The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know. [RETURN TO INDEX]

No. It does not take much imagination to look at a map of Washington, DC and see the outline of a five-pointed star in the streets to the north of the White House. But the assumptions required to believe that this arbitrary geometric shape reveals a secret political or occult agenda have no foundation. One has to assume that the pentagram is a uniquely evil symbol, highly valued by freemasons who believe that its physical representation can have a real impact on the world and that freemasons are responsible for intentionally including it in Washington’s street plan. None of these assumptions bear scrutiny. First, the pentagram is not an exclusively satanic symbol nor does it have any particular masonic significance. Second, Freemasonry, promoting rationalism, places no power in symbols themselves. It is not a part of Freemasonry to view the drawing of symbols, no matter how large, as an act of consolidating or controlling power. Third, there is no published information establishing the masonic membership of the men primarily responsible for the final streetplan. Freemason George Washington commissioned Pierre Charles L'Enfant and approved the streetplan executed by Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Bannecker, but neither the last two nor Thomas Jefferson were freemasons. L'Enfant was initiated as an Entered Apprentice but there is no evidence that he took any further interest in Freemasonry. It also bears mentioning that the pentagram, if it is to have any masonic significance, must be an equilateral pentagram, representing the golden ratio. Drawing lines on a map of Washington, DC proves nothing other than the physical existence of streets and buildings. [RETURN TO INDEX] 9. Aren't the freemasons plotting to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem? No. This is another story perpetuated by Lyndon LaRouche. In essence, the theory is that British Freemasonry, by design of members of the House of Windsor, and through the mechinations of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, is secretly plotting to gain control of the Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple. LaRouche’s researchers have assembled a collection of facts and near-facts and linked them together with unproven opinions and assumptions. A refutation of the accusation is found at freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/rebuild_temple.html. [RETURN TO INDEX] 10. Didn't Adolf Hitler praise Freemasonry? No. Adolf Hitler (1889/04/20 - 1945/04/30) is recorded in referring to his perception of Freemasonry as an example of how he wanted the Nazi party to develop, specifically with an hierarchical organization and initiation through symbolic rites. A full record of his actions and writings though, clearly demonstrate that he despised Freemasonry. For further information and quotes, view freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/hitler.html. [RETURN TO INDEX] 11. But wasn't the Nazi party founded by the freemasons? No. A distinction must be drawn between the acts and beliefs of individual freemasons and Freemasonry as a group. While Freemasonry had nothing to do with the Nazi party and in fact was a major target for its hatred, there was one freemason—of a sort— in the party’s early history. Rudolf Glandeck von Sebottendorff (born Adam Alfred Rudolph Glauer in 1875) and Hermann Pohl (founder of the short-lived magical fraternity, the German Order Walvater of the Holy Grail) established another magical fraternity in Munich, the Thule Gesellschaft, on August 17, 1918. Originally called the "Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum" (Study Group for German Antiquity), and deriving its ideology from such occultists as Guido von List (1848-1919/05/17), Adolf Lanz, aka Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954) and Madam Blavatsky, the group was politically active and played a leading part in assisting the successful attack on Munich’s Communist government on 30 April, 1919. Whether or not the occult affectations of the Thule were anything more than a cover for counter-revolutionary activism has not been determined. Regardless, the Thule amalgamated on 5 January, 1919 with the Committee of Independent Workers, renaming themselves the Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei, the German Workers' Party. Adolf Hitler claimed he was the seventh member to join this group which changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1920. Sebottendorff is purported to have been initiated into an irregular body of the Rite of Memphis while he was in Turkey. From his own writings it is clear that his version of Freemasonry incorporated aspects of Islamic Sufi mysticism, alchemy, astrology and Rosicrucianism. In his autobiographical novel Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers (The Rosicrucian Talisman), he makes a clear distinction between Turkish Freemasonry and regular Freemasonry:

"It must be shown that Oriental Freemasonry still retains faithfully even today the ancient teachings of wisdom forgotten by modern Freemasonry, whose Constitution of 1717 was a departure from the true way."

Sebottendorff’s Bevor Hitler kam (1933)—banned by the Bavarian political police on 1 March, 1934— claimed precedence for the Thule Gesellschaft in the ranks of early influences on Hitler. This claim has been promoted by popular writers, most satisfied to seek corroboration in Hermann Rauschning’s Hitler Speaks (1939) without noting that this book was anecdotal, unsubstantiated, and later discredited by scholarly research. With his book suppressed by the Nazis, Sebottendorff was arrested by the Gestapo in 1934, interned in a concentration camp and then expelled to Turkey, where he is believed to have committed suicide by drowning on 9 May, 1945. Both Sebottendorff’s claims to masonic association and influence on Hitler are unproven and questionable. For further information and quotes, view freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/sebottendorff_r.html. [RETURN TO INDEX] 12. What is the masonic testament? An invention by the highly imaginative authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, compiled from excerpts of the many rituals devised in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that—at one time or another—were worked in masonic lodges or by freemasons independently of their lodges or without Grand Lodge authority. These rituals came from a multitude of independent sources and were created for a multitude of reasons. Knight and Lomas have arbitrarily selected passages from these texts to compile what they refer to as a chronology or history. The Masonic Testament is a work of fiction included in their book The Book of Hiram (2003). Knight and Lomas' "The Masonic Testament" is a contemporary text having no historical validity. It is not accepted as having any masonic authority, nor is it endorsed by any masonic body. It is a work of fiction. It should also be stressed that the phrase, "Masonic Testament" does not refer to another misnomer, "the masonic Bible." There is no such thing as a Masonic Bible; the Volume of Sacred Law which is used in every regular masonic lodge is that book held sacred by the members of the lodge—generally in North America, the King James Authorized Version of the Christian Bible. [RETURN TO INDEX]