I don't think, that "in lodge" means necessarily, in the lodge building. I think, it means, in the official parts of a lodge meeting. But, I learned several times now, that US brethren have a different perspective, when it comes to their lodge buildings.
Rather brother, I take it to be any place you can offend. Lodge, lodge meetings, and premises should be free of the profane world's divisions. Yes, it is a heritage in the United States. It goes back to our Revolutionary and Civil War periods.
During the Revolutionary War it is written that combatants from both sides actually sat in lodge together before going back to the battlefield. George Washington's troops returned the charter of a British unit captured in battle.
A Union gunboat commander was buried by a contingent of Union sailors who were assisted by Confederate troops in St. Francisville, Louisiana. This act of masonic brotherhood has been celebrated every spring on the banks of the Mississippi River to this day.
Here in Texas there it is written about a masonic lodge which nearly ceased to meet while its brethren went off to serve both the Confederacy and the Union during the Civil War. When the brethren came home they returned to lodge and kept the bitter memories of conflict away. That lodge is vibrant and strong today solely because of the ability of those fine brethren to overcome the disagreements.
Simply said, masonry (to me) is for the celebration of our commonalities and not our differences.
