Hello everyone! This is my first post here, and I'm glad to be here.
I've been more or less interested in Freemasonry since high school, and that's nearly thirty years now. Over the years, I've read quite a bit of material on the topic, both positive and Anti, including John J. Robinson's Born in Blood, The Hiram Key, among many others including the negative The Brotherhood by Stephen Knight, back in the 80s. From time to time I have considered petitioning. However, what has really prevented me from doing so, is my desire not to offend my parents. They have strong Evangelical Christian beliefs, and literally consider Masonry to be anti-Christian, or sadly, even Luciferian. Interestingly, these misled beliefs are what led me to be curious about the organization in the first place back as a teenager; in other words to find out for myself. What I found so perplexing, is that so many friends of the family, including my uncle, are Masons, and all good men, and upstanding in the community for the most part. Yet, my parents have apparently made up their mind and aren't open to learning. That's certainly a pity, as the rituals, symbols, dramatics and performance, and the philosophy and spiritualism of it all would be right up my alley I'm almost certain.
Therefore, my question is: If I were to petition, and eventually become a Mason, would I be able to keep my membership private, or secret (no pun intended) from my family? I am not currently married, so parents may feasibly collect my mail when out of town, and consequently find Lodge mail. Furthermore, we live rather close to each other in a large city with dozens of lodges if not more, so at least in that regard there would be no grapevine.
I've been more or less interested in Freemasonry since high school, and that's nearly thirty years now. Over the years, I've read quite a bit of material on the topic, both positive and Anti, including John J. Robinson's Born in Blood, The Hiram Key, among many others including the negative The Brotherhood by Stephen Knight, back in the 80s. From time to time I have considered petitioning. However, what has really prevented me from doing so, is my desire not to offend my parents. They have strong Evangelical Christian beliefs, and literally consider Masonry to be anti-Christian, or sadly, even Luciferian. Interestingly, these misled beliefs are what led me to be curious about the organization in the first place back as a teenager; in other words to find out for myself. What I found so perplexing, is that so many friends of the family, including my uncle, are Masons, and all good men, and upstanding in the community for the most part. Yet, my parents have apparently made up their mind and aren't open to learning. That's certainly a pity, as the rituals, symbols, dramatics and performance, and the philosophy and spiritualism of it all would be right up my alley I'm almost certain.
Therefore, my question is: If I were to petition, and eventually become a Mason, would I be able to keep my membership private, or secret (no pun intended) from my family? I am not currently married, so parents may feasibly collect my mail when out of town, and consequently find Lodge mail. Furthermore, we live rather close to each other in a large city with dozens of lodges if not more, so at least in that regard there would be no grapevine.