Why Should I Join the McAlester Scottish Rite?

 

    So, you've become a Master Mason, you know the story of the death of our Grand Master Hiram, but what about, as Paul Harvey says, "the rest of the story?" So much human history has passed since the trial of the Ruffians, and, as Solomon commanded, the Sacred Word is still sought. Where can one look to discover more? The Scottish Rite offers a solution to that question by providing a series of 29 theatrically-performed degrees designed to broaden your Masonic education, to enhance your Blue Lodge experience (but never to replace it), and to create an atmosphere of fellowship and camaraderie among Brethren from across southeastern and central Oklahoma as an extension of your home Lodge's brotherly love and affection.

 

    Read the words of Brethren of the past to see if the Scottish Rite is right for you:

 

EIGHT (8) REASONS

WHY MASTER MASONS SHOULD RECEIVE THE DEGREES

OF

THE SCOTTISH RITE

 

   1. The Scottish Rite offers an unsurpassed field for study.

 

   2. It presents an unexcelled opportunity for the practical demonstration of the techniques of Masonry.

  

   3. It gives one a fellowship in its literature, with the deepest minds and purest characters of

     Freemasonry.

 

   4. It permits you to participate in the glorious work of spreading the doctrine of the Fatherhood of

     God and the brotherhood of man.

 

   5. It gives you a greater incentive to higher standards and nobler deeds, because of a greater

     knowledge of your responsibility and the history of the institutions of the Scottish Rite.

 

   6. It creates within you a greater love of chivalry, a greater love of philosophy, and a never-ending love

     for your mother Lodge.

 

   7. It enjoins on every Brother the support of the American public school - non-partisan, non-sectarian,

     efficient, democratic, for all the children of all the people - equal educational opportunities for all.

 

   8. It inculcates patriotism, love of the flag, respect for law and order, and undying loyalty to 

     constitutional government.

 

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE SCOTTISH RITE...

 

• Funds scholarships for students and teachers

 

• Provides programs for young people and services for the aged

 

• Assists young people to overcome language and learning disorders through our system of RiteCare clinics

 

• Helps crippled children to walk via such advanced medical centers as the Scottish Rite Hospitals in Atlanta and Dallas

 

• Supports and creates patriotic programs to remind Americans of our great national heritage and the importance of maintaining it

 

• Advocates absolute separation of church and state as a mainstay of religious freedom over secular intrusion

 

• Advances the public school system as a guarantee of intellectual liberty for today and tomorrow

 

• Champions the family as the cornerstone and solid building block of our nation

 

• Combats substance abuse through educational programs aimed at youth and anti-drug campaigns directed to the public

 

A FEW MORE REASONS

 

     The Scottish Rite Degrees give us a sense of historical values and standards. Today is the child of yesterday and no one can understand the significance of epochal events that are shaking the world unless he sees them from the vantage point of history. Out of the cries of the past, man has discovered principles that are as solid as the mountains, as enduring as the stars. The moral truths that prevailed in Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome are just as valid and just as imperative in the 21st century. In his confidence in the reality of these principles he has built his faith in the permanent value of moral truth. Here is to be found the basis of optimism, of faith in the free institutions and a civilization resting on ethical principles. No man can witness the degrees of the Scottish Rite and be either a cynic or a pessimist. They renew his faith in God, in man, in the process of history.

 

     The Scottish Rite Degrees put into picturesque but explicit language the civic and social ideals implicit in the Blue Lodge Degrees. For centuries Freemasonry has been a tremendous force for enlightenment, freedom, and social progress in Europe and the Americas. It was not caprice or mere prejudice that caused the Nazi and Fascist aggressors to proscribe Freemasonry. Why did the Nazi oppressors hate Masonry, why did they violate the sacred emblems of the craft, why did they hunt down with ruthless cruelty our Masonic leaders? Particularly, why did the totalitarians persecute the "Masons of all degrees?" They knew that tyranny is threatened wherever a Masonic Lodge exists.

 

     Freemasonry is a compelling and conquering spiritual force. The reasons are revealed in the Scottish Rite Degrees. Scottish Rite Freemasonry is the foe of intolerance, fanaticism, and superstition. It battles every form of racial and sectarian prejudice and bigotry. It is the mightiest exponent of freedom in thought, religion, and purity in government the world has ever known.

 

- excerpted and updated from the Scottish Rite Manual for the Orient of Oklahoma, circa 1961