Freemasonry is not church..

I think that there is a trend among a small group of Freemasons that not unlike those of the past are treating their Freemasonry like Church. I admit that Lodge is a sacred space and I would say more of a formal place, a gathering place, a secret place. Secret as in private, gathering as in together and sacred as in connected. However, the spiritual crowd that is so afeared of organized religion runs to lodge where they can be spiritual and not religious. And what's the first thing they try to do? They try to make it more formal, more rigid, more to their design to replace their religion with "their religion". It justifies in their mind something that I think Freemasonry never was and never has been, a replacement for religion. True its aspects are religious if not a compliment or endorsement of religion but not a replacement. Lodge is not a place to go hide and innovate from their own fear of rules and religiosity, where they do not have to feel the guilt before their God so they can still sleep at night. Thats not what lodge is. It's a fraternity and learning center and friendship maker and Lodge is not one man's definition. Lodge is every Masons definition, not this one man and not you. It's all of us. It's Lodge. That's all. JL