Free Regarding Freemasonry: Everything You Wanted to Know About Masonic Conspiracies, by Bernard Schaffer Page A

taking a step into history, to hear the things the great men of our country heard and said. 
     Finally someone did come out and ask me if I was ready. 
     I told them that I was.  I was escorted to a small room and instructed on how to go about preparing to enter the Lodge of Freemasons for the first time.  It’s something you never forget.  When you are going into closed rooms with no idea of what is inside waiting for you, no clue about what the people intend to do, it requires a certain measure of trust. 
     Trust in people you’ve never met. 
     Trust in the people you’ve admired throughout history. 
     I kept telling myself that whatever happened to me had happened to things greater than I for countless years, and somehow, it made every step I took that much easier. 
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     It is, by far, easier to tell you what Freemasonry is not, than what it actually is .  First of all, it is not a religion.  There is no specific religious instruction, and no claim of any particular deity. 
     This seems to be a sticking point for the religious organizations who disavow Freemasonry.  They get angry because THEIR God isn’t singled out as the real one.  I personally see this as a traditional practice of non-discrimination.  If any church wants to tell me that’s a sin, so be it, but they do it with the air of prejudice against everyone outside of their particular denomination. 
     The Freemasons are not a religious organization, so it really does not matter what the individual member’s particular belief is.  It never becomes an issue, because it is never brought up. 
     I realize that’s hard for people to wrap their heads around.  It was for me as well, because I initially thought the Masons had their own religion.  They don’t. 
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    The only Masonic requirement in terms of religion is that you as a person accept the existence of God.  Whether that means the Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or Glycon the make-believe Roman snake deity, they don't say.  It isn't asked.  Whatever God you take with you into Freemasonry is the one they are talking about. 
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     Freemasonry is not a cult.  It is also not a political organization.  There has never once been, in my experience, any effort to rally the brethren to partake in any political event.  There was no mention of any Presidential Elections, no support offered by the body to any candidate, and no Freemason representation at any of the voting polls. 
     If anything, there are more rules against what can be discussed inside of the Lodge that prevent people from talking about religion and politics than any kind of encouragement to do so. 
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    There is no central leadership of Freemasonry outside that of the state any lodge operates in.
     I’m going to say this again, because it is a fundamental point when we discuss conspiracy theories that the Freemasons are attempting to take over the world. 
     There is NO central leadership of Freemasonry outside of the state any lodge operates in. 
     Pennsylvania’s Grand Lodge is located in Philadelphia.  It has no connection to the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, California, London, Nova Scotia, or anywhere else.  Everybody in other parts of the country and world might do things completely different than we do, and that’s okay, because there is no governing body between the two. 
     If you are a Freemason reading this thinking, “This guy’s nuts, that’s not how we do it” then let me reinforce that I have no clue what you guys are up to.  Except for the people in New Jersey.  I have my suspicions about you folks and always have. 
     But that has more to do with them being from New Jersey than anything else. 
     Let’s keep moving. 
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     Basically, any local Masonic Lodge is a club.  Masons call themselves a fraternity, but in my mind, I picture fraternities as being places with Greek names and naked college vixens hanging from the chandeliers.  You will be highly disappointed if