Disclaimer: Not a Mason.

After having observed and participated in threads in the Secret Societies forum fairly extensively over the past 7 or so years, I've drawn a conclusion upon which I don't expect universal agreement.

Your opinions and experiences about and with Freemasonry very much depend upon where you are in the world. Best example I can think of is a college fraternity. A particular chapter at a campus in the upper Midwest may be perceived totally differently than the same fraternity in the deep south. Same frat, different member pools.

To a larger extent, I'm quite sure Freemasonry is the same. The experiences someone would have with Freemasonry in the UK are going to be very different than someone would have in Davenport, Iowa.

Any group is only as good (or bad) as the members comprising it. There is nothing evil or satanic or inherently bad with Freemasonry. But I'm pretty convinced that it's a whole other animal depending upon the geographic area.

There's a natural group dynamic associated with any group. Groups can be swayed in one direction or the other dependent upon the alpha players in the group. If some lodge in Liverpool or Seattle is involved in influence peddling or clandestine favor granting, that's not a reflection upon Freemasonry as much as it is the individuals comprising that particular lodge.

There's no real secret that the Catholic church has had its problems. That doesn't mean Christianity, or Catholicism is inherently bad. It means people do bad things. People of all walks of life and from every conceivable group. You don't base your opinions of any one group upon the actions of the worst among them. That's called prejudice, and is ignorant all by itself.

So there's nothing particularly wrong with Freemasonry. Individual Freemasons are capable of doing some very unMasonic things, just like Christians are capable of doing some very unChristian things. Not everything a Christian does is a Christian act. Not everything a Mason does is Masonic.

Of course if you see some inherent evil in the mumbo jumbo rites and rituals, that's a whole other paranoid kettle of fish.

In my opinion.