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Women Freemasons

Should women be allowed to become Freemasons?

  • Yes

    Votes: 21 8.7%
  • No

    Votes: 205 85.1%
  • Doesn't matter either way

    Votes: 15 6.2%

  • Total voters
    241

tbone1321

Premium Member
I don't understand why we should try to change what has been in place hundreds of years why are we conforming masonry to ourselves rather than conforming ourselves to masonry
 

Frater Cliff Porter

Premium Member
I don't understand why we should try to change what has been in place hundreds of years why are we conforming masonry to ourselves rather than conforming ourselves to masonry

I happen to like my lodge the way it is, but Masonry has radically changed over the years. We tend to believe or convince ourselves that Masonry is the Masonry we know and this simply isn't true.

The Masonry of our forefathers would be hardly recognizable right now.

Masonry is supposed to change and will. It is progressive and needs to be, the day it fails to progress and remain relevent...it will die. In the places that refuse to change period (usually out of fear or ignorance or both) Masonry is dying.

In fact, it is funny, but some of the more "radical" changes brothers seek today are more about returning the Craft to its tradtions....and breaking down artificial "traditions" implemented during the glory days of American Fraternalism.
 

Mike Cameron

Registered User
Progressive change in some areas is great. With this I fervently agree. However, Freemasonry is the oldest FRATERNAL order in existence. "Fraternal" being the key word. Evolving to remain relevant is good. Changing the fundamentals of our organization is losing our identity. Call me a purist but I believe in keeping our craft ANCIENT,FREE, And ACCEPTED, not modern, open, and accepting. We are free to have a fraternal brotherhood. Why would we give up any freedom we have? "Fraternally"

I have edited this post because my use of the words Ancient, And Modern may be misunderstood. I meant no coronation between them and the terms Ancient, and Modern in regards to the first lodges in Europe. I simply meant that our fundamentals should not change due to pressure from today's society.
 
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tbone1321

Premium Member
I just don't understand conforming to anyone Masonry has always been a fraternity and why do we need Women in this because some men can't have there own time without a wife or girlfreind telling them that they can't be apart of it if they don't accept women.
 
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Mike Cameron

Registered User
I have actually seen that happen. I regret that it does. My girlfriend / fiancé is very respectful in this regard. She also is considering OES after we are married. I am blessed.
 

cemab4y

Premium Member
This is an interesting thread. The fact is there are women Freemasons. There have been women Freemasons for many years. Their lodges are not recognized, so they are considered "clandestine and irregular", but they are Masons notwithstanding. See http://www.co-masonry.org
 

MikeMay

Premium Member
Walking like a duck, quacking like a duck does not make one a duck...nor does being in a unrecognized and clandestine lodge make anyone (man or woman) a mason. True these women have there own website and organization...okay, but that doesn't bring legitimacy to their effort to infiltrate our "FRATERNITY".

I realize some people think it is okay to call them masons, I do not. (that's my opinion, and anyone is free to disagree)
 

BEDickey

Premium Member
Imho

In my honest opinion, I feel there should be an Order just for women, just as Accepted Freemasonry is male only. I think the ideas presented in our Craft are truly universal, but the lessons themselves have been developed by men, for men, and is in many ways a way for men to bond on a level rarely seen outside the Lodge. I believe the future will hold such an Order and maybe even one day the 2 will become 2 halves of one amazing enlightening whole that will help the world itself come to the Light of our true reasons of being.
 

BEDickey

Premium Member
actually

Actually, it does not, only a woman who has a relationship to a Freemason may belong to the OOES. I'm talking about an independent order that accepts woman, who don't need a Freemason in there life to join. The Weavers in Europe are a better example. An Order they can join of there own freewill. OOES did start with the right idea, a female branch of Freemasonry, but the opposition was to great at the time, and it was morphed into what it is today., a co-ed group rather then a female branch of Freemasonry.
 
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thor9541

Registered User
No way!

I don't think so. Women don't really want to be freemasons, they just want somehow to be equal to men. This is a feminist idea I'd vote it down everytime. OES will do just fine. I have even heard there is a lodge in south Florida with a woman WM of course this is an international lodge but still I remeber my obligation that I swore to uphold .
 

BEDickey

Premium Member
sorry

Let me preface this by saying I am in no way racist, and mean no disrespect in this post but feel I must speak on it.

I find it a bit odd that a man of color is using the excuse that " they don't really want to be Freemasons, just equal to men" when the same exact thing could be said, and no doubt has been said to keep people of color out of "mainstream" Freemasonry. Who are we to say such things? I will agree freemasonry itself is a mans organization , but that does not mean that women do not wish for a group of their own. The creator made us all equal, men and women of every color and shape. Being equal do they not deserve a chance to learn similar ideas to what Masonic education provides, with out having to go threw man to get it?
 

thor9541

Registered User
Not so!

Sir ,God never made man and women equal pick up any Holy book of scripture and share that with me.
 

BEDickey

Premium Member
well...

Brother, I can pick up a Holy book and show you stuff you never even knew was there, and probably wouldn't believe it even with it right in front of you. I myself understand scripture in a different way. But here is not the place, feel free to private message though and we can go into it deeper if you wish, or start a new thread in the appropriate forum. What I will say is that I believe thinking any person is not equal with any other person has led to the sanctioned murder of countless men and women of differing faiths, and currently causes suppression across the world even to this day. Thus I would agree that women should not join Freemasonry, I believe a separate order of there own would be appropriate.
 
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Mac

Moderator
Premium Member
Re: Not so!

Sir ,God never made man and women equal pick up any Holy book of scripture and share that with me.
And this, my brother, shows how diverse our fraternity can be.

Sitting in my professional classroom setting, I have no doubt that my female classmates are my equal. After we graduate and serve the community and hospital settings as pharmacists, I know they will be just as well prepared and competent as I am. The thought that they are somehow innately lesser beings has never once crossed my mind. But I understand your view, and though I disagree with it, I respect it.
 

dconaway

Registered User
Freemason women

I would leave the brotherhood if women were to be allowed in like the Elks lodges have done
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
Re: Not so!

Originally Posted by thor9541
Sir ,God never made man and women equal pick up any Holy book of scripture and share that with me.
And this, my brother, shows how diverse our fraternity can be.

Sitting in my professional classroom setting, I have no doubt that my female classmates are my equal. After we graduate and serve the community and hospital settings as pharmacists, I know they will be just as well prepared and competent as I am. The thought that they are somehow innately lesser beings has never once crossed my mind. But I understand your view, and though I disagree with it, I respect it.

I'd just like to be able to keep up with a few of those members of the other gender in the work place. As it is, I just try to get out of the way.

:13:
 
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RedTemplar

Johnny Joe Combs
Premium Member
I may be wrong, but maybe the term "equal" is not appropriate in this case. When I was a boy, my friends and I would sometimes start a club of some kind. One of the first rules that was agreed upon by everyone was "No girls allowed". Even then we recognized there were differences in male and female. Later in life we found out that could be a good thing. However good these differences may be, we do not need to share them in a FRATERNITY. Just like little boys, big boys need space sometimes, too. And it has nothing to do with equality.
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
Even then we recognized there were differences in male and female. Later in life we found out that could be a good thing. However good these differences may be, we do not need to share them in a FRATERNITY.


So Mote it Be. And too, who wants to belong to some FRA-ority?


:001_rolleyes:
 
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