Joel Montgomery, Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Vandalia (2013-present)
Answered Feb 3, 2016
The Good
Freemasonry is a wonderful fraternity that does a lot of good work on local, state, and even national levels in some countries. On the local level, you'll find Masons helping in public service organizations, coaching and sponsoring little league teams, hosting dinners and feeding the hungry at soup kitchens, collecting coats for families in need over the winter, donating bicycles to children's literacy programs, cleaning up highways and more. On a statewide level, Masons have developed wonderful programs for long-term care in many states that help provide for members, their widows, and orphans. They also work to support veterans and active service members through supporting veterans programs as well as sending care packages, calling cards and more to troops serving throughout the world.
It's an organization whose bonds transcend state and nation, political divisions, divisions of religion, and more - and all because we swear a common obligation at a common altar. If you join this fraternity, you are almost guaranteed that no matter where you go in your life, no matter what you go through and experience, you will find there is almost always a brother nearby who will walk with you in your journey.
Freemasonry is a system of morals veiled in allegory and symbolism - it reinforces many of the things you learn in the practice of your own religion, but gives you yet another system to help guide your actions and decisions in life.
In addition to these many bonuses, Freemasonry is also a gateway to many other Masonic fraternal organizations that perform further wonderful acts of philanthropy - the Scottish Rite works to help raise awareness and support towards dyslexia and literacy programs, speech and language disorder programs, children's hospitals and more. The York Rite sponsors a Research Association (whose work I can't quite make out), a Medical Research Foundation that primarily funds research for vascular biomedicine and a VA Center, and an Eye Care foundation. The Order of the Eastern Star supports cancer research, arthritis funds, heart funds, and the charities of the other Masonic bodies like the York Rite, Shriners, and Scottish Rite.
Perhaps most famous are the Shriners, who founded the Shriner's Hospital system that provides absolutely free care across the country to children suffering from various illnesses and injuries - particularly burns, orthopedic care, cleft palates, and other specific conditions.
All told, Masons and Masonic organizations give about $1.5 million a day to charity in the United States alone! (this figure comes from the OES grand chapter website)
The Not-So-Good
I can't really say there's anything "bad" about becoming a Freemason, but there are some aspects that can be challenging at times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHyBJqmYGCs
First and foremost: you get what you put into it. If you join and go through the degrees, pay your dues, and don't participate much beyond that, it can quickly become dull. The regular monthly meetings are good for learning the ritual and developing yourself as a Mason, and watching other brothers getting their degrees conferred helps you experience and learn the things taught in the lodge even better than when you actually experience them the first time. But if you really want to get the most out of the lodge and being a Mason, you'll want to get involved in all the things they're doing, get on a committee or two, and ideally go through the chairs, making your way up to Worshipful Master.
On top of getting involved in your local lodge, it's also rewarding to get involved in the other Masonic bodies - the York Rite, the Scottish Rite, and the Shriners. Each of these groups are themselves very active in a variety of ways, and each encourage you to be active in them as well. Shriners especially have a lot of smaller clubs inside each of their temple organizations - clowns, bands, motorcycle groups, local regional clubs, pilots and transport aides for the hospitals, etc. - the list goes on and on. You ultimately have to pick and choose what you get involved in and how involved you want to be. If you have a family, all these obligations can become difficult - you'll have to pick and choose what events you go to, which ones your family are welcome to attend with you, etc. Your wife will be able to join Eastern Star with you and you can participate with one another, and your kids can participate in a variety of Masonic Youth Organizations, such as De Molay, Job's Daughters, and Rainbow Girls - but each of these also take time and effort as well, provided there are even chapters for these organizations near you that you can take part in. Some of the youth organizations have gotten more few and far between over the last many years, and even OES chapters aren't as numerous as they used to be.
You might notice that I've listed a lot of Masonic organizations you can be a member of: each of them ask you to pay dues to remain a member in good standing. Your local lodge is usually somewhere between $60-100 a year for membership. Your Shriner temple usually asks around $125-150 a year, and then any other clubs or groups in the Shrine you participate in might also ask you to pay dues. If you decide to get involved in as much as possible, it all starts to add up. You could find yourself paying $500-1000 a year just in dues, and that's not counting admissions to dinners, participation in fundraisers, giving to charitable organizations, etc.
Another challenging side of Masonry is that, as with any organization comprised of human beings, your lodge can occasionally be somewhat political - not in the "tin foil hat" sense that the lodge meddles with politics, but in the sense that there are folks who naturally don't always agree with one another and folks who try to pursue their own agendas in the lodge based on different ideas about what the lodge should be doing and what it should be about. Every year, there's a new Grand Master of your Grand Lodge who is elected and comes in with new programs and new ideas - the local lodges will often complain about those changes because we're people of tradition who don't always like change, even when it's for the better.
Lastly, and speaking of "tin foil hats," what's probably both the most challenging and the most entertaining part of being a Mason is that if you make it open that you're a Mason by wearing a ring, belt buckle, hat, or any of the other countless items of apparel that Masons have made to proudly display their membership, you're going to get people talking to you about Masons. You'll be fielding a lot of questions, most of them having to do with some far-fetched conspiracy theory about Masons controlling the world, Masons being a "secret society," Masons being a demon cult, or Masons being any other number of nefarious dealings. Sometimes, they're questions from people who genuinely want to know more about Masons - these can be some of the most rewarding conversations you'll ever have and they can lead you to encouraging more and more people to join the lodge in the process. Sadly, my experience is that more frequently, it's a conversation you end up having with people who won't be convinced by anything other than what the History Channel tells them, or the weird website that claims to divulge all the secrets of Freemasonry while peddling cheap fiction and stories worthy of H.P. Lovecraft. Most of the time, you'll end those conversations both walking away and shaking your heads. You might lose a couple friends over it, but let me tell you - those people probably weren't the friends you thought they were if they don't have the ability to support you in this journey.
The rest?
If you're thinking about joining the Masons, it's something I highly encourage. I'm proud to be a Mason and proud to be a part of the oldest fraternity in the world. I'm happy to be involved in an organization that does so much to try to make the world a better place and to make the men who are a part of it into better men. It takes some time to learn to balance your schedule and to choose just how involved you want to be in all of the things Masonry offers, but if you manage it and manage it well, I can promise you won't have any regrets at joining the Masons.