Few students can effectively combine their personal and academic
lives the way John Slifko has.
The Freemason of 30 years is pursuing a doctorate in cultural
geography that examines the relationship of print and freemasonry
in early American civil society. In so doing, he has managed to
balance and ultimately combine the duties of freemasonry ““ a
global organization based on spiritual improvement and community
service ““ and those of academia.
Valinda Pintauro, Slifko’s wife of 17 years, said her
husband’s enthusiasm to help people and his quest for
intellectual and spiritual enlightenment have driven him to merge
these passions.
“J.P. is very passionate about everything he takes on
““ his schooling, his masonry, his compassion for people less
fortunate,” said Pintauro, who refers to her husband as
“J.P.,” short for John Paul. “He’s woven
masonry into his schooling.”
Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternity engaged in community
service and secular spirituality. The organization requires belief
in a higher power, but it is not specific to a religion, and
actually discourages religious discussion.
Freemasons do not solicit membership, and interested non-Masons
have to seek out a lodge in order to join.
The organization is highly ritualized, and as their meetings are
generally private, it has developed a reputation for its secrecy.
Slifko said what goes on in meetings is private, but it is
“basically just philosophical discussion.”
The organization, which is at least several hundred years old,
originally accepted only men. But many lodges have since begun
accepting women.
At the intersection of Slifko’s academic and Masonic
lives, he has been working with academics from UCLA and Europe to
set up a nonprofit research organization, the Roosevelt Center,
that is concerned with the study of freemasonry in civil society.
Freemasonry has grown away from civil society in recent decades and
has mostly lost its once-extensive ties to universities.
Slifko said he hopes to establish a formal affiliation between
the center and UCLA.
“The purpose of the Roosevelt Center is in a way to allow
freemasonry to breathe again a little bit by being open to the open
environment of the university campus,” he said.
Slifko has also helped arrange conferences, meetings and
speeches, with the aim of educating Masons and non-Masons alike
about the issues relevant to freemasonry.
With the regularity of campus life, academia is highly
ritualized. Freemasonry takes this notion even further with its
highly theatrical ritual.
“Masons ritualize everything ““ they ritualize having
dinner,” Slifko said. “To go to a Masonic banquet is to
explore a remarkable ritual.”
For the general public, much of the ritual of freemasonry has
been obscured by fictionalized versions of Masons and Masonic
activity, focusing on the perceived secrecy of the
organization.
Most of the pop-culture portrayals of freemasonry exploit its
secretive nature in order to add an air of intrigue to the
organization. From films like 2004’s “National
Treasure” to television shows like “The Simpsons”
and the novels of best-selling author Dan Brown, American audiences
may be influenced by these fictionalized representations of
Freemasons.
“The secrecy is part of the fantasy life of the public
imagination,” Slifko said.
“You can research things factually in Washington, D.C.,
about masonry and the history of this country, or you can read a
book like what Dan Brown publishes. And the public by and large
does not read the real scholarship, they read the
imagination,” he said.
Masonic secrecy, which developed in the 18th century, is
consistently undermined by its accessibility in the public sphere,
said history Professor Margaret Jacob, who gave a lecture at a
Santa Monica Masonic lodge Saturday about Masonic secrecy. Jacob is
a member of Slifko’s doctoral committee.
“I would describe Masonic secrecy in the 18th century as
an affectation,” she said. “It’s a kind of tease
““ you say it’s a secret, but then you publish the
passwords, you publish the ceremonies. So how secret is
it?”
Originally, Jacob said, the practice of using secret passwords
and handshakes developed among members of medieval guilds ““
men who were mostly illiterate used passwords and handshakes
“to protect their right to work in a particular town.”
In the modern world, she said, freemasonry “isn’t
really very secretive at all.”
But for U.S. audiences, a secret organization is a lot sexier
than an open one.
While freemasonry has an element of secrecy, its members say it
is essentially an organization seeking truth. And as both
freemasonry and higher education are, in a sense, quests for
knowledge, their intersection at the university may at times be
natural.
Jacob said “from time to time” there have been UCLA
students wishing to pursue an education related to freemasonry.
Slifko said he believes Masonic studies have a viable future in
academia.
“Masonry is now becoming a very substantial field for
academic study,” Slifko said.
In working with European academics, Slifko said he has seen a
large divide between American freemasonry and European
freemasonry.
Whereas European Freemasons are more strongly rooted in the
traditions of the organization, American Freemasons, he said,
“seem to be more interested in the McDonaldization of it and
the marketing of it, than in revisiting the intellectual quality of
it.”
He hopes to take steps to address this continental
disparity.
“I’m trying to educate Freemasons in the United
States that Europeans are far ahead of us,” he said.
“Freemasonry in the United States is collapsing because
they’re forgetting the ritualistic and the philosophical work
involved.”
Jacob is further evidence of this cultural divide between
American interest in freemasonry and European interest.
She estimates that she is one of only about 15 to 20 freemasonry
experts in the U.S., but “in Europe, there are many, many
more ““ about 200.”