Ever wondered what it's like to be part of one of the world's oldest and most mysterious fraternities? Buckle up and immerse yourself in our journey to unlock the enigma of Freemasonry. We kick off with drawing back the curtains on the Master Mason Association and dive deep into the significance of Freemasonry. We'll take you through a whirlwind of our lively District Fundraiser and share anecdotes from our adventures in North Carolina and Miami.
Ready yourself for a stimulating debate as we dissect the left versus right narrative and underline the importance of embracing diverse lifestyles in our evolving nation. We'll debunk some of the widely held myths about Freemasonry while illuminating the essence of Masonic brotherhood and secrets. Soak up insights on managing issues within the fraternity and the transformative impact it can have on an individual's life.
As we circle towards the end, we venture into the seldom-explored interplay of faith, science, and Freemasonry, and discuss how to foster future growth in lodge planning. We'll throw light on the significance of Masonic education and the role of Masonic rituals. From discussing the aftereffects of civil war on our communities to presenting Masonic values, we leave no stone unturned. Come, join us in our enlightening conversation on this age-old fraternity and its modern-day implications.
#freemasonry #bluelodge #enteredapprentice #podcast
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Email us directly!
Ever wondered what it's like to be part of one of the world's oldest and most mysterious fraternities? Buckle up and immerse yourself in our journey to unlock the enigma of Freemasonry. We kick off with drawing back the curtains on the Master Mason Association and dive deep into the significance of Freemasonry. We'll take you through a whirlwind of our lively District Fundraiser and share anecdotes from our adventures in North Carolina and Miami.
Ready yourself for a stimulating debate as we dissect the left versus right narrative and underline the importance of embracing diverse lifestyles in our evolving nation. We'll debunk some of the widely held myths about Freemasonry while illuminating the essence of Masonic brotherhood and secrets. Soak up insights on managing issues within the fraternity and the transformative impact it can have on an individual's life.
As we circle towards the end, we venture into the seldom-explored interplay of faith, science, and Freemasonry, and discuss how to foster future growth in lodge planning. We'll throw light on the significance of Masonic education and the role of Masonic rituals. From discussing the aftereffects of civil war on our communities to presenting Masonic values, we leave no stone unturned. Come, join us in our enlightening conversation on this age-old fraternity and its modern-day implications.
#freemasonry #bluelodge #enteredapprentice #podcast
Connect with us on:
Email us directly!
Hey, chris, yeah Fred.
Speaker 2:What's a Mason?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question, fred.
Speaker 2:You've reached the internet's home for all things masonry. Join Chris and I as we plumb the depths of our ancient craft, from the common gavel to the trowel. Nothing is off the table, so grab your tools and let's get to work. This is On the Level Ay-ya-ya, I think we got stuck in a time vortex. I'm pretty sure we did. I think we missed a week. Did we miss a week?
Speaker 1:I don't know if anyone missed us, but we did miss a week.
Speaker 2:We missed a week, man, how does that?
Speaker 1:happen. You're a busy man now that you're a celebrity.
Speaker 2:Oh, is that what it is?
Speaker 1:I think, you were doing something with the fans.
Speaker 2:Where were you?
Speaker 1:I haven't seen you in ages. No, that was last week.
Speaker 2:I was in North Carolina and enjoying myself immensely with my youngest son and his new bride Up there. He just bought a house and did a bunch of cool stuff, so went up there to hang out with the boy and, yeah, it was a good time. Man, I love North Carolina. Man, I love it. I'd live there. I have obligations here to take care of my mother and my in-laws so we're the kind of their health surrogates so we can't leave. But if I could leave I would leave, make no mistake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would too. I think we live in a very interesting place in Sarasota, florida. It just keeps getting busier and busier here. Hard to drive hard to park, hard to get into a restaurant.
Speaker 2:It's going to be Orlando. I say it all the time and people from Orlando are like what. What's wrong with Orlando? Orlando is the most crowded place on the planet. That's what's wrong with it.
Speaker 1:Or Miami, you could say the same thing about Miami, but we kind of like Miami. I like to visit Miami. I would never live there. No.
Speaker 2:Even though we live here in Sarasota. I would be a fan of flying into Miami, enjoying myself, and flying back to Sarasota, because driving into Miami is not fun.
Speaker 1:You're right, it's better than driving to the keys, where you can't stop once you start.
Speaker 2:Depends on what you're driving, bro. When I roar down there with my brothers on our Harleys, it's a good drive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, baby, I shouldn't try to huff it on my huffy. No, no, don't do that.
Speaker 2:No. Shout out to Bob Bob's listening.
Speaker 1:Bob would do it. Yeah, bob would do it, no problem. He's like, yeah, I'm going to start in Russia and I'm going to drive my bike down to the keys.
Speaker 2:That's right yeah.
Speaker 1:You could drive on water. Yes, he probably can.
Speaker 2:He can drive on water.
Speaker 1:Ride on water. That is correct. I guess you don't drive a bike.
Speaker 2:You ride a bike. You ride a bike, that's right. So what's been going on, man with you? What's the latest?
Speaker 1:The latest, I don't know. I'm just trying to get through this here, trying to get to the end.
Speaker 2:Trying to get to the end. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1:We did a big cornhole tournament for our district fundraiser, which was awesome. We raised a little bit more money than we thought we would, that's about $3,500.
Speaker 2:Not bad.
Speaker 1:Not too bad.
Speaker 2:Not bad at all, and this was money that was from outside lodge. In other words, these were non-mesons that came in for the cornhole tournament.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to be annoyed that none of the people from our district came to our district fundraiser. I mean, that was more than slightly annoyed initially, and then I realized, hey, this is actually a good thing, because we showed that you can raise money from tapping the outside public and not have to keep asking masons for money over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, that's what I always call the spaghetti dinner syndrome. We have a spaghetti dinner and fish fry, and the only people who come and pay for a plate are the people who are in the lodge that we're trying to raise money for in the first place.
Speaker 1:Exactly, we're taking money from people to give it back to them. It's the epitome of a hidden tax. We are charitable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so good on you guys. Man, I could not be there. Like I said, I was in North Carolina, but it went well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had lots of people show up from outside and some became interested in the fraternity, definitely interested in joining the shrine, so they got to get through us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they got to get through us to get to there Either way, that's a bonus for Freemasonry.
Speaker 1:There was quite a few people interested.
Speaker 2:And the Master Mason Association picked up about $3,500 for the coffers, which is important for that important organization. Hello, is this thing on Everybody? Yes it's on. It's on Support your local Master Mason Association.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the best way you can support them is to show up once in a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Especially if you're a warden or a master.
Speaker 2:Correct, definitely should be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but most of the lodge secretaries need to be there too, and the treasurers, let's be honest, let's be honest. Everyone should be there. It should be there.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the only place where you can get every lodge in your district together to coordinate. There's no other vehicle for doing this. So it's super important that a representative from every lodge be there every week. If not, like you just said, Chris, a majority of the officers should be there and participate, and it's fun. It's fun and the School of Education afterwards, where we all get together and get to hear.
Speaker 1:I've learned not all, not everybody does that. I guess we're one of the few that do that.
Speaker 2:But he's right.
Speaker 1:After our Master Mason Association meeting our district instructor hosts everybody. Hopefully that was there to learn some kind of esoteric ritual work after that, and he does that for about an hour.
Speaker 2:And it's called Florida Work, not Lodge Work.
Speaker 1:Shout out to him, I actually teach Florida Work and it's so funny because you see the same people time after time. After he teaches them Florida Work, they raise their hand. Excuse me, I would just like to say I wasn't taught this way. It's like we know. That's why we're here. None of us were taught this way. That's why we're here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny. Justin brought up a couple of things that nobody wanted to hear, and good on him for doing it. What was it? Oh, applause after the.
Speaker 1:Some of these are hard to implement Right.
Speaker 2:You're not supposed to applaud after the lecture.
Speaker 1:Or the charge, or the charge really Really anything Right?
Speaker 2:And it's so it's customary. I guess it's customary. It just feels like you're supposed to. There's that moment when the charge is done and then they start walking back and you just feel like it's an automatic reflex.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like you just feel like you need to be applauding, you know, but you're not supposed to, and I guess it just holds to the solemnness of it. Yes, and everybody gets to reflect a little bit on what just took place. What was the other thing that? Oh, he was saying something else that we're not supposed to do, or every lodge in Florida does, and you're actually not supposed to do it, and I don't think it has anything to do with wearing sandals, I don't know.
Speaker 1:No, we can do that. We can wear sandals on our head if we want, and that was just a little dig to our past.
Speaker 2:Grandmaster, aw, no A man we love and respect big time.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, he tried to level us up and we wouldn't have it.
Speaker 2:We wouldn't have it. Excuse me sir.
Speaker 1:Where are my flip-flops to lodge?
Speaker 2:With my socks, no, or without.
Speaker 1:I guess you can wear without now.
Speaker 2:Apparently so, yes, so anyways. Rabbit trail there.
Speaker 1:So there was one other controversial issue Stalling to try to remember it and now I can't remember it.
Speaker 2:I can't remember it, it'll pop into our heads at the most impetuned time. What was it? He's probably shouting at his phone right now. It's like you morons, Can you not?
Speaker 1:remember anything? Well, this is how it's supposed to work. The Committee on Work puts out every year these are the things you need to tell everybody in the state. They bring all the district instructors together Right.
Speaker 1:And then they come out and they're supposed to hammer it into our thick heads, and so this is the way that Ars chooses to do it. He's already got the whole district there, all the players right, the Masters and the Wardens and everybody. Yeah, shuttle them into a room and give them the information that the Grand Lodge wants them to have, and hopefully they'll take it back to their lodges. It's a pretty good system of disseminating information, if you ask me. Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:So it means everybody's doing their job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've stalled long enough. We're not going to remember it.
Speaker 1:Sorry, right, honorable Broom for We'll have to have him back on the show.
Speaker 2:We'll have to have him back on the show to scold us for our lack of attention Well he also.
Speaker 1:You know he has a good thing he's doing after the School of Instruction. He sends a note to all the secretaries and asks them to read it at all the meetings so everybody gets the same information, which is communication, is very important, especially in Freemasonry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. That's right get as much information in the hands of as many people as possible, because you know, participation is everything and without the right information, without the correct calendar dates and all of that stuff, you know it's really important that during your stated meetings talking about upcoming dates, by the way, master Mason Association you can get upcoming dates for each individual lodge while you're there.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remembered what it was. Oh what, the Tyler has to stay outside the lodge.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that was the big one it's not allowed inside at all, at any point. That was, and that could have been directed to the Mighty 147, because we brought in the Royal Chair and sat it next to the door so the Tyler me could come in during the stated meeting. And, yeah, that got whacked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that got whacked hard, I know, I know. I know you like that one I mean, the thing is in my mind because I had to think through this as the master and make a decision and I thought, hey, he's a brother of our lodge, I'd sure appreciate if all the Lodge brothers that are here could be in the same room making decisions together, Right? So the Tyler did his job, he tiled the lodge, but we're talking about after eight o'clock at night on a weeknight, yeah, and we would lock the outer doors.
Speaker 2:We'd lock the door. No one ever came. No, no, not once.
Speaker 1:No one's ever going to roll up at a Master Mason lodge at eight o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:And say, hey, I would have joined if only someone had answered the door at eight o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, right? Yeah, it doesn't really ever happen, and so the guy's just sitting out there doing nothing while we're having business meeting, and so, yeah, I asked you to come in because I really thought it was important to have you with us.
Speaker 2:Hence the reason why it is best to have a past master to be your Tyler, somebody who knows everybody, who's been in your lodge for a while and doesn't necessarily need to be in there absorbing all of the degree work and the opening and closing of the lodge and everything that's going on in there. Me, I was way too new in Masonry to be a Tyler. I don't think that's.
Speaker 1:Well, that'll let all the enthusiasm out of your sales. It really will, and it did, and hours by yourself in a room.
Speaker 2:It really did, and I was missing out on getting you know, absorbing all of it, because that's part of our. You know, that's how you learn it, man. You just got to be in there and you see it, hear it and do it over and over again, and that's one of the reasons why we're able to do what we do. So, anyways, another rabbit trail there for you.
Speaker 1:That's a requirement, so we follow it now.
Speaker 2:We follow it now Because that's what you do.
Speaker 1:You follow the rules.
Speaker 2:The fancy chair is still there. But, rest assured, the Tyler's derriere is not in it during the lodge. He is outside doing what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 1:One thing's for sure he's not clapping for anybody, so at least one guy's following the rules.
Speaker 2:No, he's not clapping. No Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe he is out there. No one can hear me. I will clap.
Speaker 2:The thing is is if he were clapping it'd be okay, because he's not in the lodge, Not in the lodge. Yeah, yeah so maybe we'll work on that.
Speaker 1:So we're finishing the Entered Apprentice Charge.
Speaker 2:We are finishing the Entered Apprentice Charge as promised. And again our apologies, brothers. If you were last Wednesday looking for us and you didn't find us, that's because we were lost. We were lost in time and I'm just going to have to tell you it was totally my fault. I did a tech no-no and I absolutely just killed the file that we recorded on. We spent the entire time. It was a really great episode and when I transferred it over, it went away. I mean, and I looked everywhere for it, it just went away Bye-bye, bye-bye, never to be heard again. So we were planning on hitting it that next day to do it over again, and then, with my trip to North Carolina coming up, it just got crazy. And yeah, here we are now, sorry, so, yeah, so the Entered Apprentice Charge and we'll get through this because there's not too much here. We're almost done with it. We have three paragraphs, but I do know that we touched on a lot of things during the lost episode. I hope we can get back to it the lost episode.
Speaker 1:Only two people will know that there's a lost episode.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:That's OK, we can make it better now.
Speaker 2:We can make it better.
Speaker 1:Because it's only good because you and I are talking about free masonry. And here we are, we can fix it.
Speaker 2:We can fix it.
Speaker 1:We can fix it.
Speaker 2:I'm on page 63 in our little blue book, the Florida Masonic Monitor. This is published. You can actually find all of this on the Grand Lodge website Published. None of this is secret, as we say all the time. We would never do that. All of our encrypted stuff remains that way and we don't write it down. We don't do any of those things. We're obligated not to, but these are things that we feel every mason should be familiar with, and I know that there are some brothers who are EAs that don't want to go forward into this book and read fellow craft and masonry things.
Speaker 2:That is your choice. I would encourage you to do it just to know what's coming your way, but you don't have to If you want to experience it for the first time. You know as you go through it. I think that's your choice. I look back and think to myself you know, just some basic outlines would have been very helpful, especially in the EA degree. Everybody's nodding their head. Yes, right now I was like, yeah, I was totally lost. And then they started shooting me with an informational fire hose.
Speaker 1:Well, to be honest, a lot of people may only hear the charge a couple times if they don't go back to degrees, and there's no way you're going to remember what was in that charge. After hours of hearing things, that's the last thing you heard. Hence why we're given the little blue book so that we can go back and read it, and please do.
Speaker 2:And if you are an EA or a fellow craft, you don't have that little blue book yet, but when you get it, when you get the little blue book, I would encourage you to get a couple of stickies and throw them in there and read through it regularly, just to familiarize yourself with what it means to be a mason. We need some of that because sometimes and lately there's all kinds of misbehaviors going on out there with regard to masonry. Should we talk about that or should we let that one go? Maybe we'll let that one go.
Speaker 1:It does seem to be silly season lately.
Speaker 2:It is silly season, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I don't know how or why Just came out of nowhere but a lot of masonic drama all at once.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I got up in our stated meeting last night and just reminded the brethren. I just felt like I needed to remind the brethren that if you have an issue with another brother, it is never appropriate, it is never a good idea, it is never masonic for you to post on social media your displeasure with another brother, even if your cause is right. It doesn't matter. And what I tried to encourage everybody last night was don't even read the whole thing. You know once you see where this, this, this post or this letter or this, this, this conversation is going. Stop, stop, don't, don't get drawn into it. And, like Kevin Smith jumped up junior warden last night and said and don't and don't engage.
Speaker 1:And I think that was really good advice Don't inflame.
Speaker 2:Don't inflame it, don't engage it and and what he would tell you as junior warden, it is your junior warden's responsibility to take those, to take any kind of issues you have with another brother that you couldn't resolve between the two of you, you take it to the junior warden, you put it in his lap and then you move on, man and he. He deals with it from a third party perspective. He doesn't take sides and he just looks at the situation and makes a determination, and that that goes up higher. We this is all part of our, our system. Freemasonry is a self-governing fraternity. We have our own government, we have our own system for dealing with things like this, but we don't use it In this case it's being used and it's being used well. So I I'm I'm very encouraged by that.
Speaker 2:But again, brothers, if you see, first thing, for goodness sakes, never post anything anywhere outside of a lodge about another brother. Just don't do it. It's never a good idea, it's never correct or right, at no time In your mind. While you're typing, I'm hoping my words will come through to you. It's not the thing to do, it's not a thing.
Speaker 1:You can't do it. It's not good for anybody, probably ever ever but as masons in particular, absolutely we're supposed to like look good and think about this kind of behavior and not do it.
Speaker 1:Right, You're bringing and we're not preaching from on high. I I have been guilty in the past of not thinking before I spoke. Right, I'm guilty of it, especially when you get caught up and you're, you know, passionate. But I mean, you got to learn from those lessons. You have to admit to yourself you made a mistake when you make a mistake, or else how else are you ever going to progress?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to realize you're doing something that was wrong. And then what do you do when you do that? Because you will make a mistake. We all do sooner or later Right, you tell people you made the mistake, you ask for forgiveness and you show them that you learned a lesson. That's what you do. It's not hard. Just just to own it admit it and then learn a lesson. That's what masons do.
Speaker 2:And in, in, in confessing it I'll use that word and and humbling yourself and coming back to a person and saying, look, what I did was wrong and I need to do better. That in itself is the lesson. When you don't do that, when you just bury it or move on or get you know, or just you know, try to gaslight people about the situation, you don't learn the lesson. And I can guarantee you, man, it will happen again in your life. It will, because the pain of having to go and admit you were wrong in front of other people is the lesson it will. It will teach you the next time you will remember that pain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't want that again and you don't want to do that again, man. So that is the lesson and one of the reasons why we have we have brothers out there and I say this to my church brothers all the time that we don't learn the lessons because we don't do the lesson. You know, you got to do the lesson and the lesson is. Sorry, bro, you, you blew it, man, and I'm speaking to myself right here.
Speaker 2:And and now you have to. I'll give you an example. I live in a villa complex and it's strictly HOA controlled. I mean like they. If you've ever heard the term HOA Nazis, well, the ultimate HOA Nazi literally lives directly across the street from my front door. So when I go out, my front door there he is every day, anyway.
Speaker 2:So our project, our complex, is getting roofs done, so it's like one building at a time they're going through doing roofs. Well, it was his day to do the roof and he doesn't like me, I'm just letting you know up front. He had the roofers park their cars and trucks directly in front of my house and I came home from work after having a long day and, of course, me being in the trades, and I got out of my truck and I went up to the roofers and I said hey, why, why are you parking here? What's wrong with you guys? Why you got to park right in front of my house, yeah, so I was.
Speaker 2:I was on their case and they were. And they all looked at me at the same time and most of them were Hispanic. And they looked at me and said not our cars. And I said, oh no, not their cars. Well, who's is it? And then all of a sudden outcomes the HOA Nazi to tell me that it's the neighbors cars. I had them park there because of the roofing situation. We didn't want them parking in their driveways. And then I just lost it. Man, I just, I just I burned him right there in front of everybody and got really angry and then went inside. The next day I'm leaving for work and and God is just on me over this and I can feel the spirit of God in me, like you know what you need to do, right, and I'm like I don't want to do that and he's like you know what you need to do right.
Speaker 2:And it's like Lord, I don't want to do that. And he said third time, which is a biblical preset, you know what you got to do right. So I knocked on his door and knocked on, and knocked on his door and outcomes him and his wife, and I had to shake his hand and say, rob, I'm really sorry about yesterday. That's not the way I'm supposed to behave, especially with my neighbor. I hope you can forgive me and I don't want to. I don't want to have to do that again and that was so painful. It was so painful especially because his wife hates me even more than him and she's just gleaming at me like it was like whatever, I was wrong.
Speaker 2:Really meant to learn a lesson. I'm a Christian, I'm a Mason. I have an obligation to behave in a certain way in front of other people. So what I did was wrong, but what I did to correct it was the right thing to do. And when I left there, I feel better.
Speaker 1:Right, I feel a lot better.
Speaker 2:And I know after and I know the next time that comes up, I'm going to be thinking in the right frame of mind because of what I did.
Speaker 1:So that's my story, and that's exactly how Masonry should work. It's painful to change. We've talked about this, it is. Change is not easy.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. You know somebody is getting in the way of what I want and therefore, you know I have a choice. I have a choice, you know I can do. I can handle it the right way or I can handle it the wrong way. And unless we, unless we learn these lessons and do the work, do the work, mason, we're never going to be in a position where, when reaction right, it's all about reaction. You know, when you hit your finger with a hammer, what comes?
Speaker 2:out of your mouth. It's a reaction that comes out of your mouth. Well, what comes out of your mouth is what's in your heart. It's a great test. Go ahead and try it. I dare you. But if you don't learn the lessons, if you don't do the work and learn the lessons, the same thing's going to come out of your mouth every time.
Speaker 1:You can't expect any change.
Speaker 2:if you don't do any of the work, I think we've beat this one to death. What do you think? Should we move?
Speaker 1:on no, they got it.
Speaker 2:They got it. They got it All right. So page 63, the entered apprentice degree charge. We left off talking about the state and our obligation to the government to be loyal to the country, and we touched a little bit on that. That, in fact, you know, if the government stops being the government, what is our responsibility as masons? You can't be loyal. It's not a suicide pact, right? So if they're going off the cliff, being loyal and subjective to an organization of any kind that's going over a cliff and harming itself is not wise. So we don't need to revisit that conversation, but at some point you're right, we probably don't need to read that whole conversation, but I do agree with you.
Speaker 1:It's worth repeating that we're to defend our government, even if it's from itself.
Speaker 2:Correct. I love that. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:But there are ways in which we, as masons, are to go about that.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:It's clear from our charge that we're not to raise up arms and try to overthrow our government, but there are mechanisms of the government. We should be pushing and pulling levers to try to make sure that it doesn't go off the rails and that it stays our government. So it's tough because, again, people's passions to get the better of them. We're in an environment where you're meant to learn to hate, and so I feel like it's really easy to start thinking about taking up arms against your own brothers in this kind of environment, and people are really passionate. It's similar to Freemasonry. People are really passionate about things and they have their idea of what's right and they really don't care about what your idea is of what's right. Not a lot of conversation happening.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And when there's not a lot of conversation happening, you can guarantee that things are going to go off the rails 100% of the time. They always go off the rails when the communication stops.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Communication has stopped. Communicators are going to go off the rails. They are, and we need to think about, as masons, how we're going to handle that. We can be representatives of the government that we should have. That's right. We can. We can fight for the government that we should have. We must fight for the government that we should have, and every legal means possible to us, right. But when it comes to taking up arms against our government or our fellow brothers, things get a little complicated.
Speaker 2:It does get complicated. I think that the first thing we need to do is we need to live the life and be an example, first and foremost. So the first thing we should do is get our own political house in order.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come on, let's everybody join politics.
Speaker 2:We need some masons in here Right, Get involved and you know.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about the Facebook armchair politician. I'm talking about get out, get elected and fix things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and stand for the principles that our founders first brought, which is liberty and the pursuit of happiness life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That your rights don't come from government. Right Government is commissioned to protect those rights that were granted to you by God.
Speaker 1:Our rights. That's right, Citizens, our rights need to be protected and you know it's.
Speaker 2:I like what you said. We don't take up arms against the government Now. The founding fathers left us a mechanism for protecting ourselves from and out of control government.
Speaker 2:That's very different than actually being offensive. You're going to lose. That's the first thing, because we've given them trillions of dollars to arm themselves. So you're not going to prevail. That's the first problem. And the second problem is is once you go there, it's over. Once a strong rebel we almost had in the Civil War, you know, once you have a strong, fortified, you know army that is fighting against another army of the same, you know, of the same country, it's over.
Speaker 2:It is only by the grace of God that the Civil War did not end up as a, you know, as a broken. We would end up like in Europe with, you know, 52 different countries, all factions and warring, and it would just be a broken system if we survived it at all. So that's not the point and that's not the way. The way is is that, first and foremost, you get your house in order. You get your own house in order, get out of debt, be a good man who's trying to make himself better, draw to yourself people of like-mindedness and then get involved, go do something you know and, for goodness sakes, please, please, consider giving up the left versus right lie and go and embrace your neighbor, regardless of his political persuasion and make friends and be friends and countrymen together, regardless of your differences, and fortify your community and your neighborhood, man, because that's what matters.
Speaker 1:That's the Masonic thing to do. That's right.
Speaker 2:The Uniparty wants us to continue to fight left versus right, but they're not left or right. They're about themselves and their money and their power. That's the Uniparty. What we need to do is give up the left. I say this all the time, I say this too much. Give up the left versus right. Lie and embrace your brother because he's a fellow human being created in the image of God, and from there move forward. Okay, you ready?
Speaker 1:Well, imagine in Europe if you took all the countries and overlaid like the size of the United States. How many countries in Europe would that take up?
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh A lot, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So imagine ramming all those countries into one government. Now, right, it's not going to be pretty and ours isn't pretty. We have a big country. We have people with many different backgrounds. The coast lifestyle is very different from the middle and the upper parts of our country.
Speaker 2:Showing off.
Speaker 1:It's just different and we are very different, but we're not. We can't separate and have independent trade agreements. I mean we're one country. We have to figure out how to work with each other.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You don't have to like the lifestyle of the other person or even really understand it, you just have to respect it. That's right. Have to let them live it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, and everyone's individual beliefs and structures are theirs. And I always go back to the marketplace of ideas, and this imaginary marketplace that I've constructed in my crazy mind is a place where anyone can. Anyone is welcome, as long as you come with gentleness and respect, wanting to share your ideas with others. But the minute you try to force somebody in the marketplace of ideas into your way of thinking, then it's no longer a marketplace, it's no longer a place where I can go and shop and look and learn and draw from the things that I need in my own life. And then the other thing I always say and you guys know what I'm going to say you got to go into the marketplace of ideas knowing what you personally believe and why you believe it, otherwise you're going to go in there and you're not going to understand what's going on. So can we move on now?
Speaker 1:Sure, we can do that.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm going to read it, this one paragraph right here, and then we'll discuss it. I'm on page 63 in our little blue book, although your frequent appearance at our communications is earnestly solicitated. Yet it is not meant that masonry should interfere with your necessary vocations, for these are. These are on no account to be neglected. Neither are you to suffer your zeal for the institution to lead you into arguments with those who, through ignorance, may ridicule it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's pretty self-explanatory.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I'm not a lot of esoteric thought to that one. It's like hey, we are going to ask you to come do a lot of things.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Don't feel like you have to be at all of them.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, don't be like us.
Speaker 1:You got things going on and you should have things going on in your life, but masonry is going to be here and we would appreciate it if you just showed up every once in a while.
Speaker 2:That's right when you're able to just think about us.
Speaker 1:Don't forget about us. Right, basically, absolutely, and you know you're fair statement right.
Speaker 2:You're paying an annual due. You're paying your annual dues, which we appreciate. So why not, when you can come on into lodge and sit down and have dinner with the brothers and and and be a part of what you can, as you can If you're? If you're a young guy with, you know, three kids and a wife, I mean your ability to get down to the lodge and do so is going to be severely limited, and everybody who is reasonable in the lodge understands that, totally understands that.
Speaker 1:You know everybody's in a different phase of their life and they have a lot of different things going on, and masonry fits in differently as you go through your own life. There's times when you're going to be more active, when you have more time, and then there's going to be times inevitably if you're in the fraternity long enough where it's not going to be part of your life for a little while because you just have too much stuff going on. And that's normal. It's normal for every mason.
Speaker 1:So we shouldn't be judging anybody else for their level of participation, because it's probably the best they can do at this point. But anybody who gets masonry gets that you get a lot out of going, even if you're not an officer, even if you're not you know, just being there you get a lot out of it. Here's a good example. You're a fairly new mason, relatively speaking.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 1:When you've met a lot of new masons now.
Speaker 2:I have, I'm not a normal new mason.
Speaker 1:You're in a different situation than most people. You travel a lot.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You get to meet a lot of people. Now, when you meet a new mason for the first time and you're hugging that person like a brother, like a brother you've never met him in his life.
Speaker 1:Are you thinking about who he's going to go home and have sex with that night when you give him that hug? Are you thinking about who he voted for in the last election when you gave him that hug? Are you just thinking this is a brother, I want him to know that I love him and we're in this together? That those are the thoughts going through your head when you meet a new person. As a mason, you think, oh, I want to show this person that I actually have a lot of love, that I'm open, that I trust him. Like those are the things that we think about when we need a brand new person off the street we've never met before. That's a mason, that's for me.
Speaker 2:No, no, I completely agree with you. That's the beauty of masonry. It sets up in the lodge environment that anybody, from any background, it doesn't really matter what your personal life is we come together under the precepts and concepts of masonry. We, under brotherly love, relief and truth, we come together to better ourselves through knowing other people from different backgrounds. I think that's the beauty of it. I think that's one of the reasons why, in the founding of this country, masonry was so intimately involved in it, because it was a place where people from all wildly different backgrounds and situations could come together and craft out this new idea for self-government.
Speaker 2:That had to be done. Yes, most of them were Christians, I get that, but it was done outside of the church, even though, I mean, at the founding of our country, most of the states had a state church. Believe it or not, that's actually true. The Presbyterian church was the official church of Virginia, of the state of Virginia, at the founding of this country. But notice, they didn't use the church as the place to develop the concept of a free, of a constitutional Republic. They used a different place, a medium where all the different faiths could come together and craft this thing out, based on Individual liberty and freedom and the pursuit of happiness for each individual. You know, like we said, you know the the rights granted by God to man, not by government. This could not have happened within the context of different denominations and and and different, different religions and Familiar background.
Speaker 1:It couldn't have happened without Freemasonry. It couldn't happen. I don't think it could have happened country couldn't exist without I fraternity guiding our founders.
Speaker 2:I think so because the lodge it was like it's the pub in Europe. A Lot of change happened in the pubs in Europe because that's a way of life for them there, but here it was in the, it was in the lodges and that's where they met and that's where a lot of it, and they met at pubs.
Speaker 1:The lodges were both worlds.
Speaker 2:I Think back then they were able to have a grog or two while they were in lodge, but today we don't, because of.
Speaker 1:Well, this is America, and gotta subdue our passions, and that doesn't help.
Speaker 2:We like to create laws that we end up having to live under. So yeah, but.
Speaker 1:I mean, imagine that you could take that lesson of Freemasonry into your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When you meet your neighbor who you never met right, just give them a hug like that and you're not thinking about oh, who wouldn't? Then what is doing what you know? You're just looking at him as a human being that's right. That's reading them into your life, yeah if you could take that into your life, we would have a lot less problems.
Speaker 2:That's right If my, if my neighbor happens to be of a different religious persuasion than mine. But his roof is leaking and I have the ability to repair his roof because he can't afford to do so and the water is dripping down on his children's head, then what does it matter? What background, what, what anything about his life or his belief structures? I have the ability to help this man, this person created in God's image, and I should do so with all haste.
Speaker 1:And with joy in my heart. That's right hearts in mind. That's right way to have them think differently about you.
Speaker 2:That you just didn't even ask, yeah, and and I just would encourage every brother to adopt that attitude you know and and to employ it into your life. Now, listen to this. Neither are you to suffer your zeal for for the institution to lead you into arguments with those who, through Ignorance, may ridicule it.
Speaker 1:Well, this is really important for entered apprentices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is here.
Speaker 1:Yep, because you are going to be very passionate about the fraternity you just joined and you are full of Energy for the fraternity. And you, when you become a mason, guarantee you, when you start telling people, people you wouldn't suspect are gonna tell you that you just joined a cult. Yep, you're now an evil lizard, pedophile, worshiping whatever right. I don't even know what the latest conspiracies are, but you will get that. And here's the thing Don't engage them.
Speaker 1:Do not engage no it's not gonna be worth your time. You're not gonna do anything but feed into their need To talk about this theory that they have. They don't care what you have to say and you are gonna be zealous. This is right. It's so right. You've been there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah anybody that's an entered apprentice can attest. This is gonna happen to you, so do remember not to engage, and this is something that people really lament about our fraternity that there's so much negative Information and nobody goes out and tries to correct them. I have a feeling they've tried that, guys, yeah, and they realize it's not gonna get you anywhere.
Speaker 2:No, no, it's a waste of time, because Anybody who would first of all, anybody who would approach you to tell you that what you, you just joined an organization and you shouldn't have and you're wrong in doing it, please quit immediately anybody who would say that to you, who knows you is, is acting out of ignorance. Anyways. Why bother? They're not, you're not gonna change their mind standing there in front of them, that's the first thing. Secondly, if you're an EA and you're, and you're listening to this and you're zealous about what you just got into and you're, and you're, you're pumped, and you come across somebody who wants to tell you that you just joined a cult and eventually they're gonna have you riding a goat Wearing, you know, women's underwear, whatever it is that's out there lately.
Speaker 2:Don't engage them. But. But if you have, if it sparks questions in your mind, or if you have a doubts or problems, come talk to one of our elder statesmen. Come talk to, you know, doug Dobbs.
Speaker 2:Or or right, wishful, hard, or or Worshipful burns district has every district has a guy in there that you can sit down and say this is what they said about this and, and you know, and it really bothered me. Well, go talk to somebody in the lodge, get some information. Don't believe everything you hear right away, but do your, do your research, do your homework, be diligent to understand what it is that you've gotten yourself into. Look, I can tell you right now, and I'll share a story about it here, what happened to me the other day. But, as you know, as as a, as an ordained chaplain in the Christian faith, I I get a lot of.
Speaker 2:I was just up in North Carolina With my family and you know they, at this point they won't even bring up Masonry at all. But my, my brother-in-law did make a little side comment About it. But anyway, don't forget it rabbit hole, don't get involved, brother. Okay, don't get involved, don't get discouraged, don't feel like you have to defend Masonry as an EA. You know, with all of your zeal and gusto, just hey, thanks, man. You know I'm new at it. I'll let you know how it goes if any of those things that you say are true. Well, you know, you know me, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna continue to do something like that.
Speaker 1:That should be the best way to deal with it as an entered apprentice, because you don't know much right, yeah you don't, you're not in a position to argue for Freemasonry at this point.
Speaker 1:I mean, you, you know enough, I'm sure, to deal with the person you're talking to, but really that you have a lot left to learn a lot. So don't it's not a good point in your Masonic career to become the warrior for Freemasonry with the non-Masons. That's right. The the thing is, once you become a master Mason, you're gonna have so much opportunity to learn where this hateful thought came from in the first place. We were at Hillsboro Lodge for the Masonic symposium, so, oh, last year, yeah, that we were asked to speak at. Thank you so much, by the way, we're Carol. We're Carol. Shout out.
Speaker 1:We got to get up there. Sorry, but we had an opportunity to go and spend a day learning about Freemasonry, and one of the speakers named Daniel Molina Gave a speech about the taxal hoax hoax. Oh, right yeah had you heard about that before then?
Speaker 2:I had not. No, no, that was quite informative. Yeah, it was really good.
Speaker 1:You got some new information and you learned a little a lot actually about where some of these thinking About Freemasonry came from and how silly it all is originally. Now you're in a position to, when it comes up, say, let me explain to you where you got that from right right you can with Confidence, because when brother Molina gives a speech, he cites all of his references right back checks everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very nice.
Speaker 1:It's very nice to have speakers like that in Freemasonry. We need more of that. We need more education and, well, we are committed to trying to help with that. Yeah, that's right as much as we can in our little corner of the world here. Look for more of that from us, but go when you see those, because it's an opportunity for you to get really helpful information. There was other speakers, too that gave really interesting speeches, but that one applies to what we're talking about, which is where these thoughts of Mason's drink blood and they right they do.
Speaker 1:You know all these dark rituals because they're trying to get powers. And you know and learn. Go research the taxal hoax right.
Speaker 1:Yeah for yourself. And or come and watch Daniel Molina, if you ever seem speaking in the state about that particular one. You're gonna learn where a lot of that stuff come from and how silly it is. Yeah, and you'll be in a better position to argue for the fraternity if you ever have to. But as an entered apprentice, don't put yourself in that place. Shouldn't be something you've got to worry about you don't need to be.
Speaker 1:You know defending Freemasonry to anybody. You're still learning, so just laugh it off. That's the best thing you can do. Haha, yeah, go. So you're funny.
Speaker 2:That's funny. Yeah, as soon as they bring a goat, and I'm gonna leave change the subject.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't engage, don't let them pull you it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. Okay, at your leisure hours that you may improve in Masonic knowledge, you are to converse with well-informed brethren who will always, who will be always as ready to give as you will be to receive Instruction. Well, there it is right, there right. This is important.
Speaker 1:I Just got a new EA class that I was doing catechism with last night. I have like six people now my group, Wow that is.
Speaker 2:I saw them all in there in the, in the, in the, the stands there last night. When I walked in I was like dang, he's got a big crowd.
Speaker 1:I just love doing catechism classes. Well, you're good at it, you get them involved.
Speaker 2:You can see they're all like really involved. Yeah, they want to be, and it's fun. You make it fun, so that's when you learn you know fun, right that's it should be fun.
Speaker 1:Where's that going with that?
Speaker 2:You were go. You did it too, didn't you Zoned? I zoned once, maybe twice, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is the thing that always comes up and people are like oh, I can call somebody, I'm not gonna. I'm like no, they want you to call they want you to call. I'm your instructor, but I'm not the only guy in frame me, so really, look, here's Fred cell phone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, call. Here's Alberto cell phone number.
Speaker 1:Yep, here is Kevin Smith's phone number.
Speaker 2:Especially with catechism, because it only sharpens you. You get a brother, call hey man, can you? And hopefully everybody's got their little red book With them master Mason out there, please have it with you all the time or, even better, keep it in your head. I, and it'll go in your head the more you do it. But that's what I was saying. If somebody calls me, Well, you know where.
Speaker 1:And says and says hey can you go over?
Speaker 2:You know this with me. I'm like, yeah, man, I definitely can. I'll take a minute to do that. Pull the book out and and go through it with a brother. It only strengthens you.
Speaker 1:There's a fear for an inner apprentice that they don't. They don't even know if they can. They don't know who to call right feel bad if they're calling somebody. Don't, this is, this is we're giving you a charge. It's like, hey, when you're ready to learn, you call because yeah, that's right. They're always gonna be ready to teach always yeah, that's right, man, maybe. I'm busy personally. Maybe I'm in a meeting or whatever. Call the next guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's right, I'm ready if you want it. Right, if you want it, you will find it.
Speaker 1:It's there. If you're an inter-deprentice in the lodge right now, we would encourage you you have your instructor's number to ask him for two or three other names of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can call that's right, he's busy yeah. And he'll give you those numbers and you'll have plenty of people to help you right, yeah, for me, when I was going through doing proficiency, I Would work on it every day and I hope, if you're an EA and a Fela craft or even getting your get, making your way to master Mason that you're working on it every day In some small or big way ten minutes a day, so he really mean right.
Speaker 2:I had shout out to my brother, wade Botkin and I would call each other every day and we'd go back and forth, you know, with the catechism, just teaching ourselves. With or without the book depends on how we felt and don't you look back on those?
Speaker 1:I loved it.
Speaker 2:I miss it. I miss my brother Wade Botkin man. We need to get him in here and interview him.
Speaker 1:We do, yeah, very entertaining Individual he's entertaining.
Speaker 2:He's got a bit of a southern draw too, which I I definitely appreciate.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and a super intelligent, maybe brilliant guy with just an emotional steadiness like I've never seen yeah, yeah, so kind of person that just makes you feel calm when you're around him right, yeah, and we are at a point now in the show where we will be. We will be putting together a bunch of interviews so that we can we can start pumping those out again. Not sure what happened here. We kind of went through a little bit of a I don't know, maybe an attack from the outside man. Our jobs just went nuts, oh yeah, and we had to focus on that. Believe it or not, we do this part time I don't know if you guys know that or not and we don't get paid a dime to do this. We actually pay to do this. But anyways, that's a different story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, we pay in many ways. Yeah, we started this morning at 6 am here recording.
Speaker 2:Yes, so that we can get to our jobs, having left the lodge at 10 am, at 10 pm Last night 30 for me, yeah, so I wasn't dead by midnight, got about five and a half hours. I can hear the violins going now, the tiny little. Everyone really cares. Yes, yes, no, no, but I mean, that's what you do for something you love, you find time for it.
Speaker 1:the people that say my cable to I don't have time, okay, okay, but I know for me, if something's important to me, yeah, I make time and I make it.
Speaker 2:And I can tell you this if you, if you take the time to do some of the work and then you get an opportunity to use it in the lodge, it's a great feeling, man, it's a great feeling of accomplishment, of brotherhood doing. That's the thing that I always say. You know about masonry is the cure For for masonry is to do masonry. Yeah, because that's the ritual work that we do. And it says it, it says it in the, in the monitor and and elsewhere that it seems frivolous, it might seem like you know, a play or some kind of you know activity that is, that carries no weight. I assure you, brother, that is not the case, because it, it, it does transform us Into a unit. We become a band of brothers by doing this stuff together.
Speaker 2:I'm on the, the, the competition degree team. I don't know how I ended up there. I'm certainly the weakest link of the group, but but I find this band of brotherhood Happening where we're all just doing this together and we're supporting each other. And it's a common goal that we have, you know, to go to this competition and to to bring home the, bring home the gold baby, you know, and we're all just supporting each other. That's a big part of masonry, and if you're out there listening, if you're not a mason and you're out there listening, that's that's one of the great things about masonry is the fellowship and the, you know, working on things together as a group of men to better ourselves, our, our communities, our families, you know, I just I find that part to be Absolutely exciting, you know me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know you get clear direction, which is why we're going over this charge together in such detail, because it deserves Thinking about it. If you break it apart, it's a roadmap for how to behave and how to go through these degrees.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're not gonna argue with the outside world now. We don't have to show up to every meeting. That they're gonna ask us to know is an okay word to say, and look when you're ready to learn. There's gonna be people, don't stress about it. Don't worry, don't feel bad about it. We want the call. Yeah, that's so much time learning this virtual work and you go out in the world, in your life and you can't talk about it.
Speaker 1:You can't do it, it's, it's. It's like you'd. You're a Ritualist, wants an opportunity to do ritual right and you don't get to make those, you've got to wait for those, and so when somebody can call you and ask you about the ritual, trust me, the brothers want to talk to you. They want to talk about this stuff. You're doing them a favor by calling them yeah, and and and.
Speaker 2:If you don't get. If you don't get brother one, call brother two. If you don't get brother two, call brother three. Let let your zeal For Masonic knowledge go go down that road, brother, you won't regret it.
Speaker 2:finally, keep sacred and invaluable, involvable the mysteries of the order, as these are to distinguish you from the rest of the community and mark your conscience among Masons. If, in the circle of your acquaintances, you find a person desirous of being initiated into the fraternity, be Particularly careful not to recommend him unless you are convinced that he will conform to our rules, that the honor, glory and reputation of the institution may be firmly established and the world at large convinced of its good Effect.
Speaker 1:The end there's a couple of important points, very important points. Section one Involvable in invaluable in Inviable as.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at how to pronounce yeah, invite inviolable.
Speaker 1:Right. It just means never to be broken, infringed or dishonored. Right so it means keep sacred and don't ever give up or break your vow. The mysteries of the order that's right mysteries are the things that we don't tell the outside world. The secrets now and it's also saying in here that that's what separates us from everybody else is that we share the same secrets. That's right. We and we agree to keep them just between us, and that makes us different than everybody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now you know and I know, and all Masons know, that the secrets we keep To the average person would seem silly. We're talking about a grip, a word. Oh right things that seem silly to the outside world. If they actually got the secrets They'd be very disappointed because they think our secrets are more like. This is how you turn. You know you make a good outro Copper into gold. Oh, right, those are the kind of secrets for keeping right.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately we're keeping secrets much sillier than that, but it's. It's not silly because they have historical reference and they have important like ties to our past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:And also it's just a general test of fraternal Brotherhood is that we all agree, no matter how silly the secret is, it's our secret and and that's what we do as brothers. That's what makes us different. We agree to keep certain things to ourselves. That doesn't mean that there's anything nefarious in the secret. So if you're a Mason, keep those secrets you. We really really make that. A prominent part of being a Mason is is keeping our traditional secret secret To the outside people that are worried that our secrets aren't nefarious. I Assure you they're not there. They're not there. Not, we are. We are attempting me.
Speaker 2:We are attempting to make good men better. Yes and, in the end, it is a benefit to to man and community. Listen to this, as these are to distinguish you from the rest of the community and mark your conscience among masons.
Speaker 2:You know, that's one of the things that a lot of people say about you know, my uncle was a Mason and he was just such a good man, or I met this one guy and he was just you know, he's the coach or whatever he was, and he was just such a decent human being, you hear it and all the time, and and I found out later that he was a Mason.
Speaker 2:That's what that's talking about right here, that that it he's being distinguished from the rest of the community. You know a guy, a guy that's posting all kinds of garbage Online about other people's political views or other people's lifestyle, whatever it is. That's not the mark In the community that you, as a Mason, want to form, formulate, that is, that is an incorrect Understanding of what Masonry is. We're supposed to be marked by humility, knowledge, strength, kindness, a willingness to help, a willingness to be, you know, to be part of the solution. You know, that's, that's what is, and and there's, there seems to be a, a Reservness to, to a Mason who understands Masonry, that we are reserved. We don't just throw it out there. We're, we're, we're reserved with what we have and what we share together, and and we we try our best to, if Somebody's interested in it, we want to test them, so to speak, a little bit to see just how interested they are, before we give up everything. And that's and that's what it's talking about here be particularly careful.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is a part that really stood out to me right now was at the end of like. I Legitimately remember feeling impressed when I heard that line, because in my mind I was like up here it comes, here comes the hard sell.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I'll do. It is your credit card number.
Speaker 1:Here's a petition tell them to join. I was like here we go, they're gonna sell me and they don't like more money, more money, but no, they said, be particularly careful, and I emphasize this, if I ever do the charge and you hear me.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, it sticks to recommend them, right be particularly careful not to recommend them unless you are convinced that they will conform to our rules. So don't recommend somebody that you don't think is gonna be a good fit, for. Not everybody's ready to be a free mason at this point in their life. I know I wasn't. We've talked about this. When I tried to join the first time, I was right to be excluded. I Wasn't ready in my 20s.
Speaker 1:It could have helped me greatly but I wasn't ready, to you know, to contribute or commit to it at that point right. I'm sure there were times in your life you weren't ready to be, you wouldn't have been a good representative of yourself to the fraternity.
Speaker 1:No, no, no life and not everybody is, so be particularly careful Not to recommend people that aren't ready for this and at this point in their life. And, like you just said, there are a lot of mechanisms to make sure people really want this. Yeah, that's right. We make you spend some time, slow it down, work a little bit. Yeah, proves that this is something you want in your life right.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a good thing. You know we're not being exclusive. There's nothing about a person that would make them not ready for Freemasonry, other than what's in their heart. Yeah, that's right, that's right not your station in life, not how much money you make no job, you have no color of your skin, none of that's gonna matter. If you don't have it in your heart, then you shouldn't.
Speaker 2:You shouldn't join you shouldn't recommend that person. Even if your grandpa was in the Illuminati, it won't get you anywhere with us, bro it won't.
Speaker 2:So the question is I like that. It's a question answer right Unless you are convinced that he will conform to our rules why that the honor, glory and reputation of the institution may be firmly established and the world at large convinced of its good effect. Listen when you, when you, when you do things that are contrary to Masonic principles out in the public, you are not honoring, you're not honoring the fraternity.
Speaker 1:No, you're embarrassing.
Speaker 2:You're embarrassing the fraternity and you're embarrassing yourself and and I said it last night, I brought this up at the beginning of the show I told everybody at our meeting last night if, if, if, you're posting, speaking, writing about another brother in a negative way, it's never right, it's never a good idea, it's, it's not a Masonic thing. You are violating Masonic laws and principles. Is what you're doing? Even if what you're saying is true, even if what you're saying you think is true or might even be factually true, it doesn't matter. You're still violating your obligation because you're bringing dishonor, and and and, latin and, and, dishonor, and, and, ruining the reputation. I don't know why I'm having a hard time with this ruining the reputation of the institution.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing Fred has been very clear about what not to do. Yes, you've been listening to this episode. He said it multiple times throughout what not to do what not to do.
Speaker 2:Here's what you should do.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's hear that part what you should do if you have any concerns or issues with the brother is go to that brother, look him in the eyes and Tell him what you have on your heart and try to do it in a way that's not insulting, or yeah right, gentleness and respect but definitely tell him as clear as you can what your issue is.
Speaker 1:Now. What he does with that is going to dictate your next actions. Right? Okay, you did your job as a Mason. That's the first step. Always go to the person and talk to them. It that can be hard to do because it's not something we do in our regular life. We don't usually have honest and open, difficult conversations with people that we are acquaintance with, and it's really hard if we love them Because you don't want to hurt their feelings, you don't want them to have bad feelings about you. You don't want them to go around telling everybody you're the guy that complains. Whatever the thing is, you have an obligation to your brother. You need to fulfill the obligation. Talk to your brother, even if he's not being Masonic, especially if he's not being Masonic. That's where you need to talk to talk to your brother. If that gets you nowhere, if the behavior or Whatever the issue is seems to continue, then you keep it within the fraternity and you go to your junior warden of your lodge.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:As you mentioned earlier, the person that you need to go to, because he is the chairman of the vigilance committee Right and their job is to make sure that all members of the lodge are being harmonious and respectful and Masonic right.
Speaker 1:So if you've tried to deal with it man to man and if you're not getting anywhere, you go to your junior warden, you explain to him the situation and if he's doing a good job he may ask a couple questions of other people involved. But he's gonna wind up having a meeting with the three of you and try to mediate the situation to see if he can help you Talk to the brother and help you get him to change his behavior. Sometimes it takes Two people, it just does. Sometimes, that's right, people think one guy's complaining. But when you sit in a room for the purpose of talking about what's happening, it takes on a different level and raises your awareness of the issue and hopefully that will resolve Whatever the problem is. If it doesn't resolve the issue, the junior warden is the one that should Kick it up the line, and if he doesn't, then it's your prerogative to kick it up the line and file Masonic charges If you feel like it's that bad and it's not changing right.
Speaker 1:Or if your junior warden doesn't resolve it and you don't feel like it raises to the level of bringing Masonic charges against someone, you can go to your district deputy grandmaster, correct? Who's the representative of the grandmaster in your district and has the ability to act?
Speaker 1:that's right the situation. I recommend that you ask the junior warden to help you go to the district deputy right and you know you need to follow these steps. These are the ways that you do it in a respectful, masonic way, because you're doing it with the intention of helping the brother. He needs to change his behavior. He's hurting himself or he's hurting the fraternity.
Speaker 2:This isn't about winning an argument.
Speaker 1:This is about helping a brother and bettering a situation and protecting the fraternity and protecting the paternity we need to make sure that our integrity in the community stays impeccable, and we can't. You also said in the beginning that we self-police this is what we have a self government.
Speaker 2:This is the masonry, is a form of self-government.
Speaker 1:Self-government doesn't mean you go online and start yelling about stuff that you don't like.
Speaker 2:Nope, you, you've stepped outside of masonry. As soon as you do it, first letter you've typed.
Speaker 1:This is how you do it talk to the brother, talk to the junior ward. That's right get the junior warden help. You talk to the district deputy. If you've done all those steps, things still aren't changing and it's hurting the fraternity. You, my brother, are obligated to bring charges If you can't get it fixed. If nothing is happening, then you need to do that because we each, as Individuals, are representatives of the fraternity and we each are the protectors of the fraternity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:But it starts With the notion that you want to help somebody that you care about, not that you want to see them, you know, brought to justice, or you want to see them burn up and you want to see them with something you want to hurt them like they hurt you. That's a human, that's a human tendency.
Speaker 2:That's, that's vengeance, and you're not good at it. Alls you can do is hurt them back. That's, that's all you can do. But true divine, from a divine standpoint is is to bring healing and Betterment to all parties, because it's always wrong.
Speaker 2:It is not good when brothers do not Dwell in harmony, right. How good and how pleasing it is when brothers dwell in harmony, right. That's a scripture that we use in Masonry a lot. That and that's what it is. God wants us to dwell in harmony. He created us originally to be in perfect harmony with each other under him. And when we break that and we ignore the remedy for it, which is humility and and and the systems that we have in place, then then we've. We've completely stepped outside of Not only Masonry but really just the community of man. And I know it's our tendency, I know we're broken, we're broken men, and it's our tendency, but the intention originally was for harmony. Yeah, and Masonry seeks to bring about harmony amongst Flawed, flawed and broken men and to make good men better, and to make good men better.
Speaker 1:And how do we do that? We help them. We help them. We tell them to their face hey, what you're doing isn't right, it's not Masonic. It's not Masonic brother the thing that you could do, better or different, like teach them, if you can, a better way to do it. Give them other, alternative ways to handle whatever the situation is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you'll win your brother, you'll win his heart. It done correctly. If you bring, if you bring correction with gentleness and respect to a brother and he listens to you, you have won him. You have won him to a better place in his life and in yours and you will be that much closer and the reward for that is self-evident. I mean you having close brothers. Before I came to Masonry I was. I was a lone wolf man. I didn't have any friends and my wife is the one who just kind of made that comment to me one day. You know you don't have any friends. It's like, yeah, I do wait, no, I don't.
Speaker 1:You're my friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah yeah, you're my friend.
Speaker 1:She's like no, I'm your wife.
Speaker 2:I could be your friend, but right now I'm your wife, but and and what you gain Is something that's fundamental to every man, and that's a brother, and there's somebody who can go through the good times and the bad times and understands you and has your back and has a common purpose with you, and in Masonry, I have found that and for that I'm grateful, and I know a lot of brothers are shaking their head yes, right now out there who have also found it, and we need to protect it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know and if there's a our responsibility At vigilance is the price that we pay.
Speaker 1:That's right. We are the fraternity right now, all of us alive on this planet that are mason's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's our job, that's right.
Speaker 1:Thank you, that's right and grow it and Use it to become better people, more useful citizens.
Speaker 2:Well, brother, once again, another, another epic episode, and I'm sorry about the lost episode. This is the replacement for the lost episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was very similar to this. It was very similar, that's right got the information that we wanted to go over and we encourage you please Do this in your lodge. If you do education in your lodge, it's not too hard to pick something out of, like we just did right. We covered half of the charge in an hour. Yeah, you could pick a paragraph in the charge and cover it in 10, 15 minutes right.
Speaker 1:Just talk about your thoughts on it and then open it up and see what the rest of the lodge has to say about it. You're getting education. You're engaging people. Everybody's learning. It's a positive thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, and and as, and you would be facilitating, facilitating a Moment of Masonic education in the lodge together with your brothers, and it just it. That can't be a bad thing, man, because we do it all the time, chris and I do it all time we go to the esoteric discussion group and we throw a concept out there to our brothers and really, from that point on we just facilitate conversation and it just grows on itself and it just builds on itself and it becomes just a wonderful time of Of brother ship, of brotherhood and learning that you can't get anywhere else, man. You're not gonna get that anywhere else. It's practical understandings for living your life in a way that is pleasing to God and beneficial to your brothers and sisters out there when, um when, I'm like this Saturday we're gonna have a campfire not a campfire, but we'll have a fire in the backyard.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm all sit around it in our chairs and we're all gonna many of us will be we're gonna have a nice smoke in a stogie and I'll have us will be whiskey in my hand. I'm not an over drinker, but it's a social setting. It's my house, I'm relaxed, I'm not driving anywhere. I'll probably sit on a whiskey and we're gonna sit and talk about this fraternity that I love and I've realized while it's happening that these are moments in my life I'm gonna look back fondly on. I.
Speaker 1:I'm weird like that like actually having the thought while I'm doing it like, wow, I need to be present because this is something I'm I know when I'm an old man. If I make it there, I'm gonna look back at these were the good times in my life and it makes me enjoy that moment even more with my brothers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, you'll see me at some point sit back in my chair and just have a big smile on my face, and that's what's right through my mind is I'm appreciating this for what it is. These kinds of moments are moments that you're gonna make that will be very impactful for the rest of your life If it's done properly and you you, you can do it. All you need is a couple guys to say yeah, we'll try it out. And if you go With a topic in mind, doesn't need to be a big topic.
Speaker 1:No, no conversation will flow right, yeah people will engage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they'll open up, especially in the lodge setting, when they're all sitting on the sidelines and you're standing in front of them bringing some kind of you know little, small little truth, a paragraph like, like Chris said, open up that blue book, grab a paragraph, read it first and then read it out loud and just begin, just begin to open people up.
Speaker 1:What does it mean? Yeah, how do you take that? How do you take that? Have a different take on this. Yeah, watch what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's absolutely amazing and you won't regret it. And if you do that, please send us an email and let us know how it went and if there's anything we can do to help Fred at on the level with Fred and Chris calm or Chris at the longest email address on the internet. For a reason, I haven't said that in a while.
Speaker 1:We should like live stream one of these things. I don't know. Do you think that would inhibit people from sharing if we, if we made it like live on the internet?
Speaker 2:I think we should. I think we should get there. Yes, I I think it looks fun yeah. I don't think we should do it every week. Once a month, maybe once a month, we'll start advertising it. Guys listen up and and then maybe you guys can log in While we do a live stream, and, yeah, we'll set that up and give it a try, but maybe like once a quarter, maybe we open one up to the public. Yeah, yeah, just maybe we'll get Alex Jones to call in and see.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, brother, I did it anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be great if he called in, because that brother you know could probably use a little masonic light in his life.
Speaker 2:I had another situation. I listen to a lot of podcasts and when I when I get into a thing where I want to, I want to learn and do some be taught some things, I I use the internet, especially YouTube, to educate myself in different ways and I have just a plethora of teachers out there that I go to in Certain six situations.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, the Illuminati and I Study the scriptures a lot like every morning, and I've been on this track of Study lately, which is just exciting man, I'm a geek, so it's really exciting to me and maybe someday I'll actually use it to the benefit of others, but right now it's completely benefiting me. But I tuned in to a pastor that I've listened to for years and he was doing the teaching on the subject that I've been studying and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, is he blurts out and Masonry is a cult, and it's just like I'm driving along listening to it, trying to, you know, get the information I need, and if this just jumps out at me, like I'm pulling over to hear this and, and so it sparked me to take, I'm leaving the track, the study track I'm on and the study track that I'm picking up is is masonry a cult? And how can I formulate and Articulate to a person in very clear and simple ways that it is not. So this is where I'm going with my studies and you can go to my substack, which is the compass and the cross on substack, and I'll be. I'll be throwing out some of my ideas and thoughts there. Feel free to comment or to help out in any way you want on that, on that, on that it's the compass and the cross on sub, a substack calm.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, so that's that's where I'm headed now with my insane deep dive study. Is it a cult? And if not, this is my premise. And if not which I don't think it is Then how do I clearly and succinctly articulate that to somebody who thinks it is? Now, I know we talked about don't argue with people. I'm not talking about arguing and fighting with people over stuff. But if you got a guy who's asking questions about masonry and they think it's a cult, how, how can you articulate to another person that it isn't, and and in a way that is truthful and informational? So that's where I'm headed with that.
Speaker 1:Well, you have to ask yourself how do you define a cult? Well, because they a cult is like a very broad term. Are we talking really what the term cult means?
Speaker 2:Well, what he meant? What? What Pastor Mark Driscoll?
Speaker 1:meant just minute is a derogatory, no, no no, what he specifically means is the.
Speaker 2:The original definition of a cult is any religious organization, any organization that calls itself religious but does not hold to the traditional tenets of the Christian faith.
Speaker 1:So any other faith other than Christianity correct, so that was originally kind of a derogatory term for someone that's not of your face. So now it means a cult, or a cult Means just anybody who's into something I don't agree with yeah, that's too broad and the term cult definitely has a derogatory meaning today to it, because I mean, I watch a lot, a lot of documentaries on cults, unfascinated by it right, but they've reinterpreted that word correct.
Speaker 1:Well, today In academia there are some litmus tests for is something a cult or not? One of them is a single charismatic leader that everyone has unwavering devotion to yeah, that would be like a Guyana.
Speaker 2:What's the Jim Jones?
Speaker 1:like Jesus, for example. He's not a live person, so can you call it a cult? I don't think so. A cult is like you said, jim Jones. This is a man who's alive and living today, who's telling you. He's the only way. He has all the answers. He needs to be listened to. Without question. Freemasonry doesn't have a person like that.
Speaker 2:No, no. But I do need to just remind you that Christianity believes that Christ is alive, Just.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, that he is a little more cult like.
Speaker 2:Well, you know the story, christmas and Easter story.
Speaker 1:You know those Christian standpoint, right, right yeah, about Christmas being the birth of Jesus and then the death and resurrection, oh, from from the. So I thought resurrection meant he was raised, like you know, raised up, and he had a Physical presence, only to show himself to certain people to know, to bolster their faith. He showed himself to like. Well, let me couple people right.
Speaker 2:I don't know how we got here, but from a Christian perspective, he was born a human being through a human being, but divine. So that's the hypostatic union. And then he lived the life that we could not live. He ticked off the church and the church had the government murder him, which was part of God's divine plan, but but he, being God, could not be held by death, therefore was raised and is now seated and will return against. We'll return again from the place where he is seated so you consider him alive, like flesh and blood alive.
Speaker 2:Well, no, he is, here we go. No, you said he's. No, he is alive and right because in my mind he Jesus. His body he was risen up into heaven his physical body has been transformed into a heavenly body, as Will all those in the end be raised to the same so not a physical flesh and blood person.
Speaker 1:Currently no. Jim Jones was.
Speaker 2:Jim Jones was right. That's where we, how we got here, but I just wanted to make the comment that that anyway, let's move on so another litmus test for cult is they are going to separate you from people that aren't member of that group.
Speaker 2:Right, they have to they have to do that because if you are around people who are not part of the cult, then they could. You could find out the truth. You could be brought you know the truth from the outside, could be brought in, like the hail Bob Remember the hail Bob start comic cult and they all believe that there was a spaceship on the backside of the hail Bob Comet and they all committed suicide together After they castrated themselves.
Speaker 1:That would be a modern-day Explanation of a cult because it had a single leader right all followed and they literally killed themselves on his word on his word Right they had to cut themselves off from their family and loved absolutely yeah, they didn't think the way they thought right. These are all the litmus tests where you say cult cult, cult cult right because there's always, like you say, there's always a cult leader. But in Masonry, charismatic one usually in.
Speaker 2:Masonry. We have a form of representative government from the bottom up right, we have a Grandmaster most. He's only in our state, he only runs our state correct the country doesn't answer to our grand and he does not have the authority to Dictate to the individual Mason how they're supposed to. You know what they're supposed to do and think and say no, we have to approve those changes.
Speaker 2:Everything is approved by our leadership and it's a beautiful system. It's very familiar system. We say this all the time. It's a constitutional republic like system of government and and when it works. It's really great to see our masonic government at work. It really is, and I'm so grateful to our the most most worshipal bishop, for you know some of the moves he's made to really put us back in an attitude of Using masonic law, using the masonic traditions to benefit Masonry, and I'm really, I really do appreciate. I look forward to interviewing him.
Speaker 1:I did, I did leave.
Speaker 2:I left him a message the other day no pressure, most worst of all and and I'm one petition him to be on.
Speaker 1:We're petitioning, yes, please sir. We're in so much trouble now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, hopefully it's not too late. He he did mention that he'd be willing to do an interview when he's down in st Pete At the Masonic Lodge and he's a masonic home as a masonic home and, of course, the first lady who's very passionate about the people who live in the masonic home as well, being interviewed. So that's something we're really looking forward to. I hope we can put that together and share that with you guys going forward anyways my cheap shout out to the most.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Odessa and Glenn Bishop will be on the show yes, it will happen. That's right, but what I was saying is you can argue with that person that we don't exhibit any of the traits of the cult.
Speaker 2:No, no, I don't have a single dynamic leader.
Speaker 1:No, nobody's gonna jump off a bridge if their district deputy tells them to no, that's right as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2:Quite the opposite probably not. The deputy would be thrown off the bridge.
Speaker 1:No one's gonna do that. We not only. Do we not cut you off from your family and non-believers.
Speaker 2:We invite you to bring them to our events to see who we are and what we're about and we invite you to make yourself a better man, that you would benefit your family and that you would be a better husband, be a better father, be a better you know could community person Overall in your life, regardless of your background or where you come from, how much money you have, what you do for a living, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:We want to make good men, better men, and preserve the, the honor and then dignity of our ancient fraternity and the final litmus test for a cult is it has a differing alternative for salvation than traditional religions do, and Freemasonry doesn't have that no Freemasonry.
Speaker 2:We're not a religion wait to your salvation. Freemasonry is not a religion. It is not a religion. It says it in our documents very clearly.
Speaker 1:You've already got that when you came to the doors. We don't let you in, unless you got that figured out already, you have you can't be an atheist.
Speaker 2:Right, and it's funny. In our tradition, you know, the atheist Is in the same category as the fool in the libertine. Yeah we don't want people who don't, we're not open to what we would consider the obvious fact of a grand architect, because it's really tough to look at this world.
Speaker 1:It's a core part of Freemasonry.
Speaker 2:It is absolutely the core part in the higher power. That's correct you believe in God. Let's say you believe in God is the way it's worded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can say that, because we say it throughout all of our ritual.
Speaker 2:That's right. Somewhere in one of the one of the writings it's that we hold to the fatherhood of God. It says that as as part of Masonry, and that being it just that, that, that God, the great architect, is the ultimate authority. He is sustainer creator and ultimate authority over the lives of them, of a Mason. That's what you're committing to when you come here.
Speaker 1:We refer to God as a parent many times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yep, we are all brothers and sisters of the same almighty parent, essentially, correct. And you can call whatever you want, you can worship however you want. That's totally fine. But you do need to have, like you said, some basis of where you think you know your. Your view on this needs to be firmly established before you come, or at least loosely established right come.
Speaker 2:I I always look at it like it's. It's kind of like it's not that you must affirm A belief in God. That's the positive. The negative is, you cannot be an atheist, and I think I think it's more about that it's. This would be a great discussion, but I think it's more about that you can't come to Masonry, believing in your heart that all of this is an accident and that there is, there is no divine. That because that's what atheists believe. They believe in a natural selection through random variation, which is the Darwinian, the Darwinian process, and you can't be a Mason.
Speaker 1:That doesn't preclude God. You can observe that in nature. The book of nature teaches you that evolution is real and happens all the time.
Speaker 2:Well, not Darwinian evolution.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I guess you could the tree of life, monkey or something, no, the tree the tree of life has been completely debunked by the DNA.
Speaker 2:A discovery of DNA? Yeah, the Darwin's Tree of Life.
Speaker 1:It's no Darwin's Tree of Life. Oh, look it up. I know everyone knows of Darwin's theory of evolution.
Speaker 2:Well, the basis of it is the Tree of Life is. Is that that that concept? He drew a tree and it shows all these things. But over time, in an age of scientific enlightenment, we get more and more information Into the creation, that's my word, into the creation that's all around us. And as time went on, we just found it just became untenable to believe that things are getting things started from a single cell and then from there got better and better and stronger and smarter and better and better and better and all things are Are as one through random variation and chance. That's not possible Based on the actual science. It's just simply not possible.
Speaker 2:So I would encourage everybody to look up intelligent design, the discovery Discovery Institute. If you go to, if you go, do a Google search discovery Institute and look into the concept of intelligent design, it fits very well with the mace, with the concept in masonry, and it's it's absolutely brilliant. These scientists, these, these well accomplished scientists and biologists and and archaeologists and all of these brilliant men and women who are looking into. Okay, there's clearly a mind, there's clearly a design and a mind behind all of this. Let's just, as scientists, go from one Hypothesis to the other, to the other and find out where it leads, and it's fascinating where they've ended up.
Speaker 1:This is one of my favorite things about that freemasonry gave me is it opened my eyes up to the. There's the book of revelations and the book of nature.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:The book of revelations isn't everything Okay. It's not Because there are many books of revelation, but the book of nature is a commonality that we all share.
Speaker 1:Yeah, general revelation the more we look at nature through scientific means, the better we understand our creator. It's it's odd to me that people put those things at odds like that. By looking at you know, they come up with theories which are just working theories, because some of these things are, in my opinion, never going to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Many things like creation, we talked, we've talked about this on the car, on the way to an esoteric discussion.
Speaker 1:Right, we're like oh, where did it all come from? And you got a scientist in the car talking about the big bang theory. Mm-hmm and you got you talking about the book of Genesis, and really neither one of you are. Art can be proven wrong.
Speaker 2:And one of you can be proven right. Well, that's right. What everyone in the car could be wrong, but not everyone in the car could be right.
Speaker 1:So, but in there is the conversation. You're not hurting anyone by believing what you believe. Yeah, and I just side note.
Speaker 2:I am not a young earth creationist, just so everybody understands. All right, we can go on.
Speaker 1:That is an important thing, because that's, yeah, that's a tough one to get past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think my, my brothers and sisters in the church who still hold on to a young earth creationism. I mean, I think they do so out of tradition, which it you know, it's not a test for Christianity. You can still be a believer, you know a believer, and and hold to a young earth or or a not young earth paradigm. The only reason being is the first two, first two chapters of the book of Genesis. We're not written to give us a date of the earth. That's not what it's for it. So it uses the concept of days as at four for its purpose, but not for the purpose of telling us how old the earth is.
Speaker 2:Because we can prove scientifically I've said this on the show before there is SN 185 Is a supernova that we've been tracking For for a lot of years, and the light signatures from that supernova that hit the earth are 275,000 years old. So that's empirical proof, that's mathematical proof, that that light signature there's a lot of other caveats to that, to that statement, but that light signature is in fact 275,000 years old. That's tough to explain.
Speaker 1:There's much, much older light signatures being detected with correct. Web telescope now correct but you know, here's, there's two things that I want to make a point of. Science Helps us uncover the truth of things. I don't think that anyone can argue that it doesn't Help to uncover the truth the true, the true scientific process can correct and doesn't always, but it can help uncover the truth of things. And what is the truth If it's not the death of a previous truth?
Speaker 1:When something becomes true. You're killing the truth of some, something that existed before that truth You'd have to think about that for a while, yeah, it's deep when you think about that, like every truth kills a Previous truth, so you have to be careful of clinging to things so tightly that you can't see a A different truth than the one you've decided on, and science Uncovering things that are new. It shouldn't worry you about losing your faith. It should get you excited about becoming closer to discovering the truth of God.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, yeah, that's all of these scientific discoveries in my mind are awakening me to the greater, bigger picture of this creation and making it more undeniable that there's order to it all.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that, that and that's absolutely true.
Speaker 1:Don't fear that. That the science, because it's just helping uncover truths that are gonna bring the real truth out, but which is you can't deny there's really intelligent Design behind all this.
Speaker 2:No, you can't. That's right, it's. It's there from the smallest Preatomic molecule to the vastness of the universe. There's absolutely no way that this fight this, this fireball surrounded by water that's traveling 27,000 miles per second around the Sun At the same, at the same 23.78 pitch to the Sun, move at one degree and everyone dies. There's no possible way. This happened by accident, that's just simply not possible.
Speaker 1:Blow it up and at the scale that we're now looking at. We're so microscopic and Intessibly small or very special or extremely special. To protect what we have absolutely more reason if that's what you think. We're unique in the only life in the universe.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think we're the only life in the universe, but we certainly are unique in our universe protect it then absolutely really important.
Speaker 1:imagine if we snuffed ourselves out of the universe and the only special Thing like ourselves went out and we did it to ourselves. Come on, that's a shame.
Speaker 2:Well, if we believe in a sovereign divine being, I don't think he's gonna let that happen, but I think you're right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, yeah and we certainly are trying to destroy ourselves in many different ways and, and if we keep it up, if we, it's in our genes.
Speaker 2:We've never been closer, we've never been closer to absolutely destroying ourselves. And it's all for what? Greed? For money, greed and power. And it's always that way, you know. But I do believe that there is divine intervention and, in the end, if God is who he says he is and the universe is as big as we know it is then he's already got a plan. He has to. He's way more advanced than we are. Yeah, already has a plan. And we're not thwarting that plan. We're not upsetting the plan of a being that has to be that powerful.
Speaker 1:We're not here's the risk, in my mind, of letting yourself go too far down. That thinking is Is if you think that the Almighty Creators gonna take care of you, you might not act in a way that you need to to make that happen in reality, because I think all books of Revelation say that God works through us. Right like we have to act While we're here and and protect ourselves, and we have to act justly, yeah, and and we have to pursue truth.
Speaker 2:It doesn't come natural to us right. Our natural proclivity is to grab everything for ourselves and hold on to everything for ourselves and Step over you to get to what I need, even if it's a noble purpose. But what? What we're told in Revelation is that we are to we are to learn how to be good, kind, gentle, generous, self-controlled, to protect the innocent, to provide for others. That's what we have to learn to do.
Speaker 1:Vessel of God, then you're a vessel of God.
Speaker 2:Not only that, you, you are, you are exerting his, his tendencies, his personality. You're living the personality. He is gracious, he is generous, he is kind, forgiving, he is forgiving. When you do these things in your life, you are very close to walking in a way that he walked, you know, and that's uh, that's that's the highest calling of man, in my opinion. All right, brother, we are at an hour and 35 minutes, right. I think this has been a really great show.
Speaker 1:Got deep on there. We did apprentice charge, right, yeah, so where you can go when you talk about this stuff.
Speaker 2:I know right, yeah, get out there and do it. Get out there and do it. Brothers, um, I don't know where we're going next. We'll think that through we'll have something.
Speaker 1:I'm sure two more charges we could. There are two more charges.
Speaker 2:And again, if you're a, if you're an EA and you find out that the show is about the the master mason charge, you know it's up to you. You could. You could go on to the Grand Lodge website and read it for yourself. But if you choose not to because you want to experience it for the first time in Lodge, there's nothing wrong with that, brother, I, I applaud you for it. But it is not. It's not mandatory. Some people want to know, to enhance, you know, what they're experiencing. Some people don't, to enhance what they're experiencing.
Speaker 1:That's the beauty of Freemasonry, rocket the way you want to rock it. We're not gonna give away any of the secrets of the ritual.
Speaker 2:No sir.
Speaker 1:You're still gonna be surprised never have, never will.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:But the charges are more about, like, the way we're supposed to behave in our different phases of Masonry.
Speaker 2:That's right oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, here comes the okay. It's like when the guy's giving a speech on the Oscar stage and the music comes on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, except I don't know if the music's coming on, so We'll see. If not, we'll have to edit it in, which is not a problem. Chris has done that many times, I appreciate you taking time.
Speaker 1:I know you're busy and I'm busy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're busy, but I appreciate you doing this, and me too, brother going back over this.
Speaker 1:It's always a great time, always worth every minute of my time.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man. I love doing this. We will always do this. Next year, when you are no longer the worst full master of our lodge, we are gonna blow this thing up, man. We are gonna take it to the next level.
Speaker 2:I am very much looking forward to that me too and I'm very much looking forward to talking to and with you guys on the next broadcast, and I don't know what we're gonna do, but it's gonna be great, because it always is, and if you've listened to the end, you, you're our hero, man. We really appreciate you. Send us an email, man. Let us know what you think.
Speaker 1:If you, let us know what direction we got to go in if you have a great Masonic Lecture idea that you want to present, get in touch with us. We're looking. Yeah, oh absolutely have something interesting to share in Masonry and are willing to come to an education in person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You got it All right, brother. Until next time I will. I will talk to you.