Why is there such a bother about an institution which has about one quarter of the membership it had 50 years ago? If it was influential in the past, and served as a sort of mutual assistance league, it is less effective in that role today due to declining and aging membership. In the Dallas suburbs where I live, the only lodges are in the older parts of the suburban towns, a remnant from the days they were farming communities. You will as likely see a Masonic lodge, or for that matter a VFW hall or a Knights of Columbus lodge, in the newer subdivisions as you would see the Aurora Borealis in Texas.
I’ve always been curious about this, too. The Freemasonry threads seem to come up now and then on FR; give vent to a lot of vitriol (which vitriol is mostly on the part of those ‘anti’); and then they submerge for a time.
I think somebody’s just messin’ with the peeps...