I can’t account for the rest of the U.S. but the obligation in Massachusetts (some of the oldest ritual in the world which I can attest to) no longer contains the ancient penalties that you’re referring to.

Also – the “secrets” that you’re referring to don’t exist. Ben Franklin, one of the world’s most renowned Masons, a Past Grand Master of Philadelphia, originally applied to join three times before being accepted. The only reason why he joined was because he threatened to expose the secrets of the Fraternity. These “secrets” were exposed shortly after the Grand Lodge of England was officially recognized as an organization. It was chartered in 1717 and the “secrets” were leaked 3 years later. He would later write that “the biggest secret in Freemasonry is that there is no secret”.

What I can tell you about the secrets of Freemasonry is that no one can tell you what the secrets are. Not because they’re obligated, but because for each man it is different. They can’t tell you because you have to go through the process to understand it.

Consider that some of the greatest men (character traits not political affiliations) – these men were Masons. If they are good men and they are Masons, proud of their inclusion in this ancient order, what sinister thing is it that anti-masonic people think we’re hiding?

” French Freemasons and their African lodge leaders play a key role in the current impasse in the Ivory Coast. Virtually all the African leaders ranged against Laurent Gbagbo and supporting the elite cadre of French business and political leaders are Freemasons affiliated to the same lodges as the elite French business and political group. It is impossible to understand how Françafrique works without reference to the Masons.”

http://www.henrymakow.com/french_imperialism_freemasonry.html

It is normally after the local Mason’s lodge has a successful fundraiser, that the clergy looks at his own unsuccessful charity event and wishes for the same thing. It is also we who compete with other charities endorced by TV preaching heads, and in so doing we compete with there paycheck. It’s only natural that these men and women, who have forgotten the real reason for charity and ministry, bash us out of envy.

You probably also believe that Saddam had WMD’s and that Afghanistan was harboring Osama?

One of those ‘Our government doesn’t lie to us, businesses are all honest, News casters can’t be bought’ people?

I’ll say one thing, for some people the comfort and mental peace attained by maintaining ignorance in a highly volatile and dangerous world is worth dieing for. It’s not easy to face the fact that you might have been brainwashed by media as you were growing up. It’s like being told you are adopted. It’s much easier to keep a shut-eye and pretend it’s all good. You’ve adopted the easy route.

Also, do you believe that the masonic symbols all being 100% directly related to pagan religions is just a coincidence? Or did the masons do that purposefully to create conspiracies for publicity? Wait, are you also an those extremist evolutionists who believes the entire universe and everything in it is a random coincidence? If so, that explains it lol. If everything is a coincidence, then what’s a few symbols here there.

- you keep your cool and resist the temptation to indulge in or respond to personal attacks, which will surely follow when you’ve seen off their flimsy arguments with gentle, but firm and repetitive requests for evidence or logic.

- you understand that you will not be allowed to be seen to win the debate: the audience for anti-masonry is like a cult that believes without wanting the inconvenience of facts. Believing silly conspiracy theories about the “360″ degrees of freemasonry makes them feel superior and you won’t be allowed to deprive them of that feeling. Know therefore, when to exist gracefully without necessarily having the last word.

The more we are seen to be shy and retiring, the more the anti-masonic conspiracists will be able to claim that we are secretive because we are up to no good.

I do wonder if the grand lodges are doing enough. Yes, they will conduct rebuttals in newspapers putting right articles that make untrue claims, but this policy completely misses the younger YouTube generation who have never bought a newspaper and are becoming convinced that freemasonry is a branch of a secret society run by alien lizards bent on bringing about a sinister “New World Order”. Barking mad, but people do seem to believe this stuff and I would urge the Grand lodges to be much more proactive in tackling it.

They have an advantage in that their audience is often conditioned to accepting wild claims (freemasonry is “satanic” etc.) without employing the least bit of critical thinking on their part. They have an audience used to believing things without evidence. If a preacher or other person in a place of authority says freemasonry is bad, it must, in their eyes, be so.

There’s that, plus the the very low quality threshhold many place on information found on the net. Controversial and scandalous claims are more appealing to the baser parts of our natures: the sites that offer such stuff necessarily jumps up Google’s rankings when someone searches for “freemasonry”.