12. The Freemasons
Freemasonry is something that is difficult to understand. The Freemasons are a secret society that doesn’t necessarily have a creed, as far as people on the outside are aware, although there are plenty of conspiracy theorists who believe that there is a creed. Freemason rituals, such as initiation rituals, are dramatic and filled with symbolic meaning, but they aren’t known to be particularly evil or sinister. They instead make Freemasonry look like its own quasi-religious group. George Washington was a leader of a Masonic lodge, and many other of America’s founders were known to be Freemasons. Innocent enough, right?
The challenge is in the crimes throughout history that seem to be somehow linked to the Freemasons. In 1833, John Quincy Adams wrote, “I do conscientiously and sincerely believe that the Order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest, is one of the greatest moral and political evils under which the Union is now laboring.” Conspiracy theories suggest that Freemasonry is associated with the occult, that it engages in mind control or other similar activities, and that it is satanic. One belief held by many who are not Freemasons is that Freemasonry requires allegiance to a Masonic god, one that falls outside of the mainstream of religion.