12/17/2020
I wrote this in January of 2012 for my friends rasing to Master.
Though you guys might like this
Dear Right Worshipful Grand Master Carnes:
I have been a Master Mason for a few years know, but I have been bothered by many things I have witnessed in my short ten year as a Master Mason.
I’m not sure how to express this but I will do my best to be as clear as I can.
I am a Levite, one of Gods chosen to care for his peoples Spiritual needs, this may not have a significant meaning to you but it is something I hold very dear to my heart, and a position I take very seriously.
One issue that has been weighting on my heart is that the Masonic Brotherhood has gotten away from their true roots of caring for each other, helping a brother in need or creating a business slush fund so to speak where a brother can go to in order to get assistance to keep his business a float.
Maybe part of this is because I have only been exposed to this great Brotherhood for such a short period of time and my experiences have been tainted by a few Brothers who use the Lodge to benefit themselves and are not truly out to server others, or they are just looking for that pat on the back, and say look what I have done.
Please don’t misunderstand my next statements; I am in no way trying to bring my Faith or Religion into this. We try to separate our Religious beliefs from the Lodge completely but this is what brought some of us into the Lodge in the first place. We take an Oath to serve God and our Brothers, but it has been my short experience that our organization although many of us individually may have the best intentions in the beginning fall short due to directions and conditions set forth by a group of men that have allowed outside influences to change to things we are allowed to discuss or the means in which we can serve our Brothers.
I have spent the last 11 year seeking the direction for my life God has chosen me to go, over the last 5 years I have taken the time to teach and write many articles about the Life of Jesus through the eyes of a Hebrew man. One thing God has shown me over that period of time is in order for us to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven or as we put it the Great Spiritual Place that House not made by Hands in the Heavens. It is our responsibility to help our Brothers. We take an Oath to help all poor and penniless Master Masons their Widows and Orphans, they applying to me as such, but here is the killer, “And I deeming them Worthy”. This last part is our out from helping our Brothers out.
How do we determine if a Brother is not Worthy?
Did not this Brother take the same Oath as we did, Not to Cheat, Wrong nor, Defraud us?
So what would make him not worthy of our help? Have we become a Brotherhood that chooses not to comply with the Oaths we took before God and our Brothers?
The roots of our Brotherhood lay in the Hebrew Culture not the Jewish Religion. There is a big difference between the two. When Moses built the Tabernacle and Solomon built the Temple, it was to Honor the one true God. At that time Moses extracted from the Hebrew People an Oath to provide for the Levites, Widows and Orphans. These are the Roots of our Brotherhood those who lived with the Hebrew people through the building of the Temple and decided that this Culture was important enough to maintain what they had learned during their time living amongst the Hebrew people.
As a small business owner and trying to keep my business afloat I have been seeking a business loan to expand and keep my family feed. Having lost a 7 year fight for my SSDI I have found myself in a situation which I have been unable to get out of. Long story short I have 2 bad disc’s in my lower back which limits my mobility, and survived 2 Widow Maker Heart Attacks by the Grace of God during my 7 year battle for SSDI benefits.
I was taking to a just made EA this weekend and he posed a question to me about if he should put the Square and Compasses on his business cards. The reason he asked this question was because he had been told not to bring his business into the Lodge. My response to him was concern. The question I asked him was if you had the chance to help your Brother keep his business afloat and care for his family, would you do that or wait for him to loose his business then come to the Lodge to seek assistance?
To me the sad part is the direction our Lodge has taken. We have made the choice to allow outside influences to move us away from the true meaning of our Brotherhood. The early Lodges fostered dealing with our Brothers business’s supporting them and by sending friends and family to purchase from them, But our Lodge today refuses to foster this direction, we chose to keep our business from our dealings in the Lodge. I think we have become a group so set to just provide assistance in the means of Charity to outsiders that we have totally forgotten that our First Loyalty is to our Brothers, then to the outside world. In looking over the Grand Lodges Web-Site I noticed that there are many things in which a Brother can donate too and assist the OutSide community, the one thing I failed to see is the place where we can support our Brother’s. A place where we can find out whom our Brothers are and how we can best support him and his family.
It is my heart felt belief that the Oath I took in the Lodge was first to God, and then to my Brothers, to me today the Lodge is so busy trying to figure out how we can create a good name for the Mason’s that in my opinion we all have forgotten the Oath we have taken to each other.
I think that in todays economic times there are many Brothers in the State of Texas who are surly in similar situations as myself, but are at a loss for where to go for help. I am applying to you my Brother to step up as Grand Master of this Great Lodge of Texas and lead us back to the roots we came from, step up and lead our Brotherhood back to a direction that our founders created the Masonic Brotherhood to be. A group in which we help each other out and believe and trust that God will provide for us if we do what is right in his eyes and provide for our Brothers, those we swore and Oath before him to protect and defend, GIVING OUR LIFE IF IT MEANS SAVING HIS.
Thank you for you time.
Brother Brian Brody
214-927-5897
Billie Mosse Lodge 1152
Dension, TX
