🚀 go-pugleaf

For Charles Ring - on his question about how I
feel about books that reveal just about every
"secret" in Masonry.

Well, first, we do have an amendment to our
constitution, which many of us defended in military
service which says: Congress shall make no law which
abridges the freedom of speech.  We may not LIKE
what people say (in this case, revealing Masonic
"secrets") but we are obligated to let them say
it (even if it is in ignorance).

While in the military, I dealt with much classified
information, and whenever there was a potential
breach of security, the official line was something like:
"I will neither confirm nor deny..." or "no comment."

Now, I grant you, those are not satisfying returns, they
are difficult to say when you KNOW for a fact that the
other person is wrong, but if you get into an argument
over WHICH pieces are wrong and why, you fill in the
puzzle for those who are not in the fraternity.

Many of the books I've seen which purport to reveal all
Masonry's secrets, do so with not quite 100% accuracy.
It is the uncertainty of exactly WHICH PIECE is wrong
that preserves some of the Masonic secrecy.

So, I don't particularly LIKE having books out there
with a lot of ritual stuff that seems to be revealing,
BUT I do take a lot of satisfaction in KNOWING which
parts are right and which parts are wrong...obviously
the author and other Non-Masons don't know which is
which.

Bill