Tolerating Different Opinions – 1939 And 2021

This is a paid post contributed by a Patch Community Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author's own, and the information presented has not been verified by Patch.

“Four score and two years ago,” the World was on the threshold of World War II, and Americans began to observe the great dangers posed by totalitarian governments that insisted upon absolute conformity in thought and speech. Eighty-two years later, this Country is challenged again to understand that people of principle may hold different views on a matter of public concern without being evil or unpatriotic. The insistence upon any universal, orthodox, system of thought may be the greatest threat to our democracy as we begin the third decade of this century.

Before World War II, Freemasons, like many other organizations, were torn by the doubts and fears they faced as they confronted the challenge of whether or not America should become embroiled in the wars in Europe and Asia as they spread conflict through the Middle East, Africa, the sub-continent of India and Southeast Asia, as well as Australasia and the Pacific.

The War Would Become Personal

Many New Jersey Masons, like their brothers across America, had strong family ties to Europe and struggled with the idea of going to war against relatives and friends in their respective homelands. Moreover, Lodge members had ties to Nations then at war with each other. When Belgium and France fell to Germany and Italy allied with the Axis, the conflict became more personal to millions of Americans.

Some people in the United States were beginning to talk of the need for loyalty oaths, requiring citizens to “prove” whether they had undivided loyalty to America. A few short years later, the U.S.A. would actually intern Americans of German and Japanese heritage, something unthinkable to most of us today.

Madison Lodge’s recorded history contains a record of the distress experienced in the Lodges all over America. Grand Lodges in many States were urged by some members to adopt a unified stance on the intensifying war in Europe and Asia while being pressured, equally strongly, to stand against involvement in the “foreign wars.” Some members argued that the Fraternity ought to take a public stand and speak with “one voice”; others cautioned against the danger of compelling all members to agree to any uniform, scripted position. Sentiment was strong to remain principled, but publicly uncommitted to a singular voice.

To “Get Involved” or to Encourage Individuals to Speak and Act

Freemasonry in America knows only too well the pain and angst of brother Masons fighting against each other as our Lodges included both Tory sympathizers and Revolutionaries in the late 18th century. During the Civil War, Masons saw many families with committed members in both Blue and Grey Uniforms.

In February of 1939, at the annual Conference of Grand Masters, the leaders of the Craft from the then 48 States and the District of Columbia, discussed that there was some strong sentiment that the Grand Lodges ought to encourage individual Masons to endorse politicians supporting involvement in the growing War or, alternatively, to publicly opposing the idea of committing precious human and other resources. This was no simple matter and it called for careful consideration. What, if anything, ought American Masons do?

At the end of the Conference, they adopted the attached Declaration of Principles, and recommended that each of the Grand Lodges consider adopting it. .The Grand Lodge of New Jersey adopted it at the April annual meeting. It served as both an admonition to members to remember what the Fraternity stands for, as well as reinforcing the principle that each member must be responsible for his own conduct and follow his conscience in both public and private matters.

The Message

The Declaration contains a powerful message that resonates for the twenty-first century, encouraging civil liberty, religious liberty AND intellectual liberty. Freemasons are encouraged to participate as individuals, not as, or for, “Masons” collectively. Without compromising our firmly held beliefs and philosophies, we nevertheless respect the rights of others to disagree with us.
Rather than forbidding discussions of important subjects, the Declaration reminds all to speak of things that reflect common values and to gain strength from each other. In short, the admonition is to avoid talk of differences that divide us and concentrate our energies on working for the common good.

The Past Is Prologue

The government model followed by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the USSR and Communist China, is one of a singularly powerful government, requiring obedience and suppressing dissent. It uses propaganda-centered news reporting, censorship of opposing views and the destruction of religious and other moral influences. And it has provoked disastrous consequences for the peoples subjugated by the system.

This reflection on the pre-War era offers food for thought at a time when there are some Americans, in both extremes of political persuasion, who advocate for a singular and exclusive orthodoxy of opinion, and openly favor restrictions upon non-conforming expression. One must wonder why modern education has shifted away from teaching our history and the strength of sharing values and respecting the rights of individuals to differ with their government and with each other. While emphasizing diversity of national origin, race and gender, we are failing to extol the virtues of diverse thought and tolerance of differing beliefs and opinions.

Masons Then and Now

Freemasonry has changed vastly over the last 82 years. It’s membership has ebbed and flowed. It has embraced the digital revolution and has grown even amidst the pandemic that continues to afflict the world. It has endured religious, cultural, and political censure domestically and internationally; all while tolerating and accepting the religious, cultural, and political differences of its membership and of the communities it serves.

What hasn’t changed since its codified origins in northern England in the early 1700s, to its establishment throughout the American colonies, is that Freemasonry is the main vehicle that brought the ideas and principles of the Enlightenment into the New World. We continue these traditions today by exemplifying a way to meet our neighbors and conduct business in a way that enshrines tolerance and protects the rights and liberties of others.

For more information about Freemasonry in New Jersey - visit https://www.newjerseygrandlodge.org/

Disclaimer: THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF ALL MEMBERS OF MADISON LODGE, NOR OF THE GRAND LODGE OF NEW JERSEY.

The 1939 Declaration of Principles

Freemasonry is a charitable, benevolent, educational and religious society. Its principles are proclaimed as widely as men will hear. Its only secrets are in its methods of recognition and of symbolic instruction.

It is benevolent in that it teaches and exemplifies altruism as a duty. It is educational in that it teaches by prescribed ceremonials a system of morality and brotherhood based upon the Sacred Law.

Religious, Though not a Religion

It is religious in that it teaches monotheism; the Volume of Sacred Law is open upon its altars whenever a lodge is in session, reverence for God is ever present in its ceremonial, and to its brethren are constantly addressed lessons of morality; yet it is not sectarian or theological. {Author’s note: Depending upon the Lodge, the Volume of Sacred Law may be the Christian Bible, the Torah, the Koran or the Law revered by any monotheistic belief system. In some Lodges as many as five volumes are displayed as reminders to Brother Masons of the respective Sacred Texts they espouse.}

Social, Though not a Social Club

It is a social organization only so far as it furnishes additional inducement that men may foregather in numbers, thereby providing more material for its primary work of education, of worship, and of charity.

Through the improvement and strengthening of the character of the individual man, Freemasonry seeks to improve the community. Thus, it impresses upon its members the principles of personal righteousness and personal responsibility, enlightens them as to those things which make for human welfare, and inspires them with that feeling of charity and good-will toward all mankind which will move them to translate principle and conviction into action.

Duty to Country, Dedication to Equality

To that end, it teaches and stands for the worship of God; truth and justice; fraternity and philanthropy; and enlightenment and orderly liberty, civil and religious and intellectual.

It charges each of its members to be true and loyal to the government of the country to which he owes allegiance and to be obedient to the law of any State in which he may be.

It believes that the attainment of these objectives is best accomplished by laying a broad basis of principle upon which men of every race, country, sect and opinion may unite, rather than by setting up a restricted platform upon which only those of certain races, creeds and opinions can assemble.

Prohibits Discussion of Politics and Creeds in Lodge

Believing these things, this Grand Lodge affirms its continued adherence to that ancient and approved rule of Freemasonry which forbids the discussion in Masonic Meetings of creeds, politics or other topics likely to excite personal animosities.

Individual Action, not Collective Political Involvement

It further affirms its conviction that it is not only contrary to the fundamental principles of Freemasonry, but dangerous to its unity, strength, usefulness and welfare, for Masonic bodies to take action or attempt to exercise pressure or influence for or against any legislation, or in any other way to attempt to procure the election or appointment of government officials, or to influence them, whether or not members of the Fraternity, in the performance of their official duties. The true Freemason will act in civil life according to his individual judgement and the dictates of his conscience.

Adopted at the 152nd Annual Communication of the M.W. Grand Lodge of New Jersey on April 19-20, 1939.” [Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of The Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons for the State of New Jersey, Vo. XLII, Pages 55-56.]

This is a paid post contributed by a Community Partner, a local brand partner. To learn more, click here.