The tenth degree is entitled Elect of the Fifteen and is devoted to the cause of the oppressed against the oppressor, to toleration against intolerance; and to the cause of human freedom, physical and mental, against tyranny exercised over the soul or body.

The story takes us back to the scene of the last degree and describes the punishment inflicted upon the two remaining traitors for their atrocious crimes. King Solomon added six more craftsmen to the nine already elected and these fifteen then set forth in a search which succeeded in capturing the remaining two murderers, who were found working in a quarry. They were taken to Jerusalem for trial, where they pleaded guilty and were hanged and beheaded.

Symbolically, they represent the enemies of freedom, namely, unbridled emotion--out of which tyranny and despotism is born--and fanaticism, from which emerges intolerance and persecution. The third and most guilty criminal signified the ignorance of the masses, which permits ambition and fanaticism. "An enlightened people cannot be enslaved and an ignorant people cannot be set free."

We of the Scottish Rite are tolerant of all creeds and religions. We do not fasten any dogma upon our members, nor do we seek to purge any dogma that confounds science or denies history. Freemasonry neither fears nor hates any sect or society, but stands on guard to protect humanity from intolerance, tyranny, fanaticism and ignorant brutality.

That, to us, is the kind of tyranny the perceptive de Tocqueville warned against when he said, "The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared." When church leaders apply clerical duress upon susceptible legislators to violate our traditional church- state separation, they are guilty of that type of tyranny.

There is need, therefore, to defend against such legislative tyranny, to support our courts, and to defend our constitutional freedoms. In so doing, we are not "anti" anyone or anything. We are "pro" the American principles of freedom and justice, "pro" our public schools. We take our stand with our patriotic Masonic Founders! We say, let's defend our liberties!

Ill. Pete Jantz, 33°