My Own Masonic History
I was initiated as an Entered Apprentice in Broad Ripple Lodge #643 F&AM in November 1998, passed to Fellow Craft and raised a Master Mason in March 1999 - a partial beneficiary of one of then-Grand Master Robert Hancock's One Day Degree Days. I was made an officer two weeks after being raised - probably far too soon, but what a way to get right into the thick of things. Currently I serve as the Senior Warden of our Lodge, with our Worshipful Master, Roger VanGorden, the Grand Senior Warden for the State of Indiana. Additionally, this past April I had the honor of becoming a 32° Scottish Rite Mason as part of the Millenium Class. I also am a member of the Grand Lodge of Indiana Technology Committee.

Why Freemasonry?

First published in The Indiana Freemason, Winter 1999 Issue

Even ten years ago, if someone had told me that, by the time I was 40, I'd be driving a Chrysler with two sets of golf clubs in the trunk and be a member of the Freemasons, I would have punched them in the nose.

People change.

I spent a lot of years studying the Freemasons, peripherally at first, in conjunction with research for a novel my wife Alice was writing about modern day Knights Templars. Later, my interest led me into the possible origins of Freemasonry, what they had been, and what their modern role has become. But even then, Masons were a mere curiosity, and struck me as nothing more than an aging, middle-class social club that wore funny aprons and exchanged comical handshakes, no more meaningful in my mind than Fred Flintstone and his Water buffalo Lodge. Then, my father-in-law died.

Bob Funcannon was what is known as a local personality. For nearly thirty years if you attended the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the month of May on any day but race day, you heard the deep, resonant tones of Bob over the PA system. The rest of the year he was a candy salesman. He was a veteran of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. A Deacon in the local Presbyterian Church. And a Mason. He never talked about it, but he had been raised in Social Lodge in Terre Haute in 1942. He didn't go to Lodge very often in his later years, but he paid his dues and stayed in touch. He was a fixture around Lawrence, Indiana, assisted in the building of one VFW Post, and was a member of yet another. And Bob and his wife Vera were pretty regular visitors to the dance floor of the local Grotto. He loved nothing more than to sit in a tavern or a Post, sip the same beer all afternoon, and tell stories, and that deep booming voice coming out of that skinny little man, even when he tried to whisper, carried clear across a crowded room.

In later years Bob retired to Dallas, Texas, but he still managed to drive up each year for May and announce at the track. And he eventually received his 50 year Mason pin. In Dallas, he never attended a Lodge, but he was a mainstay at the VFW Posts, and was always setting up a library, spinning records at a dance, or just sipping an O'Doul's and passing the time with buddies. He seemed to know everyone in the neighborhood, and always knew how to make you smile. No one was a stranger to Bob, and even as his health failed him, his wife passed away, and his private moods became less patient, in public he was always center stage and your instant friend.

So when he died, we felt that most of his friends were in Texas after 15 years. We saw to it that the biggest funeral chapel was reserved so that his many friends could be accommodated. At the last minute, my wife remembered that Bob had been a Mason, and we knew they performed a funeral service for departed Brothers. So, late on the Sunday evening before the Monday funeral, we started madly calling every Masonic Lodge in Dallas and Fort Worth in the phone book. At last we found a janitor working late, and he said he would try to contact some of the Brothers. We didn't hold out much hope.

The next day we discovered to our great dismay, virtually no one came. That cavernous chapel was populated by the four of us in his family, a neighbor, and the three people he lived with.

And ten Masons.

Ten men who never knew him, called by a stranger on a Sunday night, dropped what they were doing that morning and came to say good-bye to a Brother they had never met and extend a helping hand to his family. They performed a memorial service far more moving, comforting and final than the rented minister who mispronounced his name every time he said it. And when it was all over, they stayed behind and made it clear that they would help us in any way they possibly could. This was no empty gesture, no hollow recitation of platitudes from strangers. Their offer of aid was sincere, the fulfillment of an obligation they had all sworn to abide by.

That's why I joined.

We, sadly, are surrounded by a society of increasingly cold indifference and isolation, populated by people who have become too afraid or busy or selfish or skeptical or bored to even leave their houses and simply find out the names of their next door neighbors. Yet, Freemasonry survives. It teaches and celebrates commitment, honor, tradition, integrity, truth, responsibility - words and ideas that have fallen out of fashion and become foreign concepts to far too many people in this world. When you assist in the learning and passing of Masonic ritual, you become another link in a long, honourable and ancient chain. This very nation's heritage is populated by Masons who infused the foundations of America with the intrinsic fundamentals and philosophies they learned from Freemasonry.

I am far from a perfect man, but the very act of putting on one of those aprons I long ago made fun of, laying my hand on the Bible and the ancient tools of a Craft whose origins are shrouded in antiquity, and obligating myself to a world of Brothers who are as ready to stand up in a quiet, empty chapel for me and extend their hands in friendship and aid to my own family as those ten Brothers did in Dallas that day for Bob, is a duty I feel honored and proud to shoulder.

But What IS It?

But what is Freemasonry, you ask? My own, unauthorized, unparsed, personal definition is this: It is a fraternal organization, with roots and rituals that are centuries old, and throughout those centuries it has been a society dedicated to building men of worth and honor. The most common phrase used is "We make good men better," but how? By teaching you honor, honesty, integrity, brotherhood, leadership, service and charity. Your religion is not asked, only whether you have faith. You are required to assist in the learning and passing of a small part of Masonic ritual, so you become another link in this long, honourable and ancient chain.

Has it been a secret society? Certainly. The rituals of Masonry may seem odd to the outsider, but no one thought these up overnight. While the stories that developed about Masonry stemming from Craft Guilds in the Middle Ages are the accepted ones, Craft Guild's seldom had passwords, pass grips or oaths to secrecy. The proof of your proficiency was the work itself. Some research suggests that some of the methods of handshakes, signs, passwords and symbols can be traced to the 1300's, when the Order of the Poor Knights of Solomon were excommunicated by the puppet Pope Clement V while under the thumb of King Philip IV of France. The Knights Templar, once the fiercest fighters in the Western World and the first international bankers, were rounded up throughout France on Friday the 13th, 1307, accused of heresy and excommunicated. Subsequently, hundreds were burned alive because of these false accusations, trumped up by Philip who wanted simply to confiscate their vast holdings to pay for his military conquests.

Templars in other countries were slower to be arrested, and many fled to Scotland, where a war was ongoing with England. They were welcomed as fearless warriors, but still were in fear of the Papal Edict. So they went into hiding. Desperate men in hiding need ways of identifying friendly strangers who are willing to help, so passwords and handshakes were developed. When the only true Church in the world has branded you a heretic, even though you have not changed or lost your faith, your group when taking oaths to protect one another would require solemn oaths to God, not the Church. Asking a man's religion under these circumstances could result in his death. And the Templars had operated in the Holy Land for over a century, and had forged working relationships with Jews and Moslems as well, finding good, honest men who were of a different faith.

There are those who believe that the origins of Freemasonry date back much farther, finding ancient rituals in Egypt with similarities. Some assert that even Christ was a member of a devout Hebrew sect that can trace its rituals to these same Egyptian ones. Such claims have little or no evidence to back them up, but I am aware that nothing comes from a vacuum, and perhaps there is something in these theories. I encourage you to study for yourself.

For more detailed information, check out the Broad Ripple Lodge page of
Frequently Asked Questions about Masonry.

Modern Freemasonry

Is it a secret society today? It's tough to be accused of being secret when Lodges are clearly marked, Masons are proud to wear jewelry identifying themselves as such, the public is invited in for breakfasts and fish frys and the "secret" rituals are published and available on Amazon.com. The passwords and grips are secret, but the mission and membership of Masons are not.

Modern Freemasonry is important because it passes along a message that is not often heard or practiced these days. Faith, honor, charity, relief all fell out of trendy fashion over the years. On a most basic level, you meet a new group of men and quickly interact with them. You learn the ritual, not by studying and reading on your own, but from others who teach you. You become part of the ritual, and the Lodge will depend on you to learn your part. You do not swear an oath - you agree to an obligation, that does not interfere with your duty to your family, job or church. You can simply pay your dues and show up once a year, or you can jump in and become part of the officer's line or various committees. You can be a knife and fork Mason, showing up for cheap meals, or a dedicated ritualist who enjoys the dramatic aspects of performing a play with an audience of a single man in rapt attention.

There are those who will always look for the worst motives behind organizations, and there is a small but noisy group of detractors of Masonry. The English middle class has always distrusted Masons, believing they control government and the courts from behind the scenes, and going so far as to enact new laws as late as 1999 forcing judges, magistrates and police to publicly declare their Masonic membership. In America, the anti-Masonic groups are primarily fundamentalist Christian, who regard the requirement of no questions about a man's religion as heresy itself. My own Lodge is pretty evenly made up of Jews, Catholics and Protestants, and there was a recent EA Degree given in Northern Indiana where the candidate insisted his Obligation be given on the Koran. There are Lodges all over the world, with members of every religion.

Interested in Joining?

Always remember: it is generally forbidden for a Mason to ask you to join. You must express an interest, you must ask. I urge you to do as I have done and read and study about Freemasonry. Seek out men in your community who are Masons and ask them what it has meant to them. There may very well be Masons in your own family, and you never thought to ask about it. In Indiana we have a program called Opening Masonry's Door which acts as an introduction to the Craft for those men and their families who want to learn more before joining.

You must search your conscience to be sure that you wish to join for noble and honest reasons, not to make business contacts or meet a local celebrity or get cheap rates from a Brother auto mechanic or meet a Judge so you can get out of a traffic ticket. And remember that like most everything in this world, you will get out of it what you put into it. But if you become a Mason, you join a fraternity that will be with you wherever you may travel. And you will find Brothers in every walk of life who will gladly lend you a hand in time of need.

I know.

I have seen it myself.

Chris Hodapp, Senior Warden
Broad Ripple Lodge #643 F&AM Indianapolis, Indiana
32° Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Indianapolis Valley
Member, Philalethes Society

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A Masonic Reading List:

Born In Blood by John J. Robinson. Traces the development of Freemasonry with the Knights Templars. Robinson is a wonderful scholar of Masons and the Templars, and I recommend searching out all of his books. You may not agree with his conclusions, but he makes a powerful case.

A Pilgrim's Path by John J. Robinson. A examination of anti-Masonic sentiment in America by this historian, written before he became a Mason. Includes discussions of Léo Taxil, Pat Robertson, the Catholic church, the Southern Baptist Convention, James Holly and much more. An indispensible aid in combatting the perenially indignant type who is convinced you're slaughtering goats and are out to rule the world.

FREEMASONRY: A Celebration of the Craft edited by John Hamill & Robert Gilbert. Oversize, coffee table book with beautiful photos and prints, along with profiles of famous Masons. Great for leaving out to start a conversation.

These Were Brethren by Carl Claudy. A wonderful little collection of short stories about common, everyday Masons and how the Craft touches their lives.

The Hiram Key by Knight & Lomas. Stick with it. You may find its claims stronger than I, but there is useful information to be gleaned here nonetheless. Interesting theories on the beginnings of Masonic ritual and possible connection to ancient Egyptian temple ceremonies. Have these guys actually found the mummy of the real Hiram Abif? Decide for yourself.

Temple and the Lodge by Baigent and Leigh. Destined to become the Erich von Danikens of the Templar world, these guys were the first to popularize the Rennes le Chateau connection to kings of France descended from Christ and Mary Magdeline, and the "mysteries" of Templars in Scotland. A curious read.

History of Freemasonry by Albert Mackey. Everything you'd ever want to know about the accepted, official origins of Freemasonry.

The Armour of God by Alice Eaton Hodapp. A cracking good mystery coming soon to a bookstore near you...