Men of mystery? Nah, say local Masons; just a private fraternity

Some things the Masons just won't talk about.

“The old boys wouldn't even tell their families they were Masons,” said Doug Heath, past Grand High Priest over Iowa's Freemasons and a former national officeholder. “A lot of the new kids will come in and look at the pictures and say, ‘Gee, I didn't know Dad was a Mason.' ”

Freemasonry is the oldest and largest global fraternity dedicated to the “brotherhood of man,” but author Dan Brown and the “National Treasure” movies have made the mysterious Masons the darlings of recent pop culture and the subjects of curiosity.

So, what is Freemasonry?

It is not a religion or a substitute for religion, but members are required to believe in a supreme being of some kind. There are no ties to specific denominations or faiths; Masons are Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.

In Brown's latest book, “The Lost Symbol,” released last month, Freemasonry is depicted as an almost secret society cloaked in symbolism and intrigue. The book has sparked some interest in local clubs, Heath said, but it's mostly curiosity.

“People ask questions about Masons, and we talk to them about some things,” he said. “We do have a few things that we just don't talk about, though.”

They won't say, for example, whether any living U.S. president is a Mason but will list the deceased presidential Masons.

Heath will give you the basics about a Masons meeting: Members sit on cushioned benches lining the walls of the great meeting room. Two men are seated in the center of the room, behind a table that displays an open holy book, usually the Bible. The master of the lodge sits at the front of the room, flanked by the secretary and treasurer.

He won't, however, tell you what is discussed at those meetings.

Above the benches along the walls at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Cedar Rapids are photos depicting the different “morality plays” of Freemasonry - truth, integrity, loyalty, among others. Each member is at some point asked what each means. The answers, Heath said, are always different.

“They're not to answer what it means to you and I; it's what it means to them,” said Heath, 67, of Cedar Rapids.

Despite the things Masons won't discuss, Heath and William Jacobson, 68, personal representative for the Cedar Rapids Valley of the Scottish Rite, are hesitant to call the organization “secret.”

“Actually, there's damn little about it that's secret,” Jacobson said. “There's a lot that's private. There's a difference.”

Some of the “private” information includes details about how a man - it's a fraternity, so men only - becomes a member.

“We don't allow just any man to become a Mason,” Jacobson said. The organization's creed is “To take a good man and make him better,” so a would-be member must be of sound moral character, he said.

“If there were a ‘great masonic secret,' it is that a man cannot tell you how he has changed by being a Mason, but he has,” Jacobson said. “Over time a man will change and become different, become better, but they won't be able to tell you how. They'll know they're different, their friends will see that they're different, but they won't be able to tell you.”