No virtue is as insisted upon by the Scottish Rite as toleration in all aspects of life.

As members of the Scottish Rite, we are fortunate beyond most men. We have been offered lessons in productive living which surpass those of any other secular organization. They are tested by time, and they work—if they are lived, not just spoken. In our obligations, we have promised, you will remember, to live by those precepts. As Pike says in one of the Degrees, "to take an obligation without fully intending to perform it is to lie to ourselves, to our Brethren and to God."

No virtue is as insisted upon by the Scottish Rite as toleration. The ritual points out again and again that intolerance has led to more wars, destruction, death, and human suffering than anything else. In Degree after Degree, the Scottish Rite Candidate promises to practice toleration himself and to oppose intolerance in others. Almost certainly, no other obligation is so often broken. This lapse relates to the great tragic flaw in humanity.

The fabled observer from Mars, looking at human society and history, would almost certainly be struck by that tragic flaw. People have an almost uncontrollable urge to control the lives of others, to tell them what to do and how to think, to insist they should love as they love, hate as they hate, and do as they do. Almost all of us are, in that sense, petty tyrants and control freaks.

The principle of toleration is easy to state but hard to follow: "Live your life as you see fit, and let others live their lives as they see fit. They are not entitled to force their decisions upon you or even to express an opinion about your decisions—you are not entitled to force your decisions upon them or even to express an opinion about their decisions."

There is the exception, of course, of whispering good counsel in the ear of a Brother. That is well to do, when necessary. But if the Brother chooses to ignore our good counsel, we are not then entitled to employ a bullhorn.

Generally speaking, Masons are good about religious toleration. I am very proud of that. But we must not forget that toleration extends to ALL the decisions a Brother makes, not just to religion. That's where it becomes difficult. I have known Brethren who would never even consider commenting upon the faith of another Brother—but who will criticize loudly and angrily his decision to use alternative medicine rather than go to the local hospital. I have known Brethren who would regard another Brother's choice of denomination as none of their business, but would feel perfectly free to comment on and criticize his decision to own (or not own) a gun, or to smoke, or to eat a vegetarian diet, or to have a drink in the evening, or to wear his hair longer or shorter than the current fashion, or to wear an ear ring, or to listen to country and western, or rock and roll, or heavy metal, or classical, or rap, or to subscribe to Playboy or Biblical Archeology Review.

But those things and many others, like religion, are choices of a Brother, and they demand the same sort of toleration as does his religion. They are his business, not ours.

It isn't easy. Oh, it's very easy to be tolerant of those who have made the same choices we have. I have very little trouble being tolerant of white males in their late 50s who like to read, feel deeply cosseted by the solace of a pipe, enjoy a glass of port and a piece of cheese in the evening, love classical music, and regard exercise as simply a misspelling of the process of dispossessing an evil spirit. My toleration of such men is as a warm glow of brotherhood, and I call down blessings upon them.
It is more difficult when I am confronted by a 26-year-old jogger, running by my house while listening to rap "music" on a cassette, with the gleam of the fanatic in his eyes, and whom I suspect of being the kind of health freak who spends the evening on a hard board with a glass of carrot juice and a celery stick at his bedside.

Yet, if I am to practice toleration—and I, as a Scottish Rite Mason, literally swore to God that I would—I must try to keep from even thinking those things. I certainly must not say them aloud. And I must not, under any circumstances, try to change him or his decisions. They are his business, they are not mine.

It is hard to overcome that great human tragic flaw, that need to tell others what to do and how to live. It's easy to say "I know what's right in this case, and I'm going to force you to do it my way, all for your best interest, of course." But that's not what we promised.

Jim Tresner is Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute and Editor of the Oklahoma Mason. A frequent contributor to the Scottish Rite Journal and its book review editor, Illustrious Brother Tresner is also a volunteer writer for the Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason and a video script consultant for the National Masonic Renewal Committee. He is the Director of the Thirty-third Degree Conferral Team and Director of Work at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as well as a life member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, author of Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument, and a member of the steering committee of the Masonic Information Center. In 1997, Ill. Tresner was awarded the Grand Cross, the Scottish Rite's highest honor. His latest book is Vested in Glory, The Regalia of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.