MORE THAN RITUAL

Once we past the fascination with the administration of Freemasonry, is there a subtext? And if there is, what is it?   Recently I listened to a fellow being interviewed about Freemasonry and he stumbled over the question of gender bias. Could it be, I said to myself, that the accepted orthodoxy is one of exclusion?  When he told the host women were not allowed, I felt a chill on the back of my neck.  Why would we encourage the day when a challenge to this claim drags us before a Human Rights Tribunal?  This wasn't the only reason but I found a meager explanation was not a reflection of the Craft but a muscular tack.  We are part of a men's group. A woman wishes to attend. Do we change the nature of the group so she can attend?  The outpouring of conditions went from a trickle to a torrent. Is a gender-specific group ever justified? Are such justifications ethical and acceptable to the larger society? First, Freemasonry is accessible for women. It is not an inferior form. There are forms of Freemasonry that encourage co-masonry- participation of men and women. What the speaker was saying skipped over a nuanced conversation. Sometimes we are sophisticated. Sometimes we stumble forward like the proverbial toddler learning to walk.