Montana Grand Lodge warns against Co-Masonry

In a blog entry titled Cooties, Bro. Greg of the Masonic Traveler blog has written about an article from the Grand Lodge of Montana warning Big Sky Country Masons to avoid attending meetings with or holding Masonic discussions with a Brother (male or female) from a Co-Masonic Lodge.

Montana Grand Master Jack D. Anderson warns that anyone who vouches "for a member of that organization [Co-Masonry] to allow him to visit one of our lodges... would surely subject himself to a Masonic Trial and subsequent discipline of reprimand, suspension, or expulsion."

I posted a comment to that article on Bro. Greg's blog that I am reprinting here. In the post I discuss the preface to the obligations that all Masons take — the assurance by the Worshipful Master that the obligations do not supercede the duties we owe to ourselves, to others and to God.

Not being able to communicate with, Masonically or otherwise, or share Light with, one of God's children because a Grand Lodge said so simply strikes me as wrong. I wrote:

Those obligations, at least for me, were prefaced with assurance from the Worshipful Master that the obligations which I was about to accept would in no way affect the duties I owe to myself or my neighbors, or to God.

As a Mason, and as a member of the human race, it is my duty to share Brotherly Love (as well as Relief and Truth) with other Masons, and to mankind at large. This duty supercedes any promise I made to any Grand Lodge. If their politically-inspired recognitions and withholdings of recognitions interferes with the performance of a duty to a higher power (myself, my neighbors, my God) then I can safely and Masonically do so, despite their claim that I'd be breaking an obligation. No breaking of an obligation has occurred, and no conviction for unmasonic conduct in a Masonic trial would be legitimate.

What do you think? Should regular Masons be forbidden from discussing Masonic principles with others who legitimately consider themselves to be Masons? Men from the United Grand Lodge of America and from Prince Hall lodges, men from non-recognized Grand Lodges from overseas, such as the Grand Orient of France, as well as men and women from Co-Masonic Lodges, all consider themselves to be Freemasons just as much as any man raised in a Blue Lodge under the jurisdiction of one of the 51 Antient, conventional Grand Lodges in the United States. We swore obligations to help, aid and assist, and to show brotherly love to, fellow Masons. The policies and politics of a Grand Lodge's prejudices should not affect our practice of Masonry.

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