Tim Bryce's blog

[BullDozer Harrell]

http://freemasoninformation.com/2015/11/why-i-no-longer-attend-lodge/

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[Bloke]

I am 75% sure that is a re-post.


Yes. There is already a conversation at that thread on this Tim's post...

Checked and found it here http://www.myfreemasonry.com/threads/why-i-no-longer-attend-lodge.26119/

Then I noticed the date on his web site for the post November 19, 2015 - he's simply currently featuring that post...

 

[Ripcord22A]

"When I first started going to Lodge in the 90’s, people cared about each other, there were no personal domination issues, and certainly no politics. Masonic education was considered important for success, and our floor work was impeccable." Tim Bryce

I have certainly noticed a lack of application by most new brethren - many of whom have dropped out.

But I ask myself whether that is entirely the fault of the new brethren or whether the lodges gradually ceased to provide the inner nourishment the new Masons were seeking.

I cant speak definitively but I think that brethren that joined in the previous century were truly looking for brotherhood and enlightenment and to make themselves better, maybe even for the contacts being a mason indirectly gives you. the brethren that have joined and stuck with it in this century I think were also looking for that, those that have dropped out I think might have come from the millennial conspiracy theory group that were hoping it was more then a dinner club for men. They were hoping we actually ride then sacrifice a goat, worship Lucifer and all that. When they found all that to be hogwash they left.

 

[Bloke]

I cant speak definitively but I think that brethren that joined in the previous century were truly looking for brotherhood and enlightenment and to make themselves better, maybe even for the contacts being a mason indirectly gives you. the brethren that have joined and stuck with it in this century I think were also looking for that, those that have dropped out I think might have come from the millennial conspiracy theory group that were hoping it was more then a dinner club for men. They were hoping we actually ride then sacrifice a goat, worship Lucifer and all that. When they found all that to be hogwash they left.

It's late and I am grumpy, but I used to think Tim was really good, but then I started to wonder if he was writing about an organisation he actually doesn't participate in ? Or am I getting him confused with someone else... there was some well known blogger who used to go on about the problems with lodges, then made the mistake of mentioning he had not been in one for years.

Freemasonry is always going to be new and shiny when you first start, the quality of the lodge and the quality of the brethren will effect how long before you discover some truth, but at some point you are bound to discover it - organizations have problems because they have humans in them...

Although I love history, I will say this - on one real level - who cares about the past. Unless it was rotten (it was generally not) we are bound to romanticize it. What matters is now and how that builds our future for next week, next year and next decade and next century. What matters in that is mentoring and connecting with new members by teaching them our values and creating brotherhood. If Freemasonry has a challenge - it's that we are all time poor and success requires significant investment of time, in ourselves and in each other - especially those we mentor.

 

[dfreybur]

https://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Homecoming-Belonging-Sebastian-Junger/dp/1478936878

The book "Tribe" is supposed to be about military folks coming home from deployments and looking for membership in local bonded groups. I saw a report on it in the morning news last week. I've added it to my Amazon wish list but haven't gotten it yet.

I'd gotten that in my neighborhood growing up. That seems to have been lost in today's world. I'd gotten that in my Navy squadron. That seems to be why so many veterans come to us looking for what they had in the service. I'd gotten that at my college. But with the commuter college system college fraternities are not experienced by as many.

I petitioned for the civic activities as I wanted civic activities without becoming politically active. I stay for the tribe. The fellowship. Since initiation I no longer know what it is to be a stranger in a crowded place because I have adopted kinfolk in every crowd.

Br Tim appears to have spread his tribe from local lodge members to the brethren dispersed across the globe. A very Internet Age approach really.