Who should be admitted—and who should not?
Every Masonic Lodge answers that question, whether it realizes it or not.
Guarding the West Gate is a sober, experience-driven examination of one of the Craft’s most important—and most neglected—responsibilities: discernment. Not suspicion. Not exclusion. Stewardship.
Drawing on lodge life, investigation committees, waiting periods, uncomfortable conversations, and the quiet costs of saying no, this book explores how admission decisions shape not just membership rolls, but culture, authority, and trust within the Lodge itself. It challenges the modern pressure to equate growth with health, and asks what is lost when urgency replaces patience.
This is not a procedural manual, nor a critique written from the sidelines. It is a reflection on formation—of men and of institutions—and on the long consequences of choices made one petition at a time.
For Masons concerned with the future of the Craft, Guarding the West Gate offers clarity, restraint, and a reminder that preservation is itself a form of labor.
