The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

624
Chapter 7 - Rituals
each widow would receive $500. It would cost two or three times that
much to secure $500 - in any Life Insurance Company in the land.
Besides, its influence in binding the Craft together, and creating an
interest in each other's welfare, is worth all it costs. 1563
It has been shown that the International Order of Odd Fellows began in
England as a fraternal benefit association, and developed towards a rather
spiritual organization with a dues and benefit system when imported to the
United States. However, there are fraternal orders that are truly designed for the
mere purpose of mutual financial support. One of such is the Security Benefit
Association from Topeka, Kansas, which ranks about America's earliest
insurance companies. The homepage 1564 of SBG, the Security Benefit Life
Insurance Company, names 1892 as the date of foundation, when eleven men
contributed a dollar each to form a fraternal benefit society. The members called
themselves the Knights and Ladies of Security, and their goals consisted in
caring for and protecting others, helping each other in business, and providing a
beneficiary fund. According to the homepage, "[f]or Topeka, Kansas and the rest
of the United States, the concept was considered remarkable for its day because
it provided life insurance to people who could not otherwise afford it, and it
admitted women on the same basis as men." 1565 The company has survived the
Great Depression, two World Wars, and several recessions, and has grown into a
$10.3 billion international financial organization. Its ritual from the 1890s lent
many features from Masonry. Thus, the Security Benefit Association initiates
men and women, and calls the candidate "Pilgrims." The outer form, i.e. the
meeting room, the officers, and the layout of the ritual, is very similar to
Masonry. The lodge room is called "Council Chamber." As in Masonry,
symbolical colors are used for paraphernalia and clothes. Even King Solomon, a
central character in Freemasonry, is cited, and the crown - popular in many
quasi-Masonic orders like the female, boys' and girls's orders - is used as a
symbol.
The rich symbolism of Freemasonry is left out completely. The association
merely illustrates its four tenets, wisdom, protection, security, and fraternity,
without employing any symbolic working tools. Strangely enough, its language
contains a few phrases taken from operative Masonry, for example:
The most secure structure is no stronger than its foundation. The
foundation of our Order is broad and deep, and we are secure within its
walls.
We, co-workers in the building of this Order, are laying securely its
foundation and walls, as we build it, stone by stone - walls, ornamented
by social features, made massive and strong by its equitable reserve
1563 The Masonic Review, vol. XXXVII, from 1870, p. 59.
1564 https://www.securitybenefit.com/Common/AboutSBG/history.asp
1565 Ibid.