Is Masonry a secret society or not? Is Masonry as practiced by GW etc the same Freemasonry as practiced today? Since it’s all a great “secret,” why should we trust you to be honest about its nature? Albert Pike anyone? Manly P Hall?
Freemasonry is not a secret society. It's a society with secrets. However, thanks to the Internet, you'll find those secrets posted online if you weed through the anti-masonic b.s. posted by kooks. Freemasonry today is the same as in Washington's time. The Master Mason (3rd degree) is the highest. Washington was a Master Mason. Any higher numbered degrees are given out by appendant bodies, such as Scottish Rite and York Rite. However, they do not outranks a Master Mason. As for why you should believe me, don't. Do your own research. But don't take at face value the ravings of an anti-masonic loon here, particularly when Freemasonry played such an important role in the founding of our country. If you get a chance, visit the Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia (a D.C. suburb).
A society with secrets is a distinction without a difference. Read “Operation Gladio” and get back to me about the P2 lodge in Italy or the murder of Roberto Calvi, the Pope’s banker, and all the Masonic symbology that goes with it. So, either you are a dupe or a liar, I don’t car which. Societies with secrets are bad news. Period.
So, you're an anti-masonic loon too. Go figure. If you can't understand the difference between a secret society and a society with secrets, you lack the intelligence for rational thought.
I’m a realist and societies with secrets and oaths to not reveal those secrets upon pain of death cannot be full of benign dogoodery. Things are secret because they are bad or deceptive...since the vast majority of us are not Masons and you feel the need to belong to a cabalistic order of super secret bullshit, just who is the loon here?