Shortly after I got involved with Mission #169, another 'new guy' showed up roughly around the same time as my buddy, K. This guy, M., is a really cool guy who was originally from Lebanon, but lives here now, where he has a wife & child.After getting to know M., I found out that he's a Lewis; in other words, his father was/and is, a Mason. M. had been interested in Masonry for years, but in Lebanon, as in much of the world outside of the U.S., Masonry has had to go underground. There is so much conspiracy-theory paranoia, that so many Masons are (rightly so!) afraid of letting people know that they're a part of this great fraternity. M. said that his father had been a Mason for about 13 years, and M. never even knew it.
Well, he's here now, and he's welcomed with open arms.
Fast forward a few months...
It has come time for M.'s initiation, and our current Worshipful Master specifically wanted to obligate him.
You see, M. is Muslim, and decided to take his Obligation on the Qur'an.
Also, our Worshipful Master happens to be an Episcopal Priest.
With all of the hostility, strife and intolerance in the world right now, it can pain the heart when you think of all that is going wrong. But that night, I saw an Episcopal Priest obligate a Muslim candidate on the Holy Qur'an.
Friendship. Brotherly Love. Truth.
That's what Masonry is all about... and I saw it that night.
Welcome, Brother M.
Photo: Holy Qur'an with the Square & Compass
2 comments:
I think that's great! I, myself, was only initiated about 6 months ago, so while I have been recently raised, there are still a lot of questions I have, and this post brings up one of them: I don't know what GL of Texas rules are for using holy books other than the Bible. I would strongly encourage use of the Q'uran or any equivalent text where requested or appropriate to the candidate in question, but I don't have a copy of the Constitutions for Texas to know how that situation is handled.
As far as I know, there are a number of 'official VSL's' that the Grand Lodge of California recognizes for different religions.
For example: my good friend, K., is Hindu, and next month he will be initiated on the Bhagavad Gita, which was donated to us by the Grand Lodge of India.
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