If anyone is going to investigate the teachings of the Masonic Lodge, who or what is the authority that they should listen to?
    When we asked this question on our television program to Mr. Bill Mankin, a thirty-second degree Mason, he says, "The authoritative source for Masonry is the ritual. The ritual-what happens in the Lodge, what goes on."
    When one examines Masonry today and compares the different manuals containing the ritual for each state, it is apparent that today the ritual and the interpretations given are most identical. Therefore, the Ritual in the Masonic manuals can be considered the authoritative teachings of the Lodge. As former Worship Master Jack Harris reveals: "In {all} other states...the principle and the doctrines {of the ritual} are exactly the same.
    But we wanted to know which authors and books Masons themselves recommend to outsiders as authoritative. In order to answer this question, a letter was sent to each of the 50 Grand Lodges in America. We addressed the letter to the Grand Master of each of the Grand Lodges and asked him to respond to the following question: "As an official Masonic leader, which books and authors do you recommend as being authoritative on the subject of Freemasonry?"
    Half of all the Grand Lodges in the United States responded, that is 25 of the 50 (AZ, CO, CT, DC, DE, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, ME, MI, MO, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA, SC, TX, UT, VA, WI). Remember: For each state there is no higher authority than its Grand Lodge.
 

John Ankerberg & John Weldon