Potunk Lodge #
1071Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What US Presidents have been Masons
A: George Washington William McKinley
James Monroe Theodore Roosevelt
Andrew Jackson William Howard
Taft
James Polk
Warren G. Harding
James Buchanan
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Andrew Johnson Harry S. Truman
James Garfield
Gerald R. Ford
Q:
What is the oldest Lodge Room in the world? In the
US?
A: "St. John's Chapel, Edinburgh, Scotland is said to be the oldest
Masonic Lodge Room (1736) in the world. The oldest known Lodge Room
in the U.S. is situated in Prentiss House, Marble head,
Massachusetts (1760).The oldest Masonic Lodge Building is the Lodge
Hall of Royal White Hart Lodge No. 2, Halltax, Northings, North
Carolina (1771)."
(FMBITS.TXT)
Other information disagrees with this, stating that the oldest
American Lodge Room is "Masons Hall in Richmond, Virginia, the home
of Richmond Randolph Lodge No. 19 and Richmond Royal Arch Chapter
No. 3. The building owned by Royal White Hart Lodge wasn't built
until 1821. Masons Hall was built in 1785. It was originally the
home of Richmond Lodge No. 10, the first wholly new Lodge chartered
by the Grand Lodge of Virginia. It was also the first permanent home
of the Grand Lodge of Virginia." (from Northern Light)
Q: Does Masonry have a religious
agenda or practice known only to higher Masons?
A: No. The religious position of Freemasonry is stated
often and openly, a Mason must believe in a Supreme Being, and he is
actively encouraged to practice his individual faith. Masonry has no
"god" of its own. Some anti-Masons have said that we are not allowed
to mention the name of the Deity in Lodge, but simply
isn't true; in many jurisdictions, the letter G, found inside the
square & compasses symbol, represents God (it also represents
geometry). It is true that we, generally, use some other term ("The
Grand Architect of the Universe" is most common) to refer to God.
That is done only to avoid giving religious offense to anyone whose
faith prefers to refer to God by another name.
Q: The all-seeing eye and pyramid in the Great Seal are Masonic, right?
A: No. The unfinished pyramid in the Great Seal of the United States
is actually the design of a non-Mason. Only one Mason worked on the
Great Seal, Benjamin Franklin. The all-seeing eye, symbolic to many
as the Supreme Creator, has been used by Masons, but it is not a
universally-accepted Masonic symbol. Many have used the all-seeing
eye in their art, and few of them are Masons. The pyramid has been
linked to the triangle, which is symbolic in many Masonic Lodges.
But a pyramid is not a triangle. There is no Masonically symbolic
import to the pyramid.
Q: Aren't Masons just
a bunch of old men? Isn't Masonry dying out?
A: As regards the United States:
There is no doubt that the population of Masons is aging. There was
a huge increase in membership in almost all
fraternal orders after World War II, including Masonry. This peaked
at sometime in the late 50s. During the social turbulence and
generational strains of the 60s and 70s, new membership fell off,
with the result that by the 1980s, total membership was in sharp
decline. However, there are signs that membership
has leveled out, or is
gaining in some areas. In many lodges, there are a great number of
50-and-up members, and a number of 30-and-under members, with a gulf
in between, representing where Baby Boomers would have been. Of
course, we are speaking in broad generalities here - there is no way
to know the demographics of your local Lodge without asking one of
its members. The overall point is that Masonic
membership, when talking on a national scale, has probably hit a
stable membership base, after a huge surge and then fall in
membership.
Statistics compiled from many jurisdictions in the English-speaking
world by Worshipful Brother John Belton for Internet Lodge No. 9659,
England, demonstrate that almost universally there were two
anomalous initiation spikes preceding the two world wars with an
overall membership peak in the late 1950s to mid-1960s. The post-war
membership boom is a myth.