Original subtitles

Faith, honor, the will of God, an unerring standard of truth and justice.

This is the holy writings, the first great light to which a Masonic initiates eyes are opened.

It is the Bible, it is the Quran, it's the Tanakh, it is the Torah, the Vedas, the Analects of Confucius.

It rests upon the altar as more than a symbol.

It is a promise between an initiate and his God.

It is an understanding between a Mason and his brothers.

It is a sign of the journey to come, deeply personal, profoundly meaningful, and bigger than any one of us.

By understanding the holy writings, we understand how the fraternity grew into a global brotherhood,

one that bridged centuries of religious turmoil and brought men of faith together in one common belief, truth.

The best definition of Freemasonry that works for me is that it is a system of morality,

veiled in allegory or stories, and illustrated by the symbols of Freemasonry.

Four Freemasons, the three primary symbols, rust in the center of our lodges,

and that is of course the holy Bible, the square and the compass.

When I walk into my lodge and see the holy Bible present and open on the altar,

how significant is that from me that right there are my sacred writings,

the very narrative of salvation history?

And in that, we find the resonance of the human heart coming through sacred writings.

This is essentially important that it speaks to us, that it is the ground of our very faith life,

that all of the symbols from which we take the significance of our Masonic landmarks,

that they have a resonance right there within sacred scripture,

that our own rituals, elude to and use imaginative interpretations and allegories

in our sacred scripture, are not deeply significant, deeply significant

when the holy Bible is present on a Masonic altar.

Masonry is not a religion, but it is very religious.

The word religion came from the Latin word,

Relegé, means binding.

The candidate binds himself within his own faith.

He reverently looked up to his own deity,

and he respects the moral codes from within that book of holy writings.

Freemasonry grew into a global fraternity, precisely because of its tolerant character.

One watershed moment occurred in the 18th century, amid the changing intellectual landscape of the Enlightenment.

Freemasonry was shifting from an operative guild to a speculative fraternity,

and adapting its traditions to fit a broader worldview.

In 1723, the world's first grand lodge put a transformative concept in writing.

It was on the subject of religious requirements, and it would change the fraternity forever.

When the grand lodge is created in 1717, six years after that in 1723,

James Anderson, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, had been asked to write the constitutions of the Freemasons.

And so in this intervening six-year period, he gathers all the information he can, pulls them together,

and he preffices the constitutions with the various churches.

And one of them is the Church concerning God in religion.

And in that church, he explains that in previous times it was thought proper that all Masons should belong to the religion of their country.

But now it is thought more expedient that they hold that religion in which all good men agree.

And as our brothers then started looking at the operation of the fraternity,

they realized the rules as written. Not necessarily the rules as intended, but the rules as written

permitted them to initiate good men. This included a Turkish ambassador.

You can find a highman raisins where they have prayers for the initiation of Jewish members.

And so as they are initiating, as they're realizing that men of good will,

that good citizens, that their friends also believe God is important,

also believe that God, you know, commends them to do good in the community,

they're thinking, well, they can be Masons too.

And then once you realize that, then the only natural thing to do since the book is not specified in the old charges

is what would the book be to a man of a different faith than you?

Well, it would be what he believed was the revelation of God to men.

And so depending on the faith, you would have the different books.

Freemasons often talk about masonry as a progressive moral science.

To me, the term progressive means that we have a better understanding of who we are and what we are

and what we're trying to do as time goes by.

As we come to know men of other religious faiths over time,

we developed a better understanding of the importance of a sacred book in his own particular tradition.

And so it became obvious to us at a certain point in time that allowing a man to take his obligation on the book

that was sacred to him would be an appropriate extension of our understanding of a progress of Freemasonry.

Each grand lodge develops unique practices surrounding the holy writings,

which tend to reflect the distinct cultural makeup of its lodges.

These practices evolve over time, shaped by a changing brotherhood.

In California, we broadened our law a number of years ago to place in advance the book of a man's particular religious faith that he would choose on the altar

so that at that moment of binding himself to the promises of Freemasonry, he would have in view that book which was important to his religious tradition.

In the grand lodge of Iran, we put four books on the altar, the Quran, the holy book of Islam, the Torah, the holy book of Judaism,

and the Bible, the holy book of Christianity, and also the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrians, which is a very old Iranian religion.

Masonic lodges accept alternate holy books mainly for the candidate.

We have the same situation in the Iranian lodges.

Our altar is placed in the east, rather the center of the lodge, right in front of the worshipful master.

The holy books are basically the guidance of the worshipful master in his teachings and his behavior throughout the ceremonies.

Usually the book of the preference of the worshipful master should be put on top.

However, almost every time the worshipful master puts the book of preference of the candidate.

When the candidate enters the lodge for a ceremony, everything to him is unknown.

All the tools and all the signs that have so much meaning to us are meaningless to the candidate.

However, the only thing we have in common with him is the belief in God.

And the holy book that's in front of the candidate makes us closer together and makes the bond stronger

and makes the whole experience more sacred and spiritual.

When I opened my eyes and I saw my hand on the holy Quran, I felt the whole experience was more real.

I felt my obligation was not only to the brothers present at that lodge.

I felt my obligation was with God.

And I felt the whole experience was more serious at that moment when I saw the holy book in front of me.

The moment that I was given the initiation at the altar when I was told to kiss the holy Bible,

I felt as if all of my senses all came into one focus point, so engaged, so intense that I wasn't even aware of my body.

To me that experience is a lifelong recollection.

And I can always go back and say that I have seen the light.

And that light was different than the light that I came in to the lodge with.

From the early lodges of England to the present day lodges of California,

a book of holy writings has rested upon the altar as a reminder, a promise, and an inspiration.

Seeing it, Amason is instantly connected to both his faith and his fraternity.

Placing his hand upon it, he binds a promise to his brothers with a promise to his God.

He honors his innermost beliefs and the beliefs of those around him.

And so, no matter what form the holy writings takes, no matter which sacred volume it embodies,

it is a common denominator among free masons.

It is a physical reminder that masons of all cultures and beliefs can share in one dream,

one quest, one truth, to be good and faithful men.