Jim Tresner, 33°, Grand Cross
P.O. Box 1019, Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044-1019

A halogen desk lamp and candle may well represent both the perplexity of and an answer to the issue of change in Masonry.

In the April/May 2002 issue of the Mensa Bulletin,* Chairman Jean K. Becker has a column which reads, in part: "As a member of the American Mensa Committee and International Board of Directors, I am often asked to approve changes. You might posit that being intelligent increases the chances that one will be an 'early adapter.' ...However, just as we are talented in seeing many possible new ways of doing things, we are also quite skilled in generating reasons for not changing.

"It is also said that nobody likes change except a wet baby. My natural inclination is, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'... [But] these days, if you aren't moving, you can't even hold still. We must develop and change. Talking about returning Mensa to 'the good old days' is neither reasonable nor desirable in today's world."

Obviously, Mensa is in the same boat as so many Masonic organizations. It's a crowded boat.

Generally, when it comes to change, I enjoy it about as much as my cat does. Like all critters, we humans have a general ambivalence. Most of us enjoy the change of the seasons. We like watching spring arrive and the subtle shifting of summer into fall. Most of us approve of the changes in medical technology, even if we are uncomfortable about some of the ethical questions which arise. Most of us enjoy, or at least take advantage of, the changes in communications technology, albeit I would far rather read from a book in my hand than from a computer screen. But I do that reading by aid of a halogen desk lamp, not by a candle.

Actually, that halogen desk lamp and candle may well represent both the perplexity of and an answer to the issue of change. It's important to find an answer because the issues of change are causing real and genuine distress to many Brethren, including me. There is a good desk lamp on the table at which I do most of my reading. But there is a candle on that table as well.

For reading, I turn on the lamp; but when I want to think about what I have read, or when I want to talk with friends in my study, I turn off the lamp and light the candle. Both contemplation and conversation go better with the living light of the candle's flame.

How to have both? That's the problem.

If I had my "druthers," we would confer the Degrees of the Masonry-Blue Lodge and Scottish Rite-on one Candidate at a time, each Degree focused on him as the center of attention. We could then make the Degrees more nearly the mind-altering, soul-shifting experiences they are intended to be.

We would offer discussion groups before and after each Degree, to explore in depth the symbols, the issues, the ethical lessons and the moral assumptions of the Degree, and show the Candidate how to use that information in daily life.

We would never apologize to the world in thought, word, or deed, for what we are, what we do, or what we represent. We are the oldest, largest, most prestigious fraternity in the world, older and more honorable than almost any government on earth. We are an elite organization for men, teaching the lessons we consider important in the ways we consider effective, and, as the Ill. Rev. Forrest D. Haggard, 33°, Grand Cross, once said, speaking on the same topic, "If others don't like that, they can go to the devil."

But I don't have my "druthers," and, outside of the world I create for myself, I am not likely to have them.

So how do we use both the halogen desk lamp and the candle? How do we adapt without losing what we consider essential? (And for that matter, how on earth are any three Freemasons going to agree on what is essential?)

First as to multiple conferrals, Grand Master's classes, or by whatever name you call them: Yes, I would rather do the Degrees of all the branches of Masonry one-on-one. But the reason is that I want the Candidate to have the maximum impact from the experience. So which is more likely to provide that impact-being part of a class of a thousand Candidates, watching a Degree well performed, by men who not only know the words but the MEANINGS of the words, with all the emotional impact which good staging, lighting and sound can add, with a solid 30 minutes to one hour of Masonic education before and/or after each Degree-or, as is true in some Lodges, a Degree performed by men who used to know the work, being constantly corrected during the Degree by shouted words from the sidelines, with the ritual delivered in a flat and toneless manner, and no education except for the teaching of the categorical lectures?

Which would I rather experience? Which would you?

It is obvious that the special classes work, if they are well done. I've heard the caviling, and I am sure you have, too. "They ain't REAL Masons!" "They won't learn the ritual and serve in offices or come to Lodge!" "They go suspended." "They aren't really committed!" Or, and this is nearly unforgivable in a fraternity, "By gum, I had to suffer through it, and they should, too."

I always want to ask those who raise that last objection if they want to go without anesthesia the next time they have surgery, just because it used to be done that way. As to the other objections, let me quote from the research reported by Past Grand Master of Oklahoma M.W. Robert T. Shipe, 33°, in his Grand Master's Address to the Grand Lodge.

"In my study of the listing of the Masons who joined in the '97 and '99 classes, I found some surprising facts! Of the 2,863 men, 91% (2,609) were still active as of August 2001. [Only] 174 or 6% went SNPD, 2% (67) had died, 12 withdrew, and 1 had been suspended for unMasonic conduct. Of the 2,609 remaining, 298 were Lodge Officers (11.4%). We had 12 Past Masters, 20 Worshipful Masters, 32 Senior Wardens, 41 Junior Wardens, 6 Secretaries, and 13 Treasurers for a total of 124 elected Officers. And there were 174 appointed Officers with 29 Senior Deacons, 51 Junior Deacons, 23 Senior Stewards, 40 Junior Stewards, 20 Tylers, and 11 Chaplains. [A total of] 140 Lodges (54%) were benefiting from the participating of these Brethren as Officers."

In other words, the Brethren who joined in the multiple-conferral Classes had a lower suspension rate, a higher participation rate, and a better attendance record then the typical men who joined in the traditional manner.

When I am reading at my desk, the important material is that written in the book. The material is the same, whether I read it by the halogen lamp or by the candle. I learn just as much one way as the other. But there is a difference in eyestrain, a difference in how long I can read without becoming tired, and a difference in the pleasure/pain ratio. The choice isn't between "going modern and losing Masonry" and "being traditional and keeping Masonry."

Masonry is kept when men care, really care, about the Candidate and what he learns and experiences, whether that is one-on-one or in a Class of a thousand. It is lost when the point of a Degree, in either type of Class, becomes the ego of those doing the ritual and not the benefit of those experiencing the Degree.

We can have both the clarity of the halogen lamp and the warmth of the candle's light. We just have to be smart enough to do it well. It truly is the same in Masonry.

*Mensa is an international organization whose only requirement is that the member be in the top 2% intelligence level as measured on a standardized IQ test.

Jim Tresner is Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute and Editor of The Oklahoma Mason. A frequent contributor to the Scottish Rite Journal and its book review editor, Ill. Bro. Tresner is also a volunteer writer for The Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason and a video script consultant for the National Masonic Renewal Committee. He is the Director of the Thirty-third Degree Conferral Team and Director of Work at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as well as a Life Member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, author of Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument, and Vested in Glory. A member of the steering committee of the Masonic Information Center, Ill. Tresner was awarded the Grand Cross, the Scottish Rite's highest honor, during the Supreme Council's October 1997 Biennial Session.