Equivocations?
Wow! Of course I knew I would get heat from insisting that Masons who take an obligation should keep it. But, I'm a bit surprised how much heat.
The comments range from "Grand Lodge X did a bad thing I don't have to keep my promises to my brethren." Or "We shouldn't judge others." Or, "We should leave it up to each persons conscience" or "obligations really aren't important if you later change your mind..." or "you are being self-righteous by insisting that someone else keep their obligation"
Yes, brethren sometimes Grand bodies don't do what they ought to do. Yes, sometimes a brother might wish that he'd not have promised to not join a clandestine body of Masons and wishes he could take it back. Sometimes other people break their promises.
This all reminds me of my Grandfather who was both an operative and speculative Mason. He used to tell his Grand kids that in his day "a man's word was his bond." If a man shook hands on a deal with you he didn't need a written contract because his word was good. He believed written contracts were created for liars. He told us that men that broke their word were known not to be true and trustworthy and lost their business.
So, all I am expecting as a Freemason is that Masons keep their word and are men of their word.
Please don't tell me that when you said words similar to "I most solemnly and sincerely promise and vow..." that you thought the obligation was optional, or that you could easily back out of it. Please don't tell me when you were told, before you took the obligation, that the obligation can never be repudiated that you interpreted that to mean "whenever I find something more interesting, or when I change my mind, or when someone offers me the purple of the fraternity in another obedience" or "when some other Masons doesn't keep his word."
Masons are called upon to judge each other's behavior, to support each other and hold each other to our word. And, yes, when a Mason lays down his hands and takes an obligation we expect that he'll keep it. No ifs, no ands, no buts, no equivocations.
Timothy Bonney