Landy77

I will be the first to identify as not being an expert in masonry. What I do know is masonry has evolved over the centuries into a shadow of what it once was. I have asked this question to brothers and get different answers each time I ask. One answer regarding rituals is sometimes a lodge will prefer to confer a certain way then over time that becomes the proper way. With membership I received several answers that ranged from brothers are not in the community enough to show a presence. Membership to organizations is not fashionable anymore. Also people are to busy to commit time to a lodge.
These reasons for decline are plausible and in some ways can be proven. Community activity greatly depends on the town and the individual lodge. Today is being a member of a lodge fashionable? To answer this question I have to ask myself has it ever been fashionable to join a lodge in any era of history? Before the Internet unless you were a brother of a lodge little was known of the business of a lodge. Also if someone wanted to shout to the world "Hey I'm a member of this lodge!", I doubt anyone would notice or care. I'm sure in some ways society of today is busier than the past. Being that I was not around fifty years ago I decided to ask some of our more senior members of society this very question. The answer I received was surprising. Life today has become easier because of technology and on average society of today has much more free time to per sue hobbies or personal en devours. So I asked myself, community involvement only affects the local lodge and not masonry as a whole, being a mason was never fashionable and society has more free time than ever before. The decline in lodge brothers must be a combination of factors rather than one overlying issue.
I'm sure in some small way all the reasons I was given is contributing to the problem. Some brothers have advocated forming separate lodges and grand lodges like the Grand Lodge of America for a more "intellectual" approach to masonry. In my humble opinion scrapping an entire landscape of lodges because of disagreement over where the focus of a lodge should be beyond a social gathering is flawed. This is semiler to school children arguing on who will pitch and who will play first base, finally one takes his bat and ball and goes home leaving the team with one position vacant.
Lodges going independent of a state or provincial grand lodge hurts both the grand lodge and the local lodge. I can look in history at the protestant reformation as a good example of what masonry will become in the next fifty years with the advent of co-masons, modern masons and independent grand lodges. The same scenario occurred with the reformation, first Martin Luther broke away from the catholic church and him and his followers were known as protestants. Years later other church leaders formed their own brand of protestant and the denomination was born.
I am not defending antient masonry. I am not trying to attack any other form of masonry that exist. I am conveying my thoughts on the issue with a prediction of where masonry will be in the future.