Freemasonry Isn't Dying, It's Refining

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Robert H. Johnson

Refinement - re.fine.ment - 
The process of removing impurities or unwanted elements from a substance.

I've been researching Freemasonry for about ten years now and there seems to be no shortage of information, ideas and general complaining about our membership numbers. That is, the number of Freemasons in the United States and it's decline over time. The obsession over these membership numbers has been covered ad nauseam.

Fixing things has long been the goal. I'm not sure that we need to fix anything. It seems as though Freemasonry is correcting itself in that we are reverting to the small, refined group we once were, composed of knowledgeable, carefully selected and true brothers.

When I ran "surveys galore" as expressed by a post on "Blinded by the Light" it was interesting to see the take on it [my piece] and Jon Ruark's (see video link below) research into our decline. The aforementioned blog is stating the elephant in the room is that the Grand Lodge system itself is to blame for the downfall of membership. And in part it's true, but perhaps not why you think.

I think I am going to say something here which not many people, possibly no one has said quite this way before. We aren't losing members and we aren't dying and we aren't going anywhere. Your respective Grand Lodge on the other hand may be. 

Let me explain. In 1924 the Masonic Services Association started keeping track of the number of Freemasons in the United States. This number was based on regular lodges under the respective Grand Lodge system of that state. You can look at those numbers by clicking HERE. 

Notice the rapid rise and the mega decline. At a point we had almost 6 million members, now we only have about 1.2 million according to 2014. I suspect we will have even less when the 2015 numbers come out. Grand lodges are consistently pushing membership drives and one-day conferrals, amendments to the way Freemasons progress through the degrees and much more. But none of it is helping. 

Bro. Jon Ruark of the Masonic Roundtable did an excellent presentation this last year about membership numbers, which I mentioned above. You can watch it HERE. In short Non Payment of Dues suspensions and deaths are the culprit of dropping membership, coupled with the fact that not many men are joining. 

According to recent Pew poll the percentage of Americans who have a belief in a supreme being is decreasing. The target audience for Masonry is dwindling. Read about it HERE.  After all this though, consider these statements:

• At Masonry's peak, from an educational standpoint (1900) Freemasonry was small. 
• The influx of men into the Fraternity during the 50s and 60s was an anomaly.
• The craft built an empire based on an influx of men and treated that high number as the new normal which for whatever reason they still measure us against today!
• Now that we are returning to normal numbers, the craft is trying to figure out ways to sustain the top heavy elements we built.

What I'm saying Brothers, is that the membership drives are to sustain what was erroneously built based on a false presumption about what Masonic membership numbers would be in the future. We are returning to the smaller group we once were, and that's okay.

When I asked for a peer review of this piece, my Brother said "I'm left asking myself, what do I do with this information?" I'm not sure you can do anything with this information other than let it give you comfort. Comfort in knowing things are just fine. We are returning to our original purpose, our original aim.

The Masonic "Utopia"? - If we look at the number of actual members who are active (about 5%), and we divided them into about 450  2000 lodges around the United States, we'd have about 30 members per lodge. Is that so bad? The question is left on how to facilitate those lodges in that kind of a system. First I'd say we'd need to do what the UK has done and establish a National Grand lodge, abolish progressive lines, get rid of all appendant bodies with the exception of the York and Scottish Rite and move business meetings to a quarterly basis. Joining the appendant bodies would only be granted after service to a lodge for a set number of years. Sounds interesting right? More Masonic education, less business...I think I know a lodge that's starting to do that right now...

In conclusion, next time someone says "Masonry is dying.", make sure you tell them, "We're not dying, we're refining."

~RHJ

Bro. Robert Johnson, PM is the Managing Editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Freemason out of the 1st N.E. District of Illinois. He currently serves as the Secretary of Waukegan Lodge No. 78 where he is a Past Master. He also serves as the Education officer for the 1st N.E. District of Illinois. Brother Johnson currently produces and hosts weekly Podcasts (internet radio programs) Whence Came You? & Masonic Radio Theatre which focus on topics relating to Freemasonry. He is also a co-host of The Masonic Roundtable, a Masonic talk show. He is a husband and father of four, works full time in the executive medical industry and is also an avid home brewer. He is currently working on a book of Masonic essays and one on Occult Anatomy to be released soon.