Freemasonry as described by a Mason

I happened to go onto this forum where a mason was asked about Freemasons and our founders. And this was his conclusion

Regarding Freemasonry and Founding Fathers (again using the term loosely to mean any significant figure in the Revolutionary War) it had two effects…both easily misunderstood.

First; it is a way for people to approach Christianity differently than merely through Church, often which is focused on dogma or doctrine and less on being Christian…while Freemasonry eliminates a need to be “Christian” altogether, which could have several origins to that belief – or could have merely been the result of British experience with non-Christians, and feeling a desire to meet and be Christian around these non-Christians…to act like but not discuss Christianity.

The lack of discussion of Religion or Politics became apart of the Masonic Constitutions as a result of the Civil War in Great Britain so it’s not necessarily that there isn’t a “religious” purpose to the fraternity, but that political necessity negated it to a large extent.

The second aspect is that Freemasonry rarely has its own impact upon a person, it brings little to the table that you yourself do not bring, and because of this Freemasonry itself may be a way for people to relate to one another even more, but it is not itself strong enough to forge ideas, or create actions that themselves are not already created by another force (like religion) and acted upon by the person’s own devotion to those ideas.

Materially, not very many founders were Freemasons…just a good amount of key Generals and senior officers of the military (since Masonry was a fad in the British military at the time that made sense) and then a few good socialites.

Others are stated to be made masons without proof…such as Jefferson (who did attend a lodge once or twice as a guest)…