Just a small comment before the discussion begins.
Sure wish there were some way folks would pay attention to the vows they take after each degree. That alone would clear things up for the thinking man.
That is exactly my point, about which I am
quite serious. If the need exists for a Masonic bill of rights; a document defining fundamental principles of justice, of right and wrong, then we are already lost.
To be sure, there are many, many examples of injustice done by one Mason, or group of Masons, to another. And Bill is quite right that
most of those protections probably exist in any given GL's constitutions and laws. That does not seem to have helped in the case of the GL of West Virginia's disgraceful treatment of one of their Past Grand Masters, or the many Masons for whom that individual sought simple justice.
That any collection of Masonic law should want for additional words like "...
make any negative reference or take any negative action in regard to a petitioner's or member's faith, creed or race at any time...", speaks to me of a frightening degree of confusion in the temple. Maybe resolutions like that are a necessary part of "the way back" from the dark place that Freemasonry has found itself. Oh yes,
dark. When I hear with my own ears one Mason refer contemptuosly to another member of his Lodge, (one who doesn't practice the "proper" religion, apparently) as a "devil worshiper", when I see Grand Lodge resolutions introduced that are clear and unabashed attempts to advance the status of one religion in Lodge, at the expense of others, when I see Masons on this very forum attempt to advance the line of reason that his Brother Masons should be excluded from Lodge for observing the strictures of their faith, or that their
own religious strictures can be rightly applied to all others, then yes, I am forced to admit that a tool of law is in order. Certainly, we should not be above wielding any of our tools as the work dictates, but that we've allowed ourselves to become so distracted, so confused, that simply doing the right thing for our own Brothers has become such a challenge that the tools with which we should be
most proficient are inadequate is a very sorry state of affairs.
But a discussion about confusion and darkness is one for another thread. So what "rights", which are not already codified, must we put down in writing so that those in need might be guided by them?