Hi folks,
I know I'm a Jane-come-lately on this thread, just ran across it.
One of my personal activities is teaching Sunday School at my parish. (I'm Catholic and I teach the 8th grade, which is church history year.)
FYI, part of the reason some churches were against "secret societies" (not necessarily GLOs in particular tho) is that it was thought that the society would (a) distract the person(s) from their involvement with the church and/or (b) would promote and teach ideals that were directly in conflict w/ their faith, thus forcing the person to make a choice. The ones I'm particularly aware of that came up in this discussion were the KKK (obviously), the Know-Nothings, the FreeMasons, and the Odd Fellows.
The Catholic church in the USA came up with their own solution to this issue and some related ones: create a secret/private society of their own, the Knights of Columbus, which is basically a Catholic fraternity. My husband is both a 4th Degree KoC and a KA Order brother. According to him, there is no conflict between the vows he took in either one.
Just a little info. Hope it helps.
Adrienne
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