The only part of the oath I have taken that involves those kind of penalties are the ones that pertain to revealing the secrets of freemasonry, and it is made perfectly clear that they are the symbolic penalty - although they obviously were once taken a mite more seriously.
In fact, I know there is so much information online that I had to deliberately avoid it so that my initiations weren't spoiled by foreknowledge, so I know the oath has nothing to do with keeping the ceremonies actually secret - it's more about whether or not you are a man of your word.
If I were to ever come across anything the least bit Satanic I would expose it immediately, but I have not found anything so far, and believe me, I am on my guard.
Abandoning the FM oath would be to share their secrets, but since all that information is online I don't see what would happen - I've certainly not heard of anything recent.
Do you have some kind of example? I'm not really sure what you are driving at.
The only part of the oath I have taken that involves those kind of penalties are the ones that pertain to revealing the secrets of freemasonry, and it is made perfectly clear that they are the symbolic penalty - although they obviously were once taken a mite more seriously.
In fact, I know there is so much information online that I had to deliberately avoid it so that my initiations weren't spoiled by foreknowledge, so I know the oath has nothing to do with keeping the ceremonies actually secret - it's more about whether or not you are a man of your word.
If I were to ever come across anything the least bit Satanic I would expose it immediately, but I have not found anything so far, and believe me, I am on my guard.
I don't.
Update, ok so now I've read a few overviews of what it is, but I'm not sure how it is relevant here?
Abandoning the FM oath would be to share their secrets, but since all that information is online I don't see what would happen - I've certainly not heard of anything recent.
Do you have some kind of example? I'm not really sure what you are driving at.