I do not understand it as a religion at all. One of the requirements for membership is belief in a monotheistic god, a Universal Architect. It does not specify a particular deity. They are willing to forego a partricular dogma in order to achieve an effective organization.
See: Born in Blood by Robinson.
They are a largely fraternal order these days doing good works here in the states as the Masonic organizantion of Shriner's Hospitals. I have personally known people who were helped extensively by this charity. While it is certainly possible (as it is with any organized group of humans) that during it's history some masonic division acted in opposition to their declared beliefs, the work of the Shriner's goes a long way to amending any wrongs.
And Victor is right, their membership dwindles, and with it the ability of the Shriners to move ahead with their mission to aid suffering children, free of charge. They are seen as sometimes ridiculous old men in Fez hats parading during holidays...leftovers from a bygone era of community that relied more on personal, local affiliations more than Hollywood dictated images of what "looks" good. I do think that the latest National treasure films with "Nick Cage" are thinly disguised efforts to revive interest in this declining yet still very useful service group.
In short it is a group with a long colorful, history. A group engaged at one level in the most noble of causes; healing afflicted children. A group in need of fresh, intelligent members with ambition...a group that could use the apparent talents of a young man like Pure Mercury.
Here it is not just the Masonic Lodges but religion at large that is declining.
And it is declining markedly - church attendance is down by very large amounts.
And I think the Masons are affected in the same way. Only they are very small to start off with. So the general decline means extinction for them.
The religions here don't understand what is happening to them anymore than the Incas knew what was happening to them; or anymore than the Japanese knew what would happen to them. And so on through all nations that have met the West.
But all these peoples have one thing in common - they believed their own propaganda.
The Inca chief believed he was the son of the Sun and was terribly surprised that he was defeated by 100 Spaniards in an afternoon, even though the Inca had 80,000 armed troops immediately to hand.
And the Japanese believed the Emperor was descended from the Sun God until we showed them the sun one afternoon in Hiroshima.
There is only one sin propagandists can commit and that is to believe their own propaganda. And this is a temptation almost impossible to resist.
And certainly the cult of MBTI is unable to resist this temptation.
So MBTI will go the way of the Incas and Imperial Japan.
