Masonic Etiquette: Masonic Values in Action From Tradition to Modern Outreach

Hey Chris yeah Fred what’s a Mason that’s a really good question Fred you’ve reached the internet’s home for all things masonry join Chris and I as we Plum the depths of our ancient craft from the common gavel to the trout nothing is off the table so grab your tools and let’s get to work this is on the level a I think um what I think we got stuck in a Time Vortex I’m pretty sure we did I think we missed a week did we miss a week I don’t know if anyone missed us but we did miss a week we missed a week man how does that happen what what is

That you know you’re a busy man now that you’re a celebrity oh oh is that what it is I’m a busy man am I think you were doing something with the fans I don’t know where were you I haven’t seen you in ages uh it’s been like no that was

Last week since I’ve seen you I I was in North Carolina oh and uh enjoying myself immensely uh with my youngest son and his new bride up there he just bought a house and did a bunch of cool stuff so uh went up there to uh hang out with the

Boy and uh yeah it was a good time man had a really good time I love North Carolina man I love it beautiful in North Carolina I uh I live there I have obligations here um to take care of my my my mother and my in-laws um so we’re the kind of their

Health surrogate so we can’t leave uh but if I could leave I would leave make no mistake yeah yeah I would too I think yeah we live in a very interesting place in Sarasota Florida yeah it just keeps getting busier and busier here yeah it’s gonna

Be hard to drive hard to park hard to get into a restaurant it’s going to be Orlando um I say it all the time and people from Orlando are like what what what’s wrong with Orlando it’s like Orlando is the most crowded place on the planet that’s what’s wrong with it or

Miami you could say the same thing about Miami but we kind of like Miami do we we kind of like Miami I like to visit Miami I wouldn’t want to live there I would never live there no no I wish you know even though we we live here in

Sarasota I would be a fan of flying into Miami uh enjoying myself and flying back to Sarasota because driving into Miami is not fun you’re right that is better than driving to the keys where you you can’t stop once you start you depends on what depends on

What you’re driving bro when I roar down there with my brothers on our Harley’s it’s a good drive yeah baby yeah I shouldn’t try to Huff it on my Huffy t no no don’t do that bicc no h shout out to Bob Bob’s listening Bob would do it

Yeah Bob would do it no problem he’d like yeah I’m going to start in uh Russia and I’m going to drive my bike down to the Keys that’s right yeah good good you could drive on water yes he probably can yeah Bob can Bob can drive

On water ride on water that is correct that is correct I guess you don’t drive a bike you ride a bike you ride a bike that’s right yes uh so what’s been going on man with you what’s uh what’s the latest the latest uh I don’t know I

Don’t know I’m just trying to just trying to get through this year you know trying to get to the end trying to get to the end yeah I get it man we did a big cornhole tournament for our district fundraiser which was awesome we raised a

Little bit more money than we thought we would how much exactly uh it’s about $3,500 got the Master Mason Association not too bad not bad not bad at all and this was money that was uh from outside Lodge in other words yeah these were non-masons that came in for the cornhole

Tournament um spent their money annoyed that none of the people from our district came to our district fundraiser I mean I was more than slightly annoyed initially and then um I I it you know I realized hey this is actually a good thing because we showed that you can

Raise money from um tapping the outside public and not have to keep asking Masons for money over and over and over again right yeah that’s what I always call the spaghetti the spaghetti dinner syndrome where we have we have a spaghetti dinner and fish fry uh and the

Only people who come and pay for the plate are the people who are in the lodge that we’re trying to raise money for in the first place so yeah yeah exactly you’re taking money from people to give it back to them it’s the the epitome of

Hidden right yeah yeah so yeah so good on you guys man I could not be there like I said I was in North Carolina but it went well yeah yeah we had lots of people show up from outside and uh some became interested in the fraternity definitely interested in joining the

Shrine so they got to get through us yeah they got to get through us to get to there that’s right either way that’s a bonus for Freemasonry there was quite a few people interested and the Master Mason Association um picked up uh about $3,500 for the coffers which is

Important yeah for that important uh organization hello is this thing on everybody yes it’s on it’s on support your local Master Mason Association yeah the best way you can support them is to show up once in a while yeah man especially if you were a warden or a master correct definitely should be

There yeah uh but most of the lodge secretaries need to be there too and the treasures let’s be honest let’s be honest everyone should be there it is the should be there you should it’s the only place where you can get every every uh Lodge in your District together to

Coordinate there’s no other vehicle for doing this so it’s super important that a representative uh from every Lodge be there every week if not like you just said Chris you know a majority of the of the officers yeah should be there you know and participate and it’s fun it’s

Fun and their school of education afterwards where we all get together and get to hear uh I’ve learned not all um not everybody does that I guess we’re one of the few that do that but right he’s right after the our Master Mason association meeting our district instructor hosts everybody hopefully

That was there to learn um some kind of esoteric ritual work after and he does that for about an hour and it’s called Florida work not Lodge work shout out brother do actually teach Florida work and it’s so funny because you see the same people time after time after he

Teaches them Florida work they raise their hand excuse me I would just like to say I wasn’t taught this way it’s like we know we know that’s why we’re here we were none of us were taught this way that’s why we’re here right right yeah it’s funny what was it uh Justin

Brought up a couple of things that nobody wanted to hear um and good on him for doing it uh what was it oh Applause after the um some of these are hard to implement like this one you’re not supposed to Applause to applaud after the um the lecture or the charge or the

Charge really anything the degree and it’s so it’s so uh customary I guess it’s customary but it just it just feels like you’re supposed to there’s that moment when the charge is done and then they start walking back and you just feel like it’s an it’s an it’s an

Automatic reflex yeah it’s like you just feel like you need to be applauding you know but you’re not supposed to and I guess it just holds to the the solemnness yes of it and everybody gets to reflect a little bit on on what just took place uh what was the other thing

That um he was saying uh something else that we’re not supposed to do that every every Lodge in Florida does uh and you’re actually not supposed to do it and I don’t think it has anything to do with wearing sandals I don’t know no we

Can do that we can wear sandals on our head if we want that was just a little dig to our past grandm a a a man we love and respect big time yes yes he tried to level us up and we wouldn’t have it we wouldn’t have it excuse me sir I’ll wear

My flipflops to Lodge with my socks no or without I guess you can wear without now uh apparently so yes uh so anyways uh Rabbit Trail there um so there was one other uh controversial isue try to remember it and now I can’t remember I can’t remember it’ll pop into our heads

The most impune time what was he’s probably shouting at the at his phone right now it’s like you you morons can you not remember anything well this is how it’s supposed to work the the committee on work puts out every year these are the things you need to

Tell everybody in the state they bring all the district instructors together and then they come out and they’re supposed to hammer it into our thick heads uh and so this is the way that ARS chooses to do it he’s already got the whole district there all the players

Right the Masters and the board and everybody yeah shuttle them into a room and give them the information that Grand Lodge wants them to have and hopefully they’ll take it back to their lodges it’s a pretty good system of disseminating information if you ask me right yeah yeah that’s right as long as

Everybody’s doing their job yeah we’ve stalled long enough we’re not going to remember it sorry uh uh right honorable broom for to have him back on the show we’ll have to have him back on the show to scold us for our lack of attention well he also you know

He has a good thing he’s doing after the school of instruction he sends a note to all the secretaries and asks them to read it yeah at all the meetings so everybody gets the same information which is communication is very important especially in Freemasonry yeah that’s right that’s right get as much

Information in the hands of as many people as possible um because you know uh participation is everything and without the right information without the correct calendar dates and all of that stuff you know it’s really important that that during during your stated meetings um getting a you know

Talking about upcoming dates uh by the way uh Master Mason Association you can get upcoming dates for each individual Lodge while you’re there oh I remembered what it was oh what the Tyler has to stay outside the lot oh yeah that was the big one inside at all at any point

That was and that was could have been directed to the mighty 147 because we brought in the Royal chair I mean and sat it next to the door so the Tyler me could come in uh during during the uh during the stated meeting and uh yeah

That got that got whacked yeah that got whacked hard I know I know nobody liked that one I mean the thing is in my mind because I had to think through this as the master and make a decision and and I thought hey he’s a brother of our lodge

I’d sure appreciate if all the lodge brothers that are here could be in the same room making decisions together right so the Tyler did his job he tiled the lodge uh but we’re talking about after 8 o’clock at night on a week night yeah and we would lock the outer doors

Lock the door no one ever came not once no one’s ever going to roll up at a Master Mason Lodge at 8:00 on a Tuesday afternoon right right and say hey I would have joined if only someone had answered the door at 8:00 on Tuesday afternoon it doesn’t really ever happen

And so the guy’s just sitting out there doing nothing uh while we’re having business meeting and so yeah I asked you to come in because I really thought it was important to have you with us hence the reason why uh it is best to have a past

Master um to be your Tyler uh somebody who knows everybody um who’s been you know in your Lodge for a while uh and doesn’t necessarily need to be in there absorbing you know all of the degree work and the opening and closing of the lodge and everything that’s going on in

There my me I was way too new in masonry to be a Tyler I don’t think that’s well that’ll let all the enthusiasm out of your sales sitting it really will it really and it did by yourself in a room it really did uh and I was missing out

On getting you know absorbing all of it because that’s part of our you know that’s how you learn it man you just got to be in there and you see it hear it and and and do it uh over and over again and that’s one of the reasons why we’re

Able to do uh what we do so anyways another Rabbit Trail there for that’s a requirement so we we follow it now we follow it now that’s what you do you follow the rules the fancy chair is still there but rest assured the Tyler’s

Uh derri a is not in it during uh the LOD he is outside uh doing what he’s supposed to do one thing’s for sure he’s not clapping for anybody so at least one guy’s following the rules no he’s not clapping no well I don’t know maybe he

Is probably is out there no one can hear me I will clap thing is is if he were clapping it’d be okay cuz he’s not in the lodge the lodge yeah yeah so maybe we’ll work on that so we’re finishing the uh Entered Apprentice charge we are finishing the Entered Apprentice charge

As promised and again our apologies uh Brothers if you were last Wednesday looking for us and you didn’t find us that’s because we were lost we were lost into time and uh I I I’m just going to have to tell you it was totally my fault

I teched I I did a tech no no and I absolutely just killed the file that we that we recorded on we spent the entire time it was a really great episode uh and um when I transferred it over it went away I mean and I looked

Everywhere for it it just went away bye-bye bye-bye never to be heard again so we um were planning on hitting it that next day to do it over again and then with my trip to North Carolina coming up it just got it just got crazy

And uh yeah here we are now sorry um so um yeah so uh the me the Entered Apprentice charge uh and we’re g to we’ll get through this because there’s not there’s not too much here we’re almost done with it two par three paragraphs um but I do know that we um

We touched on a lot of things during the one we during the Lost episode I hope we can get back the Lost episode only two people will know that there’s a lost episode right yeah right but that’s okay we can make it better now we can make it better because it’s

Only good because you and I are talking about Freemasonry and here we are we can fix it we can fix it we can fix it so uh I’m on page 63 in our little blue book the Florida Masonic monitor um this is published um you can actually find all

Of this on the Grand Lodge website uh published none of this is secret as we say all the time we would never do that uh all of our our encrypted stuff uh remains that way um and we don’t we don’t write it down we don’t do any of

Those things we’re obligated not to U but these are things that we feel um every Mason should be familiar with and I know that there are some some brothers who are EAS that don’t want to go forward into this book and read uh fellowcraft uh and masonry things that

Is your choice I would encourage you to do it uh just to know what’s coming your way but you don’t have to you if you want to experience it for the first time you know uh as you go through it I think that’s you know that’s your choice um I

Look back and think to myself you know just some basic outlines would have been very helpful especially in the EA degree everybody’s nodding their head yes right now it’s like yeah I was totally lost and then they started shooting me with an informational fire hose well to be

Honest you a lot of people may only hear the the charge a couple times if they don’t go back to degrees and there’s no way you’re going to remember what was in that charge right right after hours of hearing things that’s the last thing you heard hence why we’re given the little

Blue book yeah so that we can go back and read it and please do and if you are an EA or a fellowcraft um you don’t have that little blue book yet but when you get it when you get the little blue book um I would encourage you to uh get a

Couple of stickies and throw them in there and read through it regularly just to familiarize yourself with what it means to be a masing we we need some of that because um sometimes and lately uh there’s all kinds of misbehaviors going on out there with regard to masonry

Should we talk about that or should we let that one go maybe we’ll let that one go does seem to be Silly Season lately it is Silly Season isn’t I don’t know how or why just came out of nowhere but a lot of masonic drama all at once yeah

Yeah and I got up in our stated meeting last night uh and just reminded the Brethren I just felt like I needed to remind the brother and that um you know if you have an issue with another brother um it is never appropriate it is

Never a good idea uh it is never Masonic for you to post on social media your displeasure with another brother even if your cause is right it doesn’t matter and what I tried to encourage everybody last night was don’t even read the whole thing you know once you see where this

This this post or this letter or this this this conversation is going stop stop don’t don’t get drawn into it and like uh uh Kevin Smith jumped up Junior Warden last night and said and don’t and don’t engage and I think that was really good advice don’t inflame don’t inflame

It don’t engage it uh and and what he would tell as Junior Warden it is your Junior warden’s responsibility uh to take those to to take any kind of issues you have with another brother that you couldn’t resolve between the two of you you take

It to the junior Warden you put it in his lap and then you move on man and he he deals with it uh from a third- party perspective he doesn’t take sides uh he just looks at the situation and makes a determination and that that goes up

Higher we this is all part of our our system uh Freemasonry is a self-governing fraternity we have our own government we have our own system for dealing with things like this but we don’t use it in this case it’s being used um and it’s being used well so I

I’m I’m very encouraged by that but again Brothers if you see first thing for goodness sakes never post anything anywhere outside of a lodge about another brother just don’t do it it’s never a good idea it’s never correct or right um at no time in your mind while

You’re typing I’m hoping my words will come through to you it’s not the thing to do it’s not a thing you can’t do it it’s not good for anybody probably ever ever but as masons in particular absolutely we’re supposed to like look and think about this kind of behavior

And not do it right you’re bring and we’re not preaching from on high I I have been guilty in the past of not thinking before I spoke right I’m guilty of it especially when you get caught up and you’re you know passionate but I mean you got to learn from those lessons

You have to admit to yourself you made a mistake when you make a mistake or else how else are you ever going to progress yeah you have to realize you’re doing something that was wrong and then what do you do when you do that because you

Will make a mistake we all do sooner or later right you tell people you made the mistake you ask for forgiveness and you show them that you learned a lesson that’s what you do it’s not hard just just Own It admit it and then learn a

Lesson that’s what Masons do and and in in in confessing it I’ll use that word and and humbling yourself and coming back to a person and saying look what I did was wrong um and I need to do better that in itself is the lesson uh when you

Don’t do that when you just bury it or move on or get you know or just you know try to Gaslight people uh about the situation you don’t learn the lesson and I can guarantee you man it will happen again in your life it will because the

Pain of having to go and admit you were wrong in front of other people is the lesson it will it will teach you the next time you will remember that pain yeah you don’t want that again and you don’t want to do that again man so that

Is the lesson and one of the reasons why we have we have Brothers out there and I say this to my church Brothers all the time that we don’t learn the lessons because we don’t do the lesson you know you got to do the lesson and the lesson

Is sorry bro you you blew it man and I’m speaking to myself right here and and now you have to I I’ll give you an example I live in a uh a villa complex uh and it’s strictly HOA controlled I mean like they if if you’ve ever heard

The term uh HOA Nazis well the ultimate h a Nazi literally lives directly across the street from my front door so when I go out my front door there he is every day anyway uh so our project uh our complex is getting roofs done so it’s like one building at a time they’re

Going through doing roofs well it was his day to do the roof and he doesn’t like me I’m just letting you know up front he had the roofers Park their cars in trucks directly in front of my house and I came home from work after

Having a long day and of course me being in the trades um and uh I got out of my truck and I went up to the roofers and I said hey why why you parking here what’s wrong with you guys why you got to park

Right in front of my house you know who I am yeah so I was I was on their case and they were and they all looked at me at the same time and most of them were Hispanic and they looked at me and said

Not our cars and I said oh no not their cars well who is it and then all of a sudden out comes the HOA Nazi to tell me that it’s the neighbors cars I had them park there because of the roofing uh situation we didn’t want them parking in

Their driveways and then I just lost it man I just I just option I burned him right there in front of everybody and uh got really angry and then went inside uh the next day I’m leaving for work and uh and God is just on me over this and I

Can feel the spirit of God in Me Like You know what you need need to do right and I’m like I don’t want to do that and he’s like you know what you need to do right I like Lord I don’t want to do that and he said third time uh which is

A a Biblical precept uh you know what you got to do right so I knocked on his door and uh and knocked on his door and out comes him and his wife uhoh and I had to shake his hand and say Rob I’m really sorry about yesterday that’s not

The way uh I’m supposed to behave uh especially with my neighbor I hope you can forgive me um and I I don’t want to I don’t want to have to do that again and that was so painful yeah it was so painful especially because his wife

Hates me even more than him really and she’s just gleaming at me like it’s like whatever I was wrong you were really meant to learn a lesson I’m a Christian I’m a Mason I have an obligation to behave in a certain way in front of of

Other people so what I did was wrong but what I did to correct it was the right thing to do and when I left there I you feel better right I feel a lot better and and I know after and I know the next time that comes up uh I’m going to be

Thinking in the right frame of mind right because of what I did so that’s that’s my story and uh that’s exactly how Mason re uh should work you it’s painful to change we’ve talked about this it change is not easy that’s right that’s right we you know somebody is

Getting in the way of what I want therefore you know I have a choice I have a choice you know I can I can do I can handle it the right way or I can handle it the wrong way and unless we unless we learn these lessons and do the

Work do the work Mason um we’re we’re never gonna we’re never going to be in a position where when when reaction right it’s all about reaction um you know it’s all about us when you hit your finger with a hammer um what comes out of your

Mouth it’s a reaction that comes out of your mouth well what comes out of your mouth is what’s in your heart uh it’s a great test go ahead and try it I dare you uh but but if you don’t learn the lessons if you don’t do the work and

Learn the lessons the same thing’s going to come out of your mouth every time you can’t expect any change if you don’t do any of the work I think we’ve beat this one to death what do you think should we move on no they got it they got it they

Got it all right so page 63 the enter Apprentice uh degree um charge we left off talking about the state yes uh and our our our uh Our obligation to the government uh to be loyal to the country and uh we we T touched a little bit on

That that in fact you know if if the government stops being the government what is our responsibility as Masons you can’t be loyal it’s not a suicide pact right so if they’re going off the cliff um be being loyal and subjective to an organization of any kind that’s going

Over a cliff and harming itself is not wise so I we don’t need to revisit that conversation but at some point no you’re right we probably don’t need to revisit that whole conversation but I do agree with you it’s worth repeating that we are to defend our government even if

It’s from itself correct I love that yeah that’s right but uh there are ways in which we as Masons are to go about that it’s clear from our charge that we’re not to raise up arms and try to overthrow our government but uh there are mechanisms of the government we

Should be pushing and pulling levers to try to make sure that it doesn’t go off the rails and that it stays our government um so it’s it’s tough because again people’s passions get the better of them we’re in an environment where you’re meant to learn to hate uh and so

I I feel like it’s really easy to start thinking about taking off arms against your own Brothers right in this kind of environment and people are really passionate it’s similar to Freemasonry people are really passionate about things yep and they have their idea of what’s right and they

Really don’t care about what your idea is of what’s right not a lot of conversation happening right um and when there’s not a lot of conversation happening you can guarantee that things are going to go off the rails 100% of the time they always go off the rails

When the communication stops right yeah communication has stopped things are going to go off the rails they are and we need to think about as Masons how we’re going to handle that uh we can be representatives of the government that we should have that’s right we can we

Can fight for the government that we should have we must fight for the government that we should have and every legal means possible to us right but when it comes to taking up arms against our government or our fellow brothers oh things get a little complicated it does

Get complicated I think that we um the first thing we need to do is is we need to live the life and be an example first and foremost so the first thing we should do is get our own political house in order come on let’s everybody join

Politics we need some masons in here right get get involved uh and and you know I’m not talking about the Facebook armchair politician I’m talking about get out get elected and fix things politician yeah and stand for the principles that our Founders uh first brought which is liberty and the pursuit

Of happiness life liberty the pursuit of happiness that your right don’t come from government government is commissioned to protect those rights that that were granted to you by God our rights our that’s right our rights need to be protected and and you know it’s I

I I like what you said we we don’t take up arms against the government now the founding fathers left us a mechanism for protecting ourselves from an out ofcontrol government but that’s very different y than actually being offensive you’re going to lose that’s the first thing because we’ve given them

Trillions of dollars to arm themselves so you’re not going to Prevail that’s the first problem and the second problem is is once you go there it’s over once a strong rebell we almost had in the Civil War you know once you have a strong fortified um you know Army that

Is fighting against another Army of the same you know of the same country it’s over uh it it is only by the grace of God that the Civil War did not end up yeah um as a you know as a as a broken we would end up like in Europe with you

Know 52 different countries all factions and Waring and and it would just be a broken system if we survived it at all so that’s not the point uh and that’s not the way the way is is that first and foremost you get your house in order you

Get your own house in order get out of debt be a good man who’s trying to make himself better draw to yourself people of like-mindedness and then get involved go do something you know and and and for goodness sakes please please consider giving up the left versus right lie and

Go and embrace your neighbor regardless of his political persuasion and make friends and and and be friends and countrymen together regardless of your differences and and and fortify your community uh and your neighborhood man because that’s what that’s what matters that’s the Masonic thing to do that’s

Right the unip party wants us to continue to fight left versus right but they’re not left or right they’re abouts El and their money and their power that’s the uni party what we need to do is give up the left I say this all the

Time I say this too much give up the left versus right lie and embrace your brother because he’s a fellow human being created in the image of God and from there move forward okay you ready well imagine in Europe if you took all the countries and overlaid like the size

Of the United States how many countries in Europe would that take up oh my gosh a lot yeah so imagine RAM and all all those countries into one government now right it’s not going to be pretty and ours isn’t pretty we have a big country we have people with many different

Backgrounds you know the coast lifestyle is very different from the middle and the upper parts of our country sure enough it’s just different and we are very different but we’re not we can’t separate and have independent trade agreements I mean we’re one country we have to figure out how to work with each

Other right uh you don’t have to like the lifestyle of the other person or even really understand it you just have to respect it to let them live it that yeah that’s right and and everyone’s individual beliefs and structures um are theirs and and you know I always go back

To the the marketplace of ideas and this imaginary Marketplace that I’ve constructed in my crazy mind is a place where anyone can anyone is welcome as long as you come with gentleness and respect wanting to share your ideas with others but the minute you try to force

Somebody in the marketplace of ideas uh into your way of thinking then then it’s no longer a Marketplace um it’s no longer a place where I can go and shop and look and learn and and draw from the things that I need in my own life and then the other

Thing I always say and you guys know what I’m going to say you got to go into the marketplace of ideas knowing what you personally believe and why you believe it otherwise you’re going to go in there and you’re not going to understand what’s going on so can we move on

Now sure we can do that all right I’m going to read it uh this one paragraph right here and then we’ll discuss it I’m on page 63 in our little blue book although your frequent appearance at our Communications is earnestly solicited yet it is not meant that masonry should

Interfere with your necessary vocations for these are these are on no account to be neglected neither are you to suffer your Zeal for the institution to lead you into arguments with those who through ignorance May ridicule it yeah I mean that’s pretty self-explanatory right not a lot of

Esoteric thought to that one it’s like hey we are going to ask you to come to a lot of things right don’t feel like you have to be at all of them that’s right yeah don’t be like us you got things going on and you should have things

Going on in your life but uh masonry is going to be here and we would appreciate it if you just showed up every once in a while when you’re able to just think about us don’t forget about us right basically absolutely and you know a fair statement right you’re paying an annual

Due you’re paying your annual dues which we we we appreciate um so why not when you can come on into Lodge and sit down and and you know have dinner with the brothers and and and be a part of what you can as you can if you’re if you’re a

Young guy with you know three kids and a wife I mean your ability to get down to the lodge and do stuff is going to be severely limited and everybody who is reasonable in the lodge understands that yes totally understands that you know everybody’s in a different phase of

Their life and they have a lot of different things going on and masonry fits in differently as you go through your own life there’s times when you’re going to be more active when you have more time and then there’s going to be times inevitably if you’re in the

Fraternity long enough where it’s not going to be part of your life for a little while because you just have too much stuff going on and that’s normal it’s normal for every Mason so we shouldn’t be judging anybody else for their level of participation because it’s probably the best they can do at

This point uh but anybody um who gets masonry gets that you get a lot out of going even if you’re not an officer even if you’re not you know that’s right just being there you get a lot out of it uh here’s a good example you’re fairly new

Mason relatively speaking I am when you’ve met a lot of new Masons now I have you’re not a normal new Mason you’re in a different situation than most people you travel a lot right you get to meet a lot of people now when you meet a new Mason for the first time and

You’re hugging that person like a brother like a brother but you’ve never met him in in his life are you thinking about who he’s going to go home and have sex with that night when you give him that hug are you thinking about who he voted for in the last election when you

Gave him that hug are you just thinking this is a brother I want him to know that I love him and we’re in this together that those are the thoughts going through your head when you meet a new person as a Mason you think oh I

Want to show this person that I actually have a lot of love that I’m open that I trust him like those are the things that we think about when we need a brand new person off the street we’ never met before that’s a Mason me that’s for me

No no I I completely agree with you um and that’s the beauty of masonry it is it sets up in the lodge environment that anybody from any background it doesn’t really matter what your personal life is we come together under you know under the precepts and concepts of Mason R you

Know we under uh Brotherly Love relief and Truth we come together to better ourselves through knowing other people from different backgrounds and I think that’s the beauty of I think that’s one of the reasons why you know in the founding of this country masonry was so uh so intimately involved in it because

It was a place where people from all wildly different backgrounds and and and situations could come together and craft out you know this this new idea um for self-government that had to be done you know and yes most of them were Christians I get that but it was done outside of the

Church even though I mean at the founding of our country most of the states had a state Church believe it or not that’s actually true um the Presbyterian Church was the official Church of Virginia the state of Virginia at the founding of this country but notice they didn’t use the church as the

The place to develop the concept right of of a free of a constitutional republic they used a different place a medium where all the different faiths could come together and craft this thing out based on individual liberty and freedom and the pursuit of happiness uh for each individual you know U like we

Said you know the the rights granted by God to man not by government this could not have happened within the context of different denominations uh and and and different different religions and Familia background it couldn’t have happened without Freemasonry it couldn’t have happened I don’t think it could have

Happened our country couldn’t exist without fraternity guiding our Founders I think so because the lodge it was like it’s the pub in Europe um a lot of change happened in the pubs in Europe because that’s a way of life for them there but here it was in the it was in

The Lodges um and that’s where they met and that’s where a lot of it they met at pubs The Lodges were pubs worlds I think back then they were able to have a Grog or two while they were in Lodge but today we don’t because of uh

Well this is America got to subdue our passions and that doesn’t help we like to create laws that we uh end up having to live under so yeah but I mean imagine that you could take that lesson of Freemasonry into your life yeah and when you meet your neighbor who you never met

You just give him a hug like that and you’re not thinking about oh who are what is they what you know you’re just looking at them as a human being that’s right greeding them into your life imagine if you could take that into your life we would have a lot less problems

That’s right if my if my neighbor happens to be of a different religious persuasion than mine but his roof is leaking um and I have the ability to repair his roof because he can’t afford to do so and the water is dripping down on his children’s head then what does it

Matter what background what uh what anything about his life or his belief structures I have the ability to help this man uh this person created in God’s image uh and I should do so uh with all haste and with joy in my heart change hearts and Minds a good way to have them

Think differently about you that you just didn’t even ask it just helped and and I just would encourage every brother to adopt that attitude you know and and to to employ it into your life now listen to this neither are you to suffer your Zeal for for the in institution to

Lead you into arguments with those who through ignorance May ridicule it well this is really important for entered apprentices yeah it really is here yep because you are going to be very passionate about the fraternity you just joined and you are full of energy for the fraternity and you when you’re

Become a Mason guarantee you when you start telling people people you wouldn’t suspect are going to tell you that you just joined a cult and that you’re now an evil lizard uh pedophile worshiping whatever whatever I don’t even know what the latest conspiracies are uh but you will

Get that and here’s the thing don’t engage them do not engage don’t it’s not going to be worth your time you’re not going to do anything but feed into their need to talk about this theory that they have they don’t care what you have to

Say and you are going to be zealous this is right it’s so right you’ve been there I’ve been there anybody that’s Apprentice can attest this is going to happen to you uh so do remember not to engage and this is something that people really lament about our fraternity that

There’s so much negative information and nobody goes out and tries to correct them uh I have a feeling they’ve tried that guys yeah and they realize it’s not going to get you anywhere no no it’s a waste of time because uh anybody who would first of all anybody who would

Approach you to tell you that what you you just joined an organ organization and you shouldn’t have and you’re wrong in doing it please quit immediately anybody who would say that to you uh who knows you is is acting out of ignorance anyways why bother they’re not you’re

Not going to change their mind standing there in front of them that’s the first thing uh secondly if you’re an EA and you’re and you’re listening to this and you’re zealous about what you just got into and you’re and you’re you’re pumped and you come across somebody who wants

To tell you that you just joined a cult and eventually they’re going to have you riding a goat uh wearing you know women’s wear whatever it is that’s out there lately um don’t engage them but but if you have if it Sparks questions in your mind or if you have a doubts or

Problems come talk to one of our Elder Statesmen come talk to you know Doug dobs or or WR worshipful heart or or worshipful Burns every district has people every district has a guy in there that you can sit down and say this is what they said about this and and and

You know and it really bothered me well go talk to somebody in the lodge get some information don’t believe everything you hear right away but do your do your research do your homework be diligent to understand what it is that you’ve gotten yourself into look I

Can tell you right now um and I’ll I’ll share a story about it here what happened to me the other day but as you know as as a as an ordained chaplain uh in the Christian faith I I get a lot of I was just up in North Carolina uh with

My family and um you know they at this point they won’t even bring up masonry at all uh but my my brother-in-law did make a little side comment um about it but anyway um don’t ah forget it Rabbit Hole don’t get involved brother okay don’t get involved don’t get

Discouraged uh don’t feel like you have to defend masonry as an EA uh you know with all of your Zeal and Gusto just hey thanks man you know I’m I’m new at it I’ll let you know know how it goes if any of those things that you say are

True well you know you know me I’m not going to I’m not going to continue to do something like that that should be the best way to deal with it as an in Apprentice because you don’t know much right you really don’t you’re not in a position to argue for Freemasonry at

This point I mean you you know enough I’m sure uh to deal with the person you’re talking to but really you have a lot left to learn a lot so don’t it’s not a good point in your Masonic career to become the warrior for Freemasonry with a nonmon

That’s right uh the the thing is once you become a Master Mason you’re going to have so much opportunity to learn where this hateful thought came from in the first place we were at Hillsboro Lodge for uh the Masonic Symposium oh last year yeah that we were asked to

Speak at thank you so much by the way worful Carol Carol shout out we got to get up there sorry but we had an opportunity to go and spend a day learning about Freemasonry and one of the the speakers named Daniel Molina gave a speech about the taxel ho hoax oh

Right yeah had you heard about that before then I had not no no that was quite informative yeah it was really good you got some new information and you learned a little a lot actually about where some of these thinking about Freemasonry came from and how silly it

All is originally now you’re in a position to when it comes up say let me explain to you where you got that from right and you can with confidence because when brother Molina gives a speech he cites all of his references and fact checks everything so it’s very

Nice it’s very nice to have speakers like that in Freemasonry we need more of that we need more education and well we are committed to trying to help with that yeah that’s right as much as we can in our little corner of the world here

Look for more of that from us but go when you see those because it’s an opportunity for you to get really helpful information there was other speakers too that gave really interesting speeches but that one applies to what we’re talking about which is where these thoughts of Masons

Drink blood and they they do you know all these dark rituals because they’re trying to get powers and you know and learn go research the taxel hoax hes yeah for yourself um or come and watch Daniel Molina if you ever see him speaking in the state about that

Particular one and you’re going to learn where a lot of that stuff come from and how silly it is yeah and you’ll be in a better position to argue for the fraternity if you ever have to but as an Entered Apprentice don’t put yourself in that place shouldn’t be something you

Got to worry about you don’t need to be you know defending Freemasonry to anybody you’re still learning so uh just laugh it off that’s the best thing you can do haha yeah goats you’re funny that’s awesome funny yeah as soon as they bring a goat in I’m going to leave

Change the subject don’t engage don’t let them pull you it yeah that’s right okay at your leisure hours that you may improve in in Masonic knowledge you are to converse with well-informed Brethren who will always who will be always as ready to give as you will be to receive

Instruction well there it is right there right this is important um I just got a new EA class that I was doing catechism with last night I have like six people now in my group it’s awesome wow that is I saw them all in there in the in the in

The the stands there uh last night when I walked in I was like dang he’s got a big crowd I just love doing Catechism classes it’s well you’re good at it you get them involved you can see they’re all like really involved they want to be

Involved and it’s fun you make it fun so that’s when you learn you should be fun right that’s it should be fun where was I going with that uh you were go you did it too didn’t you you you zoned I zoned once maybe twice I don’t know yeah so

This is the thing that always comes up people are like oh I can call somebody I’m not going to I’m like no they want you to call they want you to call I’m your instructor but I’m not the only guy in free look here’s Fred’s cell phone number here’s Alberto’s cell phone

Number here is Kevin Smith’s phone number especially with catechism because it only sharpens you you get a brother call hey man can you and hopefully everybody’s got their little red book with them Master Mason out there please have it with you all the time or even

Better keep it in your head and it’ll go in your head the more you do it but that’s what I was saying if somebody calls me well you book and says and says hey can you go over you know this with me I’m like yeah man I definitely can

I’ll take a minute to do that pull the book out and and go through it with a brother it only strengthens you there’s a fear for an iner apprentice that they don’t they don’t even know if they can they don’t know who to call they feel bad if they’re calling somebody uh don’t

This is this is we’re giving you a charge that’s like hey when you’re ready to learn you call cuz they’re always going to be ready to teach always yeah that’s right man maybe I’m busy personally maybe I’m in a meeting or whatever call the next guy yeah you’ll

Find somebody ready if if you want it right right uh if you want it uh you will find it it’s there if you’re an ed Apprentice in the lodge right now we would encourage you you have your instructor’s number to ask him for two or three other names of people that you

Can call in in case he’s busy yeah uh and he’ll give you those numbers and you’ll have plenty of people to help you right yeah for me when I was going through doing proficiency um I would work on it every day and I hope if you’re an EA and and a

Fellowcraft or even getting your get getting making your way to master that you’re working on it every day uh in some small or big way 10 minutes a day is all you really need right I had um shout out to uh my brother Wade Bodkin

And I would call each other every day uh and we’d go back and forth uh you know with the catechism um just teaching ourselves with or without the book depends on how we felt and don’t you look back on those I loved it good time

I miss it I miss my brother Wade Bodkin man we need to get him in here and interview him we do he’s uh very very uh entertaining individual he’s entertaining he’s got a bit of a southern draw too which I I I definitely appreciate oh yeah and a super

Intelligent maybe brilliant guy with just an emotional steadiness like I’ve never seen yeah yeah so kind of person that just makes you feel calm when you’re around them right yeah and we are um at a point now in the show where we will be uh we will be putting together a

Bunch of interviews so that we can we can start pumping those out again um not sure what happened here we kind of went through a little bit a I don’t know maybe an attack from the outside man our jobs just went nutso and uh we had to

Focus on that believe it or not we do this part-time I don’t know if you guys know that or not and we don’t get paid a dime to do this we actually pay to do this but anyways that’s a different story yeah um we pay in many ways yeah

We we started this morning at 6:00 am here recording yes so that we can get to our jobs having left the Lodge at 10:00 a.m. at 10: p.m. last night 10:30 for me yeah so that was bed by midnight got about 5 and a half hours sleep I can

Hear the violins going now the tiny little violins are going everyone really cares about sacrifices no no but I mean that’s what you do for something you love you find time for it the people that say h my cable to I don’t have time okay okay but I know for me if

Something’s important to me I make I make time and I make it and I can tell you this if you if you take the time to to do some of the work and then you get an opportunity to use it in the lodge it’s a great feeling man it’s a great

Feeling of accomplishment of Brotherhood doing that’s the thing that I always say you know about masonry is the cure for for masonry is to do masonry yeah because that’s the ritual work that we do and it says it it says it in the in the Monitor and and

Elsewhere that it seems frivolous it might seem like um you know a play or some kind of you know activity that is that carries no weight I assure you brother brother that is not the case M because it it it does transform us uh into a unit we become a band of brothers

Uh by doing this stuff together I’m on the uh the competition degree team I don’t know how I ended up there I I’m certainly the weakest link of the group but but I find this band of Brotherhood happening where we’re all just doing this together and we’re supporting each

Other and it’s a a common goal um that we have you know to go to this competition and to to bring home the bring home the gold baby you know and we’re all just supporting each other that’s a big part of masonry and if you’re out there listening uh if you’re

Not a Mason and you’re out there listening that’s that’s one of the great things about masonry uh is the fellowship uh and the you know working on things together uh as a group of men uh to better ourselves our our communities our families you know I just

I find that part to be um absolutely exciting you know me too yeah and uh you know you get clear Direction which is why we’re going over this charge together in such detail because it deserves thinking about it uh if you break it apart it’s a road map for how

To behave and how to go through these degrees that’s right okay we’re not going to argue with the outside world now we don’t have to show up to every meeting that they’re going to ask us to no is an okay word to say and look when you’re ready to learn there’s going to

Be people don’t stress about it worry don’t feel bad about it we want the call we spend so much time learning this ritual work and you go out in the world in your life and you can’t talk about it you can’t do it it’s it’s it’s like you

You’re a ritualist wants an opportunity to do ritual right and you don’t get to make those you’ve got to wait for those and so when somebody can call you and ask you about the ritual trust me the brothers want to talk to you they want to talk about this stuff you’re doing

Them a favor by calling them yeah and and and if you don’t get if you don’t get brother one call Brother two if you don’t get brother two call Brother three let let your Zeal uh for Masonic knowledge go go down that road brother you won’t regret it finally keep sacred

And invaluable inviable the mysteries of the order as these are to distinguish you from the rest of the community and Mark your conscience among Masons if in the circle of your acquaintances you find a person desirous of being initiated into the fraternity be particularly careful not to recommend

Him unless you are convinced that he will conform to our rules that the honor glory and reputation of the institution may be firmly established and the World At Large convinced of its good effect the end there’s a couple of important points in very important points section one invaluable in invaluable

Inviable is I’m looking at how to pronounce it inv inviable right it just means never to be broken infringed or Dishonored right so it means keep sacred and don’t ever give up or break your vow the mysteries of the order that’s right the Mysteries are the things that we

Don’t tell the outside world the secrets now and it’s also saying in here that that’s what separates us from everybody else is that we share the same secrets that’s right we and we agree to keep them just between us and that makes us different than everybody else somehow

Now right you know and I know and all Masons know that the secrets we keep to the average person would seem silly uh we’re talking about a grip a word right things that seem silly to the outside world if they actually got the secrets they’d be very disappointed

Because they think our secrets are more like this is how you turn uh you you know copper into gold they think those are the kind of Secrets we’re keeping right unfortunately we’re keeping secrets much sillier than that uh but it’s it’s not silly because they have historical reference and they have

Important like ties to our past yeah that’s right and also it’s just a general test of fraternal Brotherhood is that we all agree no matter how silly the secret is it’s our secret and that’s what we do as brothers that’s what makes us different we agree to keep certain things to ourselves

Um that doesn’t mean that there’s anything nefarious in the secrets so if you’re a Mason keep those secrets you we really really make that a prominent part of of being a Mason is is keeping our traditional secret secret to the outside people that are worried that our secrets are

Nefarious I assure you they’re not Secrets not they are not we are we are attempting we are attempting to make good men better better yes and in the end it is a benefit to to man and Community listen to this as these are to distinguish you from the rest of the

Community and Mark your conscience among Masons you know that’s one of the things that a lot of people say about uh you know my uncle was a Mason and he was just such a good man or I met this one guy um and he was just uh you know he’s

The coach or whatever he was and he was just such a decent human being you hear it and uh all the time and and I found out later that he was a Mason that’s what that’s talking about right here that that it he’s being distinguished from the rest of the community you know

A guy a guy that’s posting all kinds of garbage online about other people’s political views or other people’s lifestyle whatever it is that’s not the mark uh in the community that you as a Mason want to form formulate that is that is an incorrect uh understanding of

What masonry is we’re supposed to be marked by humility um knowledge strength kindness um a a a willingness to help uh a willingness to be you know uh to be part of the solution um you know that’s that’s what is and and there’s there seems to be a

Reservedness to uh to a Mason who understands masonry that we are reserved we don’t just throw it out there um we’re we’re we’re reserved with what we have uh and what we share together and and we we try our best to if somebody’s interested in it we want to test them so

To speak a little bit to see just how interested they are before we give up everything and that’s and that’s what it’s talking about here be particularly careful oh this is a part that really stood out to me right when I was at the end of like I legitimately remember

Feeling impressed when I heard that line because in my mind I was like oh here it comes here comes the hard sell they’re going to tell me if you your to join here’s a petition to join I was like here we go they’re going to sell me and

They like more money more money but no they said be particularly careful and I emphasize this if I ever do the charge and you hear me I know it sticks to recomend them right be particularly careful not to recommend them unless you are convinced that they will conform to

Our rules so don’t recommend somebody that you don’t think is going to be a good fit for not everybody’s ready to be a Freemason at this point in their life I know I wasn’t we’ve talked about this when I tried to join the first time I was right to be

Excluded uh I wasn’t ready in my 20s um it could have helped me greatly but I wasn’t ready to in you know to contribute or commit to it at that point and I’m sure there were times in your life you weren’t ready to be you you wouldn’t have been a good representative

Of yourself to the fraternity no at that point in your life and not everybody is so be particularly careful not to recommend people that aren’t ready for this and at this point in their life and like you just said there are a lot of mechanisms to make sure people really

Want this yeah that’s right we make you uh spend some time slow it down work a little bit like prove that this is something you want in your life right and uh I think that’s a good thing you know we’re not being exclusive there’s nothing about a person that would make

Them not ready for Freemasonry other than what’s in their heart yeah that’s right that’s right not your station in life not how much money you make not the job you have not the color of your skin none of that’s going to matter if you don’t have it in your heart then you

Shouldn’t you shouldn’t join or you shouldn’t recommend that person to join even if your grandpa was in the Illuminati it won’t get you anywhere with us bro it won’t so the the question is I I like that it’s a question answer right uh unless you are convinced that

He will conform to our rules why that the honor glory and reputation of the institution may be firmly established and the World At Large convinced of its good effect listen when you when you when you do things that are contrary to Masonic principles out in the public um you are not honoring uh

You’re not honoring the fraternity no you’re embarrassing it you’re embarrassing the fraternity and you’re embarrassing yourself and and I said it last night I brought this up at the beginning of the show um I told everybody at our meeting last night if if if you’re posting speaking writing about another

Brother in a negative way it’s never right it’s never a good idea it’s it’s not a masonic thing you are violating Masonic laws and principles is what you’re doing even if what you’re saying is true even if what you’re saying you think is true or might even be factually

True it doesn’t matter you’re still violating your obligation because you’re bringing dishonor and and and lack and and and dishonor and and ruining the reputation I don’t know why I’m having a hard time with this ruining the reputation of the institution so here’s the thing Fred has been very clear about

What not to do yes if you’ve been listening to this episode he said it multiple times throughout what not to do what not to do here’s what you should do yes let’s hear that part what you should do if you have any concerns or issues with the brother is go to that brother

Look him in the eye eyes and tell him what you have on your heart and try to do it in a way that’s not insulting or right gentleness infl and respect but definitely tell him as clear as you can what your issue is um now what he does with that is going to

Dictate your next actions right okay you did your job as a Mason that’s the first step always go to the person and talk to them it that can be hard to do because it’s not something we do in our regular life we don’t usually have honest and open difficult conversations with people

Um that we are acquaintance with and it’s really hard if we love them because you don’t want to hurt their feelings you don’t want them to have bad feelings about you you don’t want to them to go around telling everybody you’re the guy that complains whatever uh the thing is

You have an obligation to your brother you need to fulfill the obligation talk to your brother um even if he’s not being Masonic especially if he’s not being Masonic that’s where you need to talk to him talk to your brother if that gets you nowhere if the uh Behavior or whatever

The issue is seems to continue then you keep it within the fraternity and you go to your Junior Warden of your Lodge who as you mentioned earlier the person that you need to go to because he is the chairman of the vigilance committee right and their job is to make sure that

All members of The Lodge are being harmonious and resp respectful and Masonic right so if you’ve tried to deal with it manto man and you’re not getting anywhere you go to your Junior Warden you explain to him the situation and if he’s doing a good job he may ask a

Couple questions of other people involved but he’s going to wind up having a meeting with the three of you and try to mediate the situation and see if he can help you talk to the brother and help you get him to change his behavior sometimes it takes two people

It just does sometimes right people think one guy complaining but when you sit in a room for the purpose of talking about what’s happening it takes on a different level and raises your awareness of the issue and hopefully that will resolve whatever the problem is if it doesn’t resolve the issue the

Junior Warden is the one that should kick it up the line and if he doesn’t then it’s your prerogative to kick it up the line and file Masonic charges if you feel like it’s that bad and it’s not changing right or if your Junior Warden does doesn’t resolve it and you don’t

Feel like it raises to the level of bringing Masonic charges against someone you can go to your District Deputy grandmas correct who’s the representative of The Grandmaster in your district and has the ability to act fix the situation I recommend that you ask the junior Warden to help you go to

The district Deputy right and you know you need to follow these steps um these are the ways that you do it in a respectful Masonic way uh because you’re doing it with the intention of helping the brother he needs to change his behavior he’s hurting himself or he’s hurting the

Fraternity this isn’t about winning an argument this is about helping a brother and bettering a situation and protecting the fraternity and protecting the fraternity we need to make sure that our integrity in the community stays impeccable and we can’t you also said in the beginning that we self- police this

Is what self-government this is M masonry is a form of self-government self-government doesn’t mean you go online and start yelling about stuff that you don’t like nope you you stepped outside of masonry as soon as you do it first letter you’ve typed this is how

You do it talk to the brother talk to the junior Ward that’s right get the junior Ward and help you talk to the district Deputy if you’ve done all those steps things still aren’t changing and it’s hurting the fraternity you my brother are obligated to bring charges

Uh if you can’t get it fixed if nothing is happening then you need to do that because we each as individuals are representatives of the fraternity and we each are the Protectors of the fraternity yeah that’s right but it starts with the notion that you want to

Help somebody that you care about not that you want to see them you know brought to Justice or you want to see them burn up and you see lose with something you want to hurt them like they hurt you that’s a human tendency that’s a human tendency that’s that’s

Vengeance and you’re not good at it alls you can do is hurt them back that’s the that’s all you can do but true divine uh from a Divine standpoint is is to bring healing and betterment to all parties because it’s always wrong it is not good when Brothers do not dwell in harmony

Right how good and how pleasing it is when Brothers dwell in harmony right uh that’s a scripture that we use in masonry a lot um that and that’s what it is God wants us to dwell in harmony he created us originally to be in perfect harmony with each other under him uh and

When we break that uh and we ignore the remedy for it which is humility um and and and the systems that we have in place uh then then we’ve we’ve completely stepped outside of of not only masonry but really just the community of man and I know it’s our tendency I know we’re

Broken uh we’re broken men uh and it’s our tendency but the intention originally was for harmony yeah and masonry seeks to bring about Harmony amongst flawed uh flawed and broken men and to make good men better and to make good men better and how do we do that

How we do it we help them we help them we T them to their face hey what you’re doing isn’t right it’s not Masonic it’s not Masonic here’s the thing that you could do better or different like teach them if you can a better way to do it

Give him other alternative ways to handle whatever the situation is yeah and you’ll win your brother you’ll win his heart uh done correctly if you bring if you bring correction with gentleness and respect to a brother and he listens to you you have won him you have won him

To a better place in his life and in yours and you will be that much closer and the reward for that uh is self-evident I mean you having close Brothers before I came to masonry I was I was a lone wolf man I didn’t have any

Friends um and my wife is the one who just kind of made that comment to me one day you know you don’t have any friends it’s like yeah I do wait no I don’t uh you’re my friend right yeah aren’t you yeah you’re my friend she’s like no I’m your

Wife not your friend I could be your friend but right now I’m your wife uh but um and and what you gain uh is something that’s fundamental to every man and that’s a brother uh and there somebody who can go through the good times and the bad times uh and

Understands you and um has your back uh and has a common purpose with you and in masonry I have found that uh and for that I’m grateful and I know a lot of brothers are shaking their head yes right now out there who have also found

It uh and we need to protect it yeah you know and if there’s it’s our responsibility it’s our responsibility at vigilance no else the price alive that we pay that’s right we are the fraternity right now all of us alive on this planet that are masons and so it’s

Our job that’s right protect it that’s right and grow it and uh use it to become better people more useful citizens since well brother once again another uh another epic episode uh and uh sorry about the Lost episode this is the replacement for the Lost episode

Yeah it was very similar to this so don’t worry it was very similar you got the information that we wanted to go over and we encourage you please um do this in your Lodge if you do education in your Lodge it’s not too hard to pick

Something out of like we just did we covered half of the charge in hour yeah you could pick a paragraph from the charge and cover it in 10 15 minutes right just talk about your thoughts on it and then open it up and see what the

Rest of the lodge has to say about it you’re getting education you’re engaging people everybody’s learning it’s a positive thing yeah that’s right and and as a and and you would be facilitating um a moment of masonic education uh in the lodge together with your brothers um and it just it it that

Can’t be a bad thing man um because we do it all the time Chris and I do it all the time we go to the esoteric discussion group and we throw a concept out there uh to our brothers and really from that point on we just facilitate

Conversation and it just grows on itself and it just Builds on itself and it becomes just a wonderful time uh of brothership of Brotherhood and learning uh that you can’t get anywhere else man you’re not going to get that anywhere else it’s practical understandings for

Living your life in a way uh that is pleasing to God uh and beneficial to your brothers and sisters out there when um when I’m like this Saturday we’re going to have a campfire not a campfire but we’ll have a fire in the backyard and we’ll all sit around it in our

Chairs and we’re all going to many of us will be smoking a stogy and many of us will be Whiskey in my hand uh I’m not I’m not an over Drinker uh but it’s a social setting it’s my house I’m relaxed I’m not driving anywhere I’ll probably

Sip on and whiskey and we’re going to sit and talk about this fraternity that I love and I realized well it’s happening that these are moments in my life I’m going to look back fondly on I I I’m weird like that like I’m actually having the thought while I’m doing it

Like wow I need to be present because this is something I’m I know when I’m an old man if I make it there I’m going to look back at these were the good times in my life and it makes me enjoy that moment even more with my brothers yeah

That’s right you’ll see me at some point sit back in my chair and just have a big smile on my face and that’s what’s going through my mind is I’m appreciating this for what it is uh these kinds of moments are moments that you’re going to make that will be

Very impactful for the rest of your life uh if it’s done properly and you you you can do it all you need is a couple guys to say yeah we’ll try it out and uh if you go uh with a topic in mind doesn’t need to be a big topic no the

Conversation will flow right yeah people will engage yeah they’ll open up especially in the lodge setting when they’re all sitting on the sidelines and you’re standing in front of them bring bringing some kind of you know small little truth a paragra like like Chris said open up that blue book grab a

Paragraph read it first and then read it out loud and just begin just begin to open people up what does it mean yeah how do you take that do you have a different take on this Watch What Happens yeah it’s it’s absolutely amazing and you won’t regret it and if

You do that please uh send us an email and let us know uh how it went and if there’s anything we can do to help Fred onthel Lev withth freden chris.com or Chris at onth level with frand chris.com the longest email address on the internet for a reason I haven’t said

That in a while we should like live stream one of these things I don’t know do you think that would inhibit people from sharing if we if we made it like live on the internet I think we should I think we should get there yes I I think

It’s it looks fun I don’t think we should do it every week we do it once a month maybe once a month we’ll start advertising it guys listen up and uh and then maybe you guys can uh log in while we do a live stream and uh yeah we’ll

Set that up and uh give it a try but maybe like once a quarter maybe we open one up to the public yeah yeah just uh maybe we’ll get Alex Jones to call in and see what he oh boy here we go Alex Jones again sorry brother I I did it anyway

Oh yeah that’d be great if he called in because that brother you know could probably use a little Masonic light in his life I had another situation I listen to a lot of podcasts and um when I when I get into a thing where I want

To I want to learn and and do some be taught some things um I uh I I use the internet especially um uh YouTube uh to educate myself in different ways and I have just a plethora of teachers out there that I go to in certain situ

Situations yes the Illuminati um and um I I study the scriptures a lot like every morning and I’ve been on this track of study lately which is just exciting man I’m a geek so it’s really exciting to me and maybe someday I’ll actually use it to the benefit of others

But right now it’s completely benefiting me um but I I tuned in to um a pastor that I’ve listened to for years um and he was doing a teaching on the subject that I’ve been studying and all of a sudden out of nowhere he blurts out and

Masonry is a cult and it just like I’m I’m driving along listening to it trying to you know get the information I need and this just jumps out at me like I’m pulling over to hear this and um so it sparked me to take I’m leaving the track

The study track I’m on and the study track that I’m picking up is is masonry a cult and how can I formulate and articulate to a person in very clear and simple ways that it is not so this is where I’m going with my study and uh you

Can go to my substack which is uh the compass and the cross on substack and I’ll be I’ll be throwing out some of my ideas and thoughts there feel free to comment uh or to help out in any way you want um on that on that on that it’s uh

The compass and the cross on sub substack docomo that’s that’s where I’m headed now with my insane uh Deep dive uh study uh is it a cult and if not this is my premise and if not not which I don’t think it is then how do I clearly uh and

Succinctly articulate that to somebody who thinks it is now I know we talked about don’t argue with people I’m not talking about arguing and fighting with people over stuff but if you got a guy who’s asking questions about masonry and they think it’s a cult how how can you

Articulate to another person that it isn’t and and in a way that is truthful uh and informational so that’s where I’m headed with that well you have to ask yourself how do you define a cult well because they cult is like a very broad term are we talking really what

The term cult means well what he meant what what Pastor Mark Driscoll meant he just meant it as a derogatory term right like no what he specifically means is the the original definition of a cult is any religious organization uh any organization that calls itself religious but does not hold

To the traditional tenants of the Christian faith so any of Faith other than Christianity corre cult so that was originally kind of a derogatory term for someone that’s not of your faith so now it means a cult or cult um means just anybody who’s into something I don’t

Agree with yeah that’s too broad and the the term cult definitely has a derogatory meaning today to it because uh I mean I watch a lot a lot of documentaries on Cults I’m fascinated by it right but they they’ve reinterpreted that word correct well today in Academia there are some litness

Tests for is something a cult or not uh one of them is a a single charismatic leader that everyone has unwavering Devotion to yeah that would be like a Guyana Jim Jones like Jesus for example uh he’s not Al live person so can you

Call it a cult I don’t think so a cult is like you said Jim Jones this is a man who’s alive and living today who’s telling you he’s the only only way he has all the answers he needs to be listened to without question Freemason doesn’t have a person like that no no

But I do need to just remind you that Christianity believes that Christ is alive just got to say that yes that he is alive it’s a little more cult like that you know Theo Christmas and Easter story you know those from the Christian standpoint me right right yeah about

Christmas being the birth of Jesus and then the res Resurrection from from so I thought Resurrection meant he was raised like you know raised up and he he had a physical presence only to show himself to certain people to no to bolster their faith he showed himself to like a couple

People right I don’t know how we got here but it from a Christian perspective he was born a human being through a human being but Divine so that’s the hypostatic union um and then he lived the life that we could not live he ticked off the church and the church had

The government murder him which was part of God’s divine plan but but he being God uh could not be held by death therefore was raised and is now seated uh and will return against will return again from the place where he is seated so you consider him alive like flesh and

Blood alive uh well no he is here we go well no you said he’s not he is alive and cuz in my mind he Jesus body Christianity he was risen up into heaven where he res his physical body has been transformed into a Heavenly Body as will

All those in the end be raised to the same so not a physical Flesh and Blood person currently no like Jim Jones was when he Jim Jones was right that’s where we how we got here but uh I just wanted to make the comment that um anyway let’s

Move on so another lit Miss test for a cult is they going to separate you from people that aren’t member of that group right they have to they have to they have to to do that because if you are around people who are not part of the

Cult then they could you could find out the truth you could be brought you know the truth from the outside could be brought in like the hail Bob remember the hail Bob start Comet Cult and they all believe that there was a spaceship on the backside of the hail Bob Comet

And they all committed suicide together they castrated themselves after they castrated themselves that would be a modern day explanation of a cult it is because it had a single leader that they all followed and they literally killed themselves on his word on his word right they had to cut themselves off from

Their family and loved on absolutely they didn’t think the way they thought right these are all the litus tests where you say cult cult cult cult right because there’s always like you say there’s always a cult leader but in masonry very charismatic one usually in masonry we have a form of representative

Government from the bottom up right we have a Grandmaster uh most worful uh Glenn Bishop only in our state he only runs our state the rest of the country doesn’t answer to our grand and he does not have the authority to dictate to the individual Mason how they’re supposed to

You know what they’re supposed to do and think and say no we have to approve those changes everything is approved by our leadership and it’s a beautiful system it’s very familiar system we say this all the time it’s a constitutional republic like system of government and

And when it works it’s really great to see our Masonic government at work it really is and I’m so grateful to our the mo most worful Bishop for you know some of the moves he’s made uh to really put us back in an attitude of using Masonic law using the Masonic Traditions to

Benefit masonry and I’m really I really do appreciate I look forward to interviewing him I I did me too I did leave I left him a message the other day oh good no pressure most worthful um and umone petition him to be we’re petitioning yes please sir write your

District deputies and tell them he need we’re in so much trouble now um but yeah hopefully it’s not too late he he he did mention that he’d be willing to do an interview when he’s down in St Pete um at the Masonic lodge and he he

The Masonic Home at the Masonic Home and of course the first lady who’s very passionate about the people who live in the Masonic Home um as well being interviewed so that’s something we’re really looking forward to I hope we can put that together uh share that with you

Guys going forward anyways my cheap shout out to the most we want it to happen it’s going to happen Odessa and Glenn Bishop will be on the show yes it will happen that’s right but what I was saying is you can argue with that person that we don’t exhibit any of the traits

Of a cult no we don’t have a single Dynamic leader nobody’s going to jump off a bridge if their District Deputy tells them to no that’s right as a matter of fact quite the opposite probably not they going to be like bye the thrown off the bridge uh no one’s

Going to do that we not only do we not cut you off from your family and non-believers we invite you to bring them to our events to see who we are and what we’re about and we invite you to make yourself a better man that you would benefit your family and that you

Would be a better husband be a better father be a better you know Community person um overall in your life regardless of your background or where you come from how much money you have uh what you do for a living it doesn’t matter we want to make good men and

Better men yeah uh and preserve the the honor and and dignity uh of our ancient fraternity and the final litmus test for a cult is it has a differing alternative for salvation than traditional religions do um and Freemasonry doesn’t have that no Freemasonry we not a religion way to

Your salvation Freemasonry is not a religion it is not a religion it says it in our do very clearly you’ve already got that when you came to the doors we don’t even let you in unless you got that figured out already you have you can’t be an atheist right um and it it’s

Funny in our in our tradition you know the atheist um is in the same category as the fool and The Libertine yeah so we don’t want people who don’t who are not open to what we would consider the obvious fact of a grand architect because it’s really

Tough to look at this world it’s a core part of Freemason it is absolutely the core part believe in a higher power that’s correct you believe in god let’s say you believe in God is the way it’s worded yeah we can say that because we say it throughout all of our ritual

That’s right somewhere in one of the one of the writings it’s that we hold to the fatherhood of God it says that as as part of masonry and that being just that that that God the great architect is the ultimate Authority uh he is sustainer Creator and ultimate authority over the

Lives of the of a Mason that’s what you’re committing to when you come here we refer to God as a parent many times yeah that’s right y that we are all uh Brothers and Sisters of the same Almighty parent essentially correct uh and you can call whatever you want you

Can worship however you want that’s totally fine but you do need to have like you said some basis of where you think you know your your view on this needs to be firmly established before you come uh or at least Loosely established before you come I I I I

Always look at it like it’s it’s kind of like it’s not the you must affirm um a belief in God that’s the positive the negative is you cannot be an atheist and I think I think it’s more about that um it’s this would be a great discussion

But I think it’s more about that you can’t come to masonry believing in your heart uh that all of this is an accident and that there is there is no Divine um that because that’s what a believe they believe in um natural selection through random variation which is the darwinian

Um the darwinian process um and you can’t be amazing that doesn’t preclude God you can observe that in nature the book of nature teaches you that evolution is real and happens all the time well not darwinian Evolution well yeah I guess you could that the Tre of monkey or

Something the tree of life has been completely debunked by the DNA discover of DNA the Tree of Life yeah the Darwin’s tree of life it’s I know about Darwin’s Tree of Life oh look it up uh it I know everyone knows of Darwin’s theory of evolution well the basis of it

Is the tree of life is is that that that concept he drew a a tree and it it shows all these things but over time in an age of scientific Enlightenment we get more and more information uh into uh the creation that’s my word uh into the

Creation that’s all around us and as time went on we just found it just became untenable to believe uh that things are getting things started from a single cell um and then from there got better and better and stronger and smarter and better and better and better and all

Things are are are as one through random variation and chance that’s not possible based on the actual science it’s just simply not possible so I would encourage everybody to look up uh intelligent design um the discovery Discovery Institute um if you go to if you go do a Google

Search Discovery Institute and look into the concept of intelligent design it fits very well with the m with the concept in masonry um and it’s it’s absolutely brilliant these scientists these these well accomplished scientists and biologists um and and archaeologist and all of these brilliant men and women

Who are looking into okay there’s clearly a mind there’s clearly a design and a mind behind all of this let’s just as scientists go from one hypothesis to the other to the other and find out where it leads and it’s fascinating where they’ve ended up this is one of my

Favorite things about that Freemason re gave me is it opened my eyes up to the there’s the Book of Revelations and the Book of nature yeah that’s right the Book of Revelations isn’t everything okay it’s not uh because there are many books of Revelation but the book of

Nature is a commonality that we all all share yeah General Revelation the more we look at nature through scientific means the better we understand our creator it’s it’s odd to me that people put those things at odds like that by looking at uh you know they come up with

Theories which are just working theories because some of these things are in my opinion never going to be proven Beyond A Reasonable Doubt many things like creation we talk we’ve talked about this on on the car on the way to an esoteric discussion where did it all and you got a scientist

In the talking The Big Bang Theory and you got you talking about the Book of Genesis um and really neither one of you are are can be proven wrong and neither one of you can be proven right well that’s right what everyone in the car could be wrong but not everyone in the

Car could be right so but in there is the conversation you’re not hurting anyone by believing what you believe yeah and I just side note I am not a young Earth creationist just so everybody understands that all right we can go on that is an important thing CU

That’s that’s a tough one to get past yeah I think my my brothers and sisters in the church who still hold on to a young Earth creationism I mean I think they do so out of tradition which it you know it’s not a test for Christianity

You can still be a believer uh you know a Believer and and hold to a young Earth or or a not young Earth uh um Paradigm the only reason being is the first two chap first two chapters of the Book of Genesis were not written to give us a

Date of the earth that’s not what it’s for it it uses the concept of days um as a for for its purpose but not for the purpose of telling us how old the Earth is because we can prove scientifically I’ve said this on the show before there is um SN

1885 uh is a supernova that we’ve been tracking U for for a lot of years and the light signatures from that Supernova that hit the earth are 275,000 years old so that’s empirical proof that’s mathematical proof that that light signature there’s a lot of other caveats

To that to that statement but that light signature uh is in fact 275,000 years old that’s tough to explain there’s much much older light signatures being detected with web telescope now correct but you know here’s there’s two things that I want to make a point of science helps us uncover the truth of

Things uh I don’t think that anyone can argue that it doesn’t help to uncover the truth of things the the true scientific process can correct it can doesn’t always but it can help uncover the truth of things and what is the truth if it’s not the death of a previous

Truth when something becomes true you’re killing the truth of some something that existed before that truth you just I have to think about that for a while yeah it’s deep when you think about that like every truth kills a previous truth so you have to be careful of clinging to things so tightly

That you can’t see a different truth than the one you’ve decided on and science uncovering things that are new it shouldn’t worry you about losing your faith it should get you excited about becoming closer to discovering the truth of God in my opinion yeah all of these scientific discoveries in my mind are

Awakening me to the greater bigger picture of this creation and making it more undeniable that there’s order to it all oh I love that that and that’s absolutely true don’t fear that that the science because it’s just helping uncover truths that are going to bring the real truth out which is you can’t

Deny that there’s really intelligent design behind all of this no you can’t that’s right it’s it’s there um from the smallest uh pre-atomic molecule um to the vastness of the Universe um there’s absolutely no way that this fi this this Fireball surrounded by water that’s traveling 27,000 miles per second around the Sun

Uh at the same at the same 23.78 pitch to the sun move it one degree and everyone dies there’s no possible way this happened by accident that’s just simply not possible blow it up and at the scale that we’re now looking at we’re so microscopic and fintess small or very special or extremely

Special more reason to protect what we have AB more reason if that’s what you think we’re unique in the only life in the universe well I don’t think we’re the only life in the universe but we certainly are unique in our universe protect it then this is really important

Imagine if we snuffed ourselves out of the universe and the only special thing like ourselves went out and we did it to ourselves come on that’s a shame well well if we believe in a sovereign Divine being I don’t think he’s going to let that happen but I think you’re right I

Hope you’re right yeah and we certainly are trying to destroy ourselves in many different way we are and and if we keep it up it’s in our jeans we’ve never been closer we’ve never been closer to absolutely destroying ourselves and it’s all for what greed uh for money greed

And power and it’s always that way you know but I do believe that there is divine intervention and uh in the end if God is who he says he is and the universe is as big as we know it is then he’s already got a plan he has to he’s

Way more advanced than we are he already has a plan and we’re not thwarting that plan we’re not upsetting the plan of a being that has to be that powerful we’re not here’s the risk in my mind of letting yourself go too far down that thinking is if you think that the

Almighty Creator is going to take care of you you might not act in a way that you need to to make that happen in reality because uh I think all books of Revelation say that God works through us right like we have to act uh while we’re

Here to protect ourselves and we have to act justly yeah and and we have to pursue truth um it doesn’t come natural to us right our natural proclivity is to grab everything for ourselves and hold on to everything for ourselves and and step over you to get to what I need even

If it’s a noble purpose but what what we’re told in Revelation is that we are to we are to learn how to be good kind gentle generous self-controlled uh to protect the innocent to provide for others that’s what we have to learn to do and then

You’re a vessel of God then you’re a vessel of God God’s will on the Sur not only that you you are you are exerting his his Tendencies his personality you’re living the personality he is gracious he is generous he is kind forgiving he is forgiving when you do

These things in your life you are very close to walking in a way uh that he walked you know and that’s uh that’s that’s the highest calling of man uh in my opinion all right brother we are at an hour and 35 minutes wow right I think

This has been a really great show um Got Deep on there we did Apprentice charge right yeah so where you can go when you talk about this stuff I know right yeah get out there and do it get out there and do it Brothers um I don’t know where

We’re going next uh we’ll think that through we’ll have something I’m sure there are two more charges we could dig there are two more charges and again if you’re a if you’re an EA uh and you find out that the show is about the uh uh the Master Mason

Charge um you know it’s up to you you could you could go on to um the grand LOD website and read it for yourself if you choose not to because you want to experience it for the first time in Lodge there’s nothing wrong with that

Brother I I I applaud you for it um but it is not it’s not mandatory some people want to know to enhance you know what they’re experiencing some people don’t to enhance what they’re experiencing that’s the beauty of Freemasonry rock it the way you want to rock it we’re not

Going to give away any of the secrets of the ritual no sir you’re you’re still going to be surprised never have never will that’s right that’s but the charges are more about like the way we’re supposed to behave in our different phases of masonry that’s right oh yeah here comes the okay it’s

Like when the guy’s giving a speech on the Oscar stage and the music comes on yeah except I don’t know if the music’s coming on so we’ll see if not we’ll have to edit it in which is not a problem Chris has done that many times I

Appreciate uh you taking time I know you’re busy and I’m busy yeah we’re busy but I appreciate you doing this and me too brother going back over this it’s always a great time always worth every minute of my time absolutely man I love doing this we will always do this next

Year when you are no longer uh the worshipful master uh of our lodge we are going to blow this thing up man we are going to take it to the next level I am very much looking forward to that me too and I’m very much looking forward to uh

Talking to and with you guys uh on the next broadcast uh and um I don’t know what we’re going to do but it’s going to be great great uh because it always is and if you’ve listened to the end uh you you’re our hero man we really appreciate

You send us an email man let us know what you think let us know what direction we got to go in if you have a great Masonic lecture or idea that you want to present get in touch with us we’re looking for people absolutely that have something interesting to share in

Masonry and are willing to come to uh an education in person it absolutely absolutely got it all right brother until next time I will uh I will talk to You

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