Are Freemasons Not Selective Enough? 

Sometimes I wonder if Freemasonry is attempting to attract too many members.  It makes no sense to me to acquire members who are not going to become good Masons.

Masons are said to take good men and make them better.  Freemasonry cannot take bad men and make them good.

Are there really that many good men out there who should be Masons?  Are there really that many good men?

I think we as Lodge members often look at a potential candidate as a live body who might help pay the bills of the Lodge.  This, at least in my opinion, is not a good idea.

I admired the old system of forcing a man to ask for membership without any prodding from his friends.  If a man notices that everyone he knows that wears a Masonic pin, belt buckle, or ring seems to be a really good person, and then decides that he should join this group of good people he will likely become a good mason.  He was already most likely a good person and probably has held a favorable opinion of this our ancient and honorable Fraternity and desired to connect himself with these good people that he knew.

Others may decide to join the Fraternity because they think that it will benefit them in their business dealing, which may actually happen.  Others may have become convinced by Masonic friends that they should become a Mason.

A man should only join Freemasonry if he wishes to improve himself, not economically, but by becoming a better man.

Perhaps in our desire to attract more members to help support the Lodge we have admitted many who have not become good Masons and who in fact may not be of the quality of man that we really want to be a Mason.  Just because a man pays his dues each year does not make him a good Mason.

Perhaps we have made it too easy to become a Mason and too cheap to remain a Mason.  We as Masons have made it too easy to join the Fraternity.  People tend to value things that they really had to work for to get and to maintain. 

I would rather have a Lodge of say 100 good Masons than a Lodge of 500 Masons of which only 50 to 100 were good Masons.

We are too concerned about maintaining membership and we we try too hard to get people to pay their dues.  If a a man is a good Mason he will not need to be prodded to pay his dues to maintain his membership.  The financial cost of membership is actually quite low and in our Lodge amounts to less that 20 cents per day.  We spend the dues for a week every time we buy a cup of coffer.  Membership in Freemasonry is way too cheap.