To clarify: Are you saying that no one speaks for Freemasonry on this issue?
> To clarify: Are you saying that no one speaks for Freemasonry on this issue?
For the avoidance of doubt: there is nobody who “speaks” for all Freemasonry, on this or any other issue. There is no equivalent of the Pope or Chief Executive or President within Freemasonry. Not even at UGLE (United Grand Lodge of England). Our highly-decentralized democratic structure entirely precludes such an arrangement.
That is one of the excellent reasons why Freemasonry has endured throughout the ages. It is a vast network of individual complementary democratic structures, rather than a hierarchy.
That is not to say that some roles don’t carry more responsibility than others: they do from an administrative viewpoint. But the highest degree is the Third Degree — that of the Master Mason. It gets no higher than that.
So no, Albert Pike did not speak as an Authority that must be obeyed or heeded. Our decentralized structure precludes such an arrangement. He was just another Mason with his own viewpoints and opinions, which were “interesting to some”. Any Master Mason could write with equal authority.
Does that help?