Robert W. McKewin, D.D., 32°
2523 Portland Avenue, Apt. 1710, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404–4453

There is a locust that appears every 17 years. I had not thought I would be like that insect, but I have one similarity. It was 17 years from the time of my last visit to the Valley of Minneapolis Scottish Rite Temple when I found myself back there again. Despite my long absence, it was as if I had never been away. The Brothers warmly welcomed me and freely shared their friendly fellowship.

The night I chose to attend was when five candidates were being introduced to the 10th, 11th, and 12th Degrees. A dear friend of mine, Bro. J. Otto Tennant, 32°, was one of the principal actors in the presentation of the 11th Degree. I was strongly moved by the experience. The Scottish Rite Temple in Minneapolis is one of the most beautiful I have seen, and I was impressed by the diligence of each of the Degree's participants. All had prepared themselves. They knew their roles so well that everyone present could believe he was seeing an ancient royal court.

The most impressive part of the evening was when the Brother playing the role of King Solomon came to the Candidates and told them how important it was for Masonic Brothers to have tolerance for the beliefs of people who hold different ideas on the deity than they do.

I am a devout Christian and have served my God as faithfully as I could through seven and a half decades. I not only believe Christians have a clearer vision of God than other monotheists, but I also believe the denomination in which I served as a layman and then as a clergyman was the best of the best. With some small areas of disagreement in the past 20 years, I still hold to that view.

One of the special blessings I have received as a Mason has been to be able to sit in Lodge or Temple with Brothers whose view of their Creator is different from mine. That evening in Minneapolis, after hearing the man honored by playing the role of King Solomon speak of the need for Brothers to accept one another no matter their differences on their relationship with the Great Architect of the Universe, I took time to meditate on that blessing.

In my nearly 40 years as a Mason, I have sat with several men of very different monotheistic persuasions. One of my sons-in-law was the son of an Orthodox Jew. His father was an active member of my Scottish Rite Valley, participating in a minor role at my own initiation. A more caring human being I have never known. Hyman Sigal died two years ago, a year after his son died of a heart attack. Brother Hy was an honorable man and a gentleman who showed a sense of brotherhood and caring for each of us. I sat in Lodge with Hy and knew him as my Masonic Brother.

Two blocks from my home in Texas (before my recent move back to Minnesota), lived a couple from Pakistan. The husband, Bro. Ray Baig, was raised in the Lodge in India where Rudyard Kipling was raised! He and I have walked together in our community and talked of our different beliefs, recognizing each other as Brothers and children of the same God. His God's name is Allah. My God's name is Jesus Christ. Ray is a graduate civil engineer who has served in India, Pakistan and, for 12 years, in the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C. His wife is a M.D. trained by Anglican Christians in a hospital in India, after which she served professionally in three other countries before retiring with her husband to Texas. We have always been on the best of terms despite our difference in religious belief.

Similarly, not once have I heard a Brother Mason belittle my faith. Nor have I belittled that of another Brother. That does not stop me from quietly doing what I can to evangelize men wherever I go. My principle means of doing this is in living a life as nearly exemplary as I can. Once I knew an Anglican priest who served God with his family as the only Christians in an ashram with Mahatma Ghandi. Moslems and Hindus surrounded the family. That priest felt his task was to live with his family in such a way that they showed their neighbors the truth of the Christian way. I wonder how many of us could be equal to such a task?
I have talked with Otto Tennant, my friend and Masonic Brother, about my experience at the Minnesota Valley, and we both knew then that I would be returning there soon. Now that I am back in Minneapolis, there is no more waiting 17 years between visits to the Temple! I am pleased to visit frequently, though there is much that appears archaic, almost foreign, in the rites and rituals of the Scottish Rite and all of Masonry. At the same time, there is a tremendous good in a Brotherhood that recognizes the religious origins of each of us but joins us in honoring our one Creator.

The stones of Freemasonry are cut square, the walls are perpendicular, and the floor is fully level for all of us, whatever our faith traditions, to stand together as Masons and cement our fellowship with bonds of love. Our mutual task is, in truth, a high Masonic mission: to so honor Him and each other as to build civilization!

Robert W. McKewin studied at the University of Minnesota, served in World War II, and taught elementary school for nine years before entering the Episcopal ministry. He has served several parishes in Minnesota as well as a church home for the aged in North Carolina and a Christian orphanage in Ramallah on the West Bank 10 miles north of Jerusalem. Since retirement several years ago, he has written many articles, performed a prison ministry in Texas, and written two books, Behold the Man, a fiction about the life of Christ, and Our Generic Family, an autobiography about the foster care in which he and his wife still find much joy. Bro. McKewin was raised in Garnet Lodge No. 166, in White Bear Lake, Minn., and is presently a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Minneapolis, and Henry Thomas Lodge, No. 278, Smithwick, Texas.