I seem to recall, ages ago, my dad saying something about African-Americans not being admitted into the regular old F&AM due to a rather dubious interprestation of the requirement of being “free” having to do with slavery. And that there were separate-but-equal lodges (Prince George?) for blacks. Is/was there any truth to this?
Prince Hall was a black guy, made a Mason in Boston back in the late 1700s. Masonry doesn’t descrimitate, but unfortunately some Masons do, and “Prince Hall Masonry” was born. A Prince Hall Lodge is predominantly made up of Black guys. One of the Brothers at my Lodge also happens to be a Prince Hall Mason.
Being black doesn’t mean you have to join a Prince Hall Lodge, though. Many or most Masonic Lodges are community-based, but there are also “themed membership” Lodges as well. Boston College Alumni Lodge (self-explanatory), Prince Hall (explained above) and Daylight Lodge (meets on weekday mornings instead of evenings) are just a few examples.
No. Nothing like that. For one thing, you don’t need to be Christian - just believe in a god. We did chat for a while about me being raised Catholic, but it wasn’t an inquisition or anything. Ultimately, for me, my response was (and is), that most organized religions are representative and that the symbolism associated with Freemasonry is appealing to me; the recognition that we accept as symbolic makes it more valid to me.
There’s really no way to verify one’s faith… but you do take what I’ll call an “oath” (not the word we use). If one were to be a straight-up liar on this point, it would become apparent pretty quickly. And, of course, there are penalties (mostly symbolic).
Hmmm… where I’m from, atheism would definitely disqualify you. It’s actually amusing during the preliminary chats because folks have become so sensitive to asking about religion. So it’s kind of like, “Ummm… we have to ask this. You know belief in a deity is a requirement right? Do you have a problem with that? If so, there are other organizations out there that aren’t Masonic, but… ummm… y’know, they’re not Masonic…” To which I kind of laughed and just pointed out that I was an altar boy, went to Catholic school (and yes, the Catholic Church is now okay with Freemasons - it just took a while for us to get along), etc.
I find it interesting how different the different Grand Lodges can be. Very much a parallel of the structure of the US government (more as outlined under the Articles of Confederation, but still).
In my Lodge, you can take your obligation on whatever (religious) book you like, but we still call it the Bible. And you must refer to the correct Saints (which isn’t really a religion thing - it’s a tribute to the character of those Saints). There are most definitely strong Christian overtones to the whole thing, but the Brothers I’ve encountered of different faiths don’t take issue with it. It’s not Jesus worship; it’s more like god-acknowledgement being used to cement our mutual commitments to ourselves, our countries, and our faiths.
That said, if you decided to swear in on something like the Satanic Bible or something, we’d probably tell yourself to take a hike. But Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and many others are perfectly acceptable and respected. To repeat what I think was mentioned earlier - we don’t discuss religion (beyond “I was raised Methodist,” or whatever). It’s a factor in our rituals, but we don’t debate. There is a very strong emphasis placed upon not creating disharmony in the Lodge.
It is a Masonic reference, but it’s not Kipling. It’s from a movie version. [At a different point in the story] Kipling was both more and less obscure:
… but he went on to clarify that by writing:
– and then writing a story featuring the use/abuse of Masonic ritual.
“Hiram Abiff”, the Widows Son, is a symbolic archtype in a Masonic teaching tale. Masons are encouraged to emulate his qualities: that is, fraternal, reliable, honest etc.