Reflecting on the Freemason Magazine
Credit: Bro. and Rev. A. Preston Van Deursen, Grand Chaplain
I am not sure that there could be a more appropriate time to highlight the different faiths within Freemasonry than now. The articles in the most recent edition of the Pennsylvania Freemason Magazine remind us, according to the Laws of Freemasonry, religion and politics are to be kept out of the Lodge as we focus on what unites us and not what divides us; especially in today’s political climate. A question I asked my Freemasonry men’s group to ponder recently was “how do we reconcile our Masonic beliefs with the political rhetoric that is going around about banning Muslims or other groups being mentioned from our country?”
What the articles point out is that brotherly love can teach us the tolerance we profess as virtue. One of the realities is that most of us will never attend a Lodge in another country. In fact, most of us probably have never attended a Lodge in another state. Many have never been to a Lodge outside of our own, and many of us don’t associate with folks much different than ourselves. We don’t have a “connectedness” as those whose travels have allowed them to sit in Lodges in other places. One of the ways we teach ourselves about tolerance is to “break bread” or “to sit” with others different than ourselves. We have Brothers from all over this world whose view of God is different than ours. As Bro. Yasser Al-Khatib reminds us in his article, it is our actions and interactions that represent a manifestation of our belief system.
From a Christian perspective, Jesus reminds us that it is love that defines us and his very prayer is that someday we would be one. Thank you, Brothers, for reminding us that this is the hope of many faiths – the true meaning of fraternity and “brotherly love!”
