Can Freemasonry be abused?

Hi together,

The question arose in another thread but was far off-topic - so once again I'm on a new one.

The word abuse implies that a good thing is really diverted in bad faith. One can derive three questions:

1. Can Freemasonry as an organization exploit their members, the masons?
2. Can the Masons abuse their organization, the Freemasonry?
3. Can outsiders abuse Freemasonry?

On closer inspection Question 1 is unnecessary because the "organization" is only an abstract concept that is used by people that belong to the Freemasons until their lifes are fullfilled. Abuse can only be operated by humans. So Question 1 is the same as question 2.

reply to post by Anim8tr


yes , yes and yes

reply to post by Anim8tr

1. Can Freemasonry as an organization exploit their members, the masons?

As an organization? Like.. as in globally? No. Freemasonry is decentralized.. Grand Lodges do not act in concert. there is no over ruling global body. Can Freemasonry, as a Grand Lodge, exploit it's members? Sure.. but it's a Direct Democracy .. we can control the leadership once a year, so it'd be pretty dang hard, but I suppose it's possible.

2. Can the Masons abuse their organization, the Freemasonry?

Masons can abuse their lodge and the name Freemasonry. Yes.

3. Can outsiders abuse Freemasonry?

I suppose it's not impossible, but I cannot think of a way or reason.. perhaps some examples?

reply to post by Anim8tr


It IS rather hard for an abstract concept to abuse or be abused…

As Rock mentions, it's so decentralized and democratic that it would be difficult for such abuses to gain much power or last terribly long without being noticed. Even a corrupt lodge gets visits from a District Deputy Grand Master at least a few times a year, and there has to be an audit of the books filed with the Grand Lodge every year… And my understanding is that no lodge can deny admission of a member of another lodge under the same Grand Lodge, so even if there were no planned visit, guests could show up unannounced at any time.

Are there corrupt people? Yes. Could they become Masons? Yes. Could they benefit from that? They could try, but I'm not sure how far it could get before someone put a stop to it and kicked them out.