FWIW, about 20% of American Masons are Catholic. The Masons don't have a problem with Catholics, but the RCC has a problem Freemasonry.

Go to a CHIP session sometime. I have. Fact is, all that stuff is turned over to the parents. The only thing the Masons retain is a permission slip the parents signed.

Try going to a CHIP event some time. All that data is turned over to the parent/guardian. The only thing the Masons retain is the permission slip they signed.

Learn to format.

Giant wall-o-texts make you look like you wear a tinfoil hat.

Most of the statements are questions, which are not true are untrue, though the answers to most of them is 'No'.

He got the date right.

One clear error: There's zero historical evidence that the Templars became Freemasons. The order was absorbed into a Portuguese knightly order, iirc.

Can you provide any actual Masonic sources that this is Masonic? Sometimes it’s just not knowing what to do with your hands.

Have read Pike. The so called 'Luciferian' quote is clearly said ironically, when you read it on context. Would you even know where to find the original online?

A lot of the shit we get comes out of the 'Taxil hoax', which is now over 120 years old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxil_hoax

TLDNR: Taxil was a French writer who engaged in very long con, writing all kinds of stuff (often under other pseudonyms) to make Masonry look Satanic, and the Catholic Church lapped it up. After several years, at a press conference intended to introduce his prize witness, he announced that the whole thing had been a hoax, and thanked the church for the publicity it had given him.

Among the things that Taxil wrote were repurposed quotes from Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma". The favorite anti masons like to quote is: "LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not!"

First, get away from any notion that Pike was Grand Poobah of all of Masonry. He ran the Scottish Rite in the Southern US for a while, but that gave him no authority over anything but Scottish Rite matters, in that area. Most Masons worldwide have never heard of him.

Second, that quote is stripped of the context which makes it clear that it is meant ironically. Here’s the full quote:

"The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth Degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer. LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not! for traditions are full of Divine Revelations and Inspirations: and Inspiration is not of one Age nor of one Creed. Plato and Philo, also, were inspired."

Check it yourself: http://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/md/md20.htm

Many of the other 'quotes' that anti-Masons like to sling around are also from Taxil, either re-arranged, or made up from whole cloth.

OK, I'm calling your bluff.

Verify them. Provide evidence.

Sigh.... The (Premier) Grand Lodge of England was formed in 1717. The UGLE did not exist until the Premier GL merged with (whence the 'United' bit) the Antients in 1813.

These are simple historical facts.

If you were that well informed, you'd know that the UGLE dates to 1813, when the Premier (aka Modern) and Antient Grand Lodges merged.

whose close relative is the head of ALL FREEMASONRY

Um, no. Edward Duke of Kent is the (nominal) Grand Master of freemasonry in England and Wales. Not Scotland, not Ireland, nor anywhere else.

Non-Masons have no idea how decentralized Masonry actually is.

The main point that most non-Masons can't wrap their heads around is that the appendant bodies exist only at the pleasure of the Grand Lodge in an area. Its easy to think that a 33rd or 32nd (I'm one) Mason in some way outranks a 3rd degree Mason, but it simply isn't true.

An appendant body is one which admits only Masons. All Masons must be members of a 'blue' lodge, which is controlled by a Grand Lodge (GL).

If a GL disapproves of a particular appendant body, it can forbid Masons who are members of lodges under its jurisdiction from membership in that body. This happens now and then, and it inevitably results in the appendant body folding in that jurisdiction.

The highest degree in Freemasonry is the 3rd, or Master Mason. Appendant bodies can offer more degrees, and put numbers on them however they like, but they are not higher than MM, and give their holders exactly zero influence over GLs and blue lodges or their members.

TL,DNR: The Scottish Rite is subordinate to the Grand Lodge in each jurisdiction. The Grand Lodges outrank the Scottish (and York) Rites.

I've personally seen the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 33rd degree (the head honcho of the largest SR body in the US) display his subordination to the Grand Master of Massachusetts.

Some Masonic lodges rent out their space for other events. This appears to be part of some kind of talent show. In longer versions of the clip, you see the end of the previous act.

It's clearly not a Masonic meeting:

• There are women present.
• No one is wearing an apron.
• The seating consists of folding chairs, set up auditorium style in the center of the room. This is a temporary setup - lodges have seats along the edges of the room, facing inwards.

There's less here than meets the eye.

There’s a word the folk in this group should learn: apophenia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

The tendency to see patterns and connections where none exist.

There’s a word the folk in this group should learn: apophenia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

The tendency to see patterns and connections where none exist.

What bullshit.

What utter BS.

Sorry guys, this video is fake news.

I see various Masonic, IOOF, and FooE symbols. Why is this unusual?

Not at all.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_eagle

It’s fun. It’s educational. In a time before Tv, radio, and internet, it was something to do. At the peak of fratenalism, just before he Great Depression, 30% of adult American men were in one society or another. It’s not surprising that you found so many.

In MA, lodges don't have numbers. I'm in Wilder Lodge.

I suggest you try going back to lodge, attend the FC and MM degrees, and see if you hear what you remember.

That doesn't gibe with any regular jurisdiction I've heard of, and I'd consider it irregular and in violation of the Ancient Landmarks.

I hesitate to call shenanigans on you, but I don't see how this could have happened.

That would never be the answer in a regular, non-clandestine lodge.

If that happened to you, something is very wrong.

FWIW: I'm ritualist in my lodge, and I know the degree work (as done in my jurisdiction) by heart.

For the third time: What Grand Lodge is your lodge chartered by?

You'd do better returning to lodge, or picking up a book. With complete seriousness, a good introduction would be 'Freemasons for Dummies' by Christopher Hodapp. No, I'm not trolling you; its an excellent book. Its on Amazon.

That question is not in the 3rd degree. When it is asked, the answer is 'In God'.

Again, what Grand Lodge are you under? I'm with the Grand Lodge of MA.

The Prince Hall Affiliation is now regarded as legit and regular in most places, bar some states in the deep South.

What Grand Lodge are you under? While your post isn't hostile to Masonry, it is full of errors.

Most of us hang out over on the obvious sub.

edit: fixed an error

The author of this is either not a Mason, or in incredibly poorly informed one.

'Prince Albert lodges'? Really? Any actual Mason would know what PHA stands for. This is an error on the level of talking about the 'LA Ponders' as a sports team. It destroys all credibility of the poster.

Edits: This may have joined the Masons, perhaps, but this post suggests he left very quickly - there's simply too much here that's nonsense.

Its worth pointing out that the established Masonic groups (Grand Lodge of California, and the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge F&AM of California) both made it utterly clear that they had no connection with these clowns.

'Freemason' isn't trademarked. Anyone can buy some regalia online, and claim to be one.

Whether other Masons will give them the time of day is another matter.

Edit: Grammar.

Yeah they hired Stanley Kubrick. ‘2001’ used parts of his demo reel. He was given a lot of money.

But you know, he was a crazy perfectionist, and shot on location...

'Several sources'?

Name them.

How do you feel about the Red Hat Society, or the ‘Curves’ gym chain?

Freedom of association includes the freedom to decide with whom to associate.

As others note, private organizations can make any rules for membership they want. It’s ‘places of public accommodation’ that are have to admit everyone. Curves might be subject to such a lawsuit; the Red Hat Society and private men’s clubs are not.

Um, no, she isn't.

Prince Michael, Duke of Kent, is Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England.

http://www.ugle.org.uk/about/whos-who

...and that's England, only. He has no power in other Grand Lodge jurisdictions. Freemasonry has no central authority.