For those of you who know me personally, you may be acquainted with my Masonic journey and some complaints I have lodged based on what I will call common sense observations that often are backed up by Masonic rules... just depends on people's interpretations, which is always a scary thought to me personally.
I have had a number of obstacles thrown in my way, mostly by mainstream Freemasons in America, and on rare ocassions a Prince Hall Freemason who simply disliked my holding mainstream membership, even if our Grand Lodges were in recognition with each other. My example would be the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of North Carolina, which presently claims it has NO record of me having been a member there despite my having been issued an MM diploma. I appear in none of the annual reports I should appear in.
What happened? Good question, and I have NO answer. I won't even expend any mental energy on trying to figure it out but do fail to understand how there would be NO record of me in any Grand Lodge I have held past membership in unless the records were removed (or destroyed) on purpose by someone.
I recently made a decision to drop my Scottish Rite membership, and request a demit from my valley/ consistory. I am going to lay out the reasons why I arrived at my decision, and let you all come to your own conclusions.
When I first moved to West Virginia from Texas in 2005, I held membership in the Grand Lodge of Texas, and a dual membership in the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. Today, I am not proud of having held membership in either Grand Lodge, and often wasn't treated any better by the GL's I held membership in than the foreign GL's that would refuse me visitation because of my race/ ethnicity.
Fast forward to 2014 --- through a strange twist, I end up member of a mainstream Grand Lodge and a Prince Hall Scottish Rite Consistory. There is NO conflict between my Grand Lodge nor the Prince Hall Consistory as I am able to hold membership in both.
Yet, when I try to visit Scottish Rite Valley's & Consistory's I am denied the ability to visit anywhere, only it is primarily happening with Prince Hall Scottish Rite in West Virginia... even though I was a Prince Hall AASR member in good standing. I have also been denied visitation by mainstream AASR in Steubenville, Ohio; Wheeling, West Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
With a recognition agreement having been signed in 2013 between Supreme Council's in theory there shouldn't have been any issue with visiting anywhere, and AASR visitation certainly shouldn't have been predicated upon where my Symbolic Lodge membership was held.
I am once again giving contemplation to the question of exactly why do I remain a Freemason. There are so many examples of conduct that cause me to cringe that I once again understand how we drive membership away that have great potential in favor of political ass-kissers willing to simply wait their turn to advance through the stations.
I was always taught that advancement in Freemasonry should be factored on merit, and not seniority; another lesson that many of today's members simply refuse to implement by always seeking to put their beer-drinking, skirt-chasing buddies in said positions. In my opinion Freemasonry went from attracting the intellectual elite regardless of class or social standing, to becoming but another blue-collar version of an animal lodge (Elks, Eagles, Moose, Water Buffalo).
So once again, I have been able to share my latest installment of the hypocrisy that calls itself Freemasonry in America... take from it what you will, and please give thought to NOT displaying the negative conduct I have detailed in this writing.
Frat,
Raymond Sean Walters a/k/a Renaissance Man
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