GROWTH THROUGH CHALLENGE: THE PURPOSE OF MASONRY EXPOSED

Why did we soften masonry?  Why did we rewrite Aesopes fables, removing the harshnessof life from lessons?  Why did we use propaganda to ensure public awareness was controlled? Cynicism. We would do this if we had a low opinion of people. We would dumb down lessons, to ensure the destination is achieved without need to prove ability to understand. We would begin to contradict notions of competence, with a corrupt politik to maintain as much control and influence as possible to soften accountability.  Why? Because unchallenged, we replace competent leadership with politics.  What if, the development of character in Masonry required mastery of a series of tasks, and proof of that mastery to the mentors and lodge? What if we removed the test by inserting an equivalency. If a man gives his word to undertake the tasks, he is elevated to a status beyond proving his sincerity or ability.  For generations, ethics and challenges have been soften. My guess is that it became important to prosthelytize and easier to convert men to the Order by removing the work.  The risk has been pushed forward for future generations to pay the price. Today, we are that future generation and today, we are paying the price.  What risk? This modification put the Craft at risk of irrelevancy.  Thankfully the risk is not universal. Thankfully there remain, pockets of enduring commitment to the work. Intelligent men who have come to the door looking for their challenges have been disappointed that their merit would never be tested. And they lost interest.  The atmosphere created in the literature of Freemasonry became corrupted as easy became the byeword.  Lodges no longer became galleries of higher highest education. Chests full of symbols were cloaked. Even scholarship was replaced with mundane business as discusses of receipts and purchases became the first point of business brought into the sanctum sanctorum.