= new reply since forum marked as read
It's been ten years and my memory isn't what it once was 
doesn't mean that they will accept you. one of my sons tried to become a freemason (his paternal grandfather is one), but his grandfather rejected his request. 
why would that happen? fwiw, my ggrandfather was a mason too, nobody after him though.
Outside one member I knew from my deputy days who would tell me weird stories about it some nights when he would come visit me when I was working at the nursing home (was a security guard at that point and he would come by to check on me since his cruise was assigned that area and we would chat about the 'old' days when I worked there too).
Aunt and uncle were always doing fund raisers, etc - but they were well connected because of it. It was like linked in 
and my mom has been in all of their women's organizations. I participated for a few years in one of their youth organizations, but I mainly did it to please my mom and grandparents.
I agree with the poster who said it is mainly focused on charity and raising funds for their charities. Too much flag waving and bible kissing for my personal taste.
However, the Masons may well have played an important part in the early founding of this country (supposedly most of the founders were Masons), and they may have played important parts in political events in Europe, as well.
The paranoid babbling about the Masons being the Illuminati are a bunch of hooey, in my opinion. Some people get excited because the bible isn't the only holy book that can be placed on the altar. Meh. The holy book that is placed on the altar depends on what faith that group of Masons happens to practice. In some countries, the Koran would be on the altar. In other countries, it might be the Torah. Big deal! 
My own father explained that their basic aim was to persuade the members to be the best persons and citizens that they could be.
I did some reading, and it appears that they use teachings from religions and philosophies from all over the world. The main problem some folks have with them is that they ARE a secret society, although if you want to cruise used book stores you can research a lot of what you might want to know, so it really isn't all that secret.
Nonetheless, thank you to Marah G for her posts on this subject. It sounds to me like she knows whereof she speaks.
My impression: they are basically honorable as an organization; many of the members are quite elderly and are sometimes just as conservative in their political and religious viewpoints as any Republican; as a group they are having trouble attracting enough younger members to keep their organizations going. Personal opinion, which could be incorrect, is that most of what they are about is not very relevant to younger generations.
I agree with the posters who feel that the members' oaths of secrecy should be respected. Don't ask questions in public, it is just kind of rude. You can always research if you want to know more. The book by John Greer, mentioned above, might be a good place to start, or check you local used bookstore, where the esoteric books are kept.
And you are most welcome. It is nice to see folks with knowledge commenting.
without putting dad on the spot again. there's tons of sites by.. of all people.. born-again christians who used to be freemasons and now think it's satanic, and they've published every scrap of every rite, password and handshake worth reading, both blue lodge and scottish rite.
more to the point though it's a pretty damn old organization so there's tons of literature on the subject once you start browsing. from a.e. waite to manly hall and on and on there are history and speculation all written in deliciously purple prose. absolutely fascinating lens through which to look at the last couple centuries of western history. plus the books are old, leatherbound, gild-edged and smell like.. books!
now to the comments.. the folks who said the masons are basically a charitable/social group nailed it. elks club with hermeticism i'd call it, rather than 'gnostic' elements (the gnostic elements are mere artifacts of rosicrucian hermeticism, see, i.e., dame francis yates). not just benign in our times, but, yeah, pretty much benevolent..
..except in the south. there, unless we're talking prince hall masonry, there is little difference between the masons and the good ole boys network. out west it gets complicated too as many masons (kit carson for example, or the founders of the mormon church) were also ruthless indian-killing genocidal maniacs whose memory deserves naught but a turd atop it.
definitely NOT a homogeneous group.. until recently about 10% of the adult male population was a member. any religion, any race (but not NO religion, and NO women).
That is all you need to know.
I asked my Dad a few questions about Masonry when I read that the Southern Baptist church made a policy to kick out any Masons who were in leadership positions in their churches, and accused them of being Satanists, etc. It was all a bunch of hooey, and it was because the Masonic orders are not fundy fanatic zealots that caused the Southern Baptists to make up a bunch of schlok and try to get their sheeple to believe it. Many elderly Masons who had belonged to the Southern Baptist churches were pretty upset by the whole thing.
I love your last sentence: " but I think a lot of the fear came from the fact that they were not into the christian zealotry and that caused the zealots some heartburn... the best way to reduce the value of an organization is to make stuff up that would scare those who know nothing about it to begin with." Heartburn indeed! Perfect description, as well as "make stuff up..." to scare people who know nothing about it. Word! 
Making stuff up - proven time and again to be the regular M.O. of the brainless, classless fundy fanatic extremists.
engaged in religion warfare. We had ultra fundies, 7 day adventists, jews (the original group on one side), catholics and lutherans... I decided to eschew all of them by my mid teens which put me squarely in the position of being called a "snake slithering on my way to hell" for anything I did whether it was to not go to any of all the churches, refused to be baptized, and didn't read the books foisted on me that I was actually supposed to memorize... can't imagine memorizing that verbatim but that's what they expected. And, of course, each group claimed to be the true children of god and that all the others were satanists or just simply not worthy of going to heaven like the chosen ones.
It was all too much divisive rhetoric that made me realize they were making a lot of it up, so I have been happily finding my spirituality on my own and feel quite comfortable with it.
The making stuff up is the best game in town when it comes to convincing the dim bulbs that you are to be believed and revered. I've heard all the rumors about the masons and others and I have to just shake my head. I have learned in my travels that it pretty much doesn't matter what methodology you tend to lean toward as long as you have the right intention and understanding of what it's about, having a system or practice that connects you to the universal mind or god or whatever you call the higher energy, it's how you put that energy to use that matters. Making stuff up about people who are using the energy to good but aren't kneeling at the same alter is not putting the energy to it's proper use. Too bad that so many on the planet are conditioned to think that everyone has to obey some human's dictates to be worthy of respect as a member of the species...
