify raising our dues beyond the point where prudent family men can no longer conscientiously support multiple Masonic organizations. How many of our Masonic organizations have charted their NPD to see the correlation between rising dues and suspensions? Yes, there is another departure from tradition, having to operate like a prudent business so that our members can actually see their monies being wisely used for the Masonic and public good.
In summary, we have troubles. No one individual, individuals, or single Masonic organization can solve our problems. It will require the cooperation of Masonry as an aggregate. The old cliche of hanging together, or separately, still applies. We must overcome divisions and work together. The alternatives are not promising.
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Norman Cohen is the senior Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Japan (1966) and a member of the Tokyo Scottish Rite Bodies. M.W. Cohen became a Master Mason in 1955, is a Past Master of two Symbolic Lodges, a Charter Member of two other Symbolic Lodges in Japan, and an Honorary Member of several Lodges in Japan and Ohio. In the formative years of the Grand Lodge of Japan, M.W. Cohen gained special expertise in the areas of Masonic Jurisprudence, finance, and fraternal recognition. The above article appeared, in a much longer form, in the Masonic Shimbun, a Grand Lodge of Japan publication. |