Why I Left Freemasonry

It should be obvious by the title of this post that I will be talking about why I left the fraternity known as Freemasonry, but before we get to that I will have to talk about why I joined the Freemasons in the first place.

 

When I was a child, I can't remember my age but I think it was before I was 10, I remember reading a Chick Tract about why the Freemasons were evil. I also remember thinking that some of the claims made in the tract were pretty fantastical - as in probably not true. This lead me to wanting to join Freemasonry just to see what it was all about.

Most of the Baptist churches that I attended growing up held a dim view to Freemasons, and yet there were always a few Masons to be found - usually because of their rings which they always wore. Talking to these Masons I saw that they were good men who tried to do good in their churches and their communities. They were typically fairly religious, and also typically family men.

From talking with these men, I wanted to be like them. They seemed like great men to try to emulate. Many claimed that Freemasonry helped them to be better men, better husbands, better fathers, and better Christians. And considering how many questions and disillusionments that I had with your typical, everyday variety of Evangelicalism, I really wanted to be a better Christian, a better father, and a better husband.

When I started dating my ex-wife I learned that her grandfather (also her adoptive father) was a former Freemason. He is quite possibly the only Mason (former or otherwise) that I have had any issues with. But knowing him, and meeting some of his friends who were still Masons gave me an in if I had ever wanted to actually join.

The Army friend of mine whom I lived with when my ex and I separated while she was still in the Navy was also a Freemason. Through my friend, we'll call him Seamus, I met even more Freemasons. And so far they all seemed like stand up guys.

A few years after I was married, and the ex-wife and I had supposedly worked out our issues, I met an older gentleman who assisted with military funerals who was a Freemason at a small lodge in Tennessee. Talking with him while we were driving from funeral to funeral we became good friends, and I decided to join his lodge.

Typically, in the State of Tennessee, the Grand Lodge has said that you must wait about 28 days between getting each degree. I was given a special dispensation from the Grand Master to get each degree as quickly as I could learn the lectures as I was deploying soon, but I had enough time before my second deployment to wait the usual time. So, shortly before I deployed the second time I was a Master Mason.

Now, I should state here that I will not be revealing any secrets of the Freemasons, as I understand them to be. This includes certain handshakes, signs, and passwords. I will not be revealing these because I took a vow not to, and I take my vows very seriously.

In Tennessee, you can only attend stated meetings of your lodge (and those of other lodges) once you reach your 3rd degree (Master Mason). In other states (but not all) you can visit stated meetings as soon as you're initiated, you just can't vote on anything. By the time I left for the Middle East I had been to a few stated meetings at my lodge and a few others nearby.

I will state here that most stated meetings are basically just boring business meetings with a bit of arguing thrown in for good measure. We would typically go over things such as fundraisers, how much we raised for the year, how much we had in various accounts, and how much our bills were. 

When I came back from my deployment it was time to vote on the new officers, and I was immediately asked to be the Junior Steward - one of my responsibilities was to bring food to each meeting so we could have dinner beforehand.

The next year I was made Senior Steward. Then the next year I was made Junior Deacon. By this time, I had stopped attending very often because the ex-wife was in school, I lived in a different city/state, and I just couldn't fit in my schedule to get to lodge.

I should also add here, that at this time I had not seen anything mystical, or occultic, or really anything that would be objectional to most Christian denominations. Really, at that point, the only thing that could be seen as quasi mystical would be each of the three degrees - wherein allegory was used to teach moral stories.

Of course, if you listen to the naysayers they would say that I was still too low of a level to know all of the secrets of Freemasonry, and yet every Mason I knew and read said that by the time you were made a Master Mason you knew all of the secrets of Freemasonry.

I would say that is mostly true, as you learn more handshakes and passwords when you join the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, and other various appendant bodies. But those don't really have anything to do with "Blue Lodge" Masonry, or your every day Freemasonry.

I should also add here that at this same time, yes, I was an Orthodox Christian. I wore my ring all of the time, including to church, and I even had a square and compass decal on my cars. The priests I knew didn't seem to have an issue with me being a Freemason, though I know a lot of Orthodox Christians and jurisdictions which do say that you cannot be a Freemason and an Orthodox Christian.

Anyway, before I left for Alaska, I was barely attending any meetings, but I still saw Freemasonry in a favorable light, I was just super busy being a stay at home dad and trying to raise my daughters while my ex-wife was attending her grad school.

Before we moved to Alaska I had gone ahead and looked to see if there were any lodges nearby to where we would be living, and as luck would have it, there was one in my town, and a few others that were not a terrible distance to drive.

Once we got to Alaska, I reached out to the Secretary of the lodge closest to me and made sure it was OK to visit. I went to my first meeting, met some really good brothers who are still good friends to this day (the brothers from my lodge in Tennessee don't typically use Facebook or other social media, so I fell out of communication with them aside from the occasional letter I would send via snail mail). I was, of course, tested and tried to make sure that I really was a Master Mason - which was a first for me, because any other time I had visited a lodge I always had someone to vouch for me.

These guys seemed more like what I thought Masons should be, as did many of the other Freemasons that I met in Tennessee. They were a very close knit group, and very open and approachable to anyone. 

It was in Alaska that I started looking more into Masonic education, or, learning more about the Craft. Before, I had read a few books by various Masonic authors, including Pike and his Morals and Dogma (and FYI, the part of the book that most people point to and say "AHA! The Masons worship Satan!" does not actually say that). But I was being a little more serious in what I was studying, and even listening to some podcasts on Masonry. These things were basically how to apply the moral lessons that we learned in our degrees to our everyday lives - basically how to be Masons all of the time instead of just at lodge.

Some of what I was studying touched a bit on the esoteric side of things, but nothing that I would outright call the occult. In fact, up to this time I had not met any Masons who practiced anything occultic at all - though I am sure that there are some.

It was because of these studies that I decided to go ahead and continue on in my journey, and I decided to join the Scottish Rite - and at some undetermined later date, join the York Rite.

And I guess that this is where my issues with Freemasonry started. 

You see, while studying Freemasonry more and more, I was also studying Orthodoxy more and more. Some things just weren't really meshing very well. Nothing that I would call outright objectional, but some things that just didn't mesh.

For instance, when I went through the 4th - 32nd degrees of the Scottish Rite, there was a very heavy reliance on the Kabbalah and a lot of esoteric leanings. These were explained as just tools to teach the moral lessons, but even in the book they gave us to read (the Southern Jurisdiction - of which Alaska fell - of the Scottish Rite had moved away from using Morals and Dogma as they felt that the read was too heavy, and were using instead A Bridge to Light) also mentioned the Kabbalah a lot, as well. The Kabbalah is an esoteric school of thought of Jewish mysticism.

The Kabbalah is in no way compatible with Orthodox Christianity, so there was a red flag.

Another example is that Freemasonry seemed awfully Gnostic. Not that they necessarily ascribed to the Gnostic heresy, but that there was some hidden, secret knowledge. Granted, this is typically seen as merely allegory, but Freemasonry still smacks of it even if it is an allegory to be used to help us become better men. I know of a few Masons who do ascribe to the secret knowledge that only exploring the depths of Freemasonry can help you find.

And yet, another example is that Freemasonry is extremely ecumenical. Freemasonry teaches that all religions can led to the Great Architect of the Universe, and it is up to each brother to figure out their own path. This is obviously against what the Orthodox Church teaches, and indeed, many other Christian denominations. Freemasonry does teach that each brother should adhere to his own religion and become the best adherent of that religion that he can be. 

I understand where they are coming from, as far as unity goes. Freemasonry tries to be a truly universal fraternity that accepts people from all beliefs, and in the interest of unity among the brethren they leave religion up to the individual Mason instead of trying to say that one religion is better than the others, or trying to be their own religion.

That is right, Freemasonry is not a religion. Though I can see how the argument can be made since Freemasons say that Freemasons will go to heaven. However, they make no claims on how this is possible, other than by the individual adhering to their religion of choice and being the best Christian/Jew/Muslim/etc they can be. 

And let me reiterate that Freemasonry does not worship Satan. Freemasonry is not a religion and does not hold to one religion over the other. The passage that most people use quoting Albert Pike is taken out of context. What Pike is saying is that it is odd that we should call the Prince of Darkness Lucifer which means Light Bringer/Bearer. He is saying that we should instead use the term Lucifer to instead refer to God. Basically, he was trying to take back the term and use it in a more technically correct manner. 

Some of you might claim that I just don't know enough because I wasn't a high enough level to learn all of the secrets. Yeah, no. Realistically, the highest degree you can go is the 3rd degree - the rest is filler and fluff. To join any of the other bodies, you have to be a Master Mason, and everything after that just expounds upon the lessons already learned during the first three degrees.

Also, there is a very limited number of actual 33rd degree Masons. Most 33rd degree Masons are honorary 33rds. In my decade or so of being a Freemason I never once ran into a true 33rd degree Mason. So it would seem rather odd that these scant few are truly running the organization when hardly anyone has met them. The Council of the 33rds might run the Scottish Rite (such as deciding which book to give out, any changes to the rituals of the lessons, etc), but they do not run the Blue Lodge.

And, to add on to that, the Grand Lodge of any state or jurisdiction can pull the charter for the Scottish Rite to even operate in that state if they aren't toeing the line properly. I remember a few years back that one state's Grand Lodge pulled the charter for that state's Scottish Rite because they were allowing people to participate in the SR who hadn't paid their dues to their Blue Lodge (the 3 degrees). It seems odd that if the SR runs Freemasonry that the Grand Lodge (which is Blue Lodge) can just yank their charter. The Grand Lodge is Freemasonry, not the Scottish Rite, not the York Rite, not some other appendant body you can name - they all operate at the discretion of the Grand Lodge, the Blue Lodge.

Back to where I was...

The final thing that just kind of struck me is that Masons are always seeking enlightenment. They are always looking for the light, or more light. And yet, when someone is chrismated in the Orthodox Church we call them newly illumined. 

Orthodox Christianity is enlightenment. To be Orthodox is to be enlightened. Jesus Christ is the Light, and when we are Orthodox we have already found Him - we have already found the light.

This is not to say that we are perfect creatures, or that we no longer make mistakes. No, indeed, we are quite human. But Christ is the Light, and our goal is to become like Him.

I left Freemasonry because I finished my Masonic journey. I became a better adherent to my religion - and I had found that my religion and Freemasonry clashed. I became a better man - not perfect, definitely a lot of room for improvement. I couldn't be ecumenical because Orthodox Christianity is the one true religion, and telling others that their path was just as valid would be a grievous lie. I was already enlightened, and I continue to be enlightened through the grace of Jesus Christ who is the Light. 

So that was it. I could go no further in my Masonic journey. Masonry had nothing else to teach me that my Church could not and did not. I had believed that the Orthodox Church was the true faith and just fullness even before I became a Mason. I had to ask myself what benefit what I getting from being a Freemason - how was it improving my life that the Church couldn't, how was I being a better person through Freemasonry that I wasn't able to accomplish through the Church, how was I being a better Christian through Freemasonry that I couldn't be through the Church? The answer is that the Church held all of the answers. In trying to be a better Freemason I became a better adherent of my religion because it helped realize something that I already knew; the Church - the True Faith in Christ - is all that I needed.

Please pray for me a sinner.