All associations with rituals and signs of recognition not made public are not criminal, nor condemnable. Only those which, behind a veil of secrecy commit crimes and formulate plans against their fellows, the legally established state, or any lawfully existing institution. Such societies are the enemies of mankind.
American Indians still have societies which may be called secret insofar as they have initiation ceremonies with which only the members thereof are acquainted. Such ceremonies they observe regularly, but no strangers, and in some cases, no women, are permitted to attend.
Murderous combinations. Moroni carefully explains the nature of the associations he condemns. They are, he notes, combinations organized for the selfish purpose of concentrating power and wealth in the hands of the organizers. Furthermore, they are persecutors and murderers of the Saints of God. And what is more, they are the destroyers (we are quoting Moroni) of the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries. Note that Moroni is speaking of murderous organizations in general, but he has one special association in mind to which he refers to in verse 24: "Wherefore the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you."
Associations such as those herein described must necessarily destroy the influence of the Saints and good religion everywhere in order to gain their object, which is to fasten the chains of serfdom on the limbs of their fellowmen. Moroni correctly states that such organizations are the instruments in the hands of the father of all lies, who, from the beginning, caused man to commit murder. (Compare the Pearl of Great Price, 2 the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto My voice."