While the world stood still with tears and sorrow....

by Terry 26 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  On Friday, November 22, 1963, I was in High School in the cafeteria in Fort Worth, Texas sitting at a table filled with school chums.

  My Jehovah's Witness buddy, Johnny, was back from shaking John F. Kennedy's hand in front of his hotel earlier that morning.

  He and his family were (oddly) big fans of JFK. Go figure...

  Not less than ten minutes later the speakers in the cafeteria crackled to life and the principle, G.B.Trimble announced that President Kennedy

  was reported shot over in Dallas, some 40 miles away in his motorcade.

  There were screams from the young Catholic girls and immediately crying and loud voices were raised in tumultuous confusion and panic.

  About another ten minutes went by and the sad voice of our principle lamented a confirmation that, indeed, our President was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial hospital after having received the Last Rites from a priest.

  I heard a girl at the next table weeping as she said, "Oh thank God!"

  Everybody was dismissed from school immediately and dumbfounded multitudes of puzzled, angry and disconsolate faces passed me in the hall.

  I sleep walked to my locker and got my things together and walked home as I always did.

  A day later I was with several thousand Jehovah's Witnesses at the Cleburne, Texas Circuit Assembly in a completely "other" world!

  The previous 24 hours was not like any other moments I'd ever experienced! The world stopped turning and everything "normal" ceased happening.

  Millions of citizens of planet Earth were glued in front of their black and white television screens as newscasters in a totally analogue world far distant from today's instant Internet "everything" coverage struggled to piece together hearsay, news reports, eyewitness acounts and speculation.

  What had happened? How could it happen? What did this mean? Would Russia attack?

  Every sense of human security, constancy and fixed "known" sense of time and place was interrupted and twisted on its head!

  Kennedy was so young, happy, witty, elegant and POPULAR with his beautiful wife and two small children it seemed worse than impossible that instantaneously everything was erased as absolute and total darkness.

  Yet, here I was at an assembly where NOBODY WAS TALKING ABOUT IT!

  You'd think it had not happened or that it didn't mean anything. I was dumbstruck. How inhumanly weird!

  The chatter was as mundane and superficial and unrelated to anything going on in the real world as you could imagine.

  What place was I in? Oh...yes...the NEW WORLD SOCIETY! No part of the world.

  I got it. This is what they meant!

  I vividly recall thinking that the death of Kennedy really did not MEAN anything to the New World because that old world was all dying anyway.

  Two days later I was standing in a large metal tub of water about to become immersed in dedication of my life to Jehovah.

  It was all over so fast....

  I came up out of the water into a.............

  The strangest part of those three days from November 22, 1963 to November 24, 1963 was not the bullet that tore apart the skull of the leader of the Free world. It wasn't the gunning down of an officer named Tippett by a fleeing Lee Harvey Oswald. It wasn't the .38 caliber slug pumped at point blank range by Jack Ruby in the gut of Oswald in the basement of the police station or the solemn swearing in of vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson with a bloodstained Jackie Kennedy standing next to him on Air Force One...........

  The strangest part of those three days was when I came up out of the water in the baptismal font and the water drained out of my ears and I opened my eyes and waited for the holy spirit to fill my life with total meaning, commitment and "dedication" ...

  and.......nothing.....happened.....at......all....................except..........deep e-m-p-t-i-n-e-s-s....

  It took me half an hour to grasp the depression welling up inside of me. On the surface I was shaking hands and probably smiling and spouting platitudes to my congratulating "brothers" and "sisters" from the local congregation. It was a big nothing. A void. A silent noise roared in my head and thought I might have to hide somewhere and cry.

  What was happening to me?

  I didn't know. I was as confused as I'd ever been about anything.

  It passed.

  I shrugged it off.

  I went on with my "new" life as though I had a direction to take now.

  I didn't.

  That was 48 years ago.

  I think I know what was going on inside of me that day. I had experienced something real; a single moment of total clarity.

  While the world stood still with tears and sorrow......I was play acting like a small child outside a funeral. And so were all the other

  Jehovah's Witnesses who pretended the real world was false and the false world was real.....
• 

  Band on the Run

  Only 9/11 was worse than JFK's assasination. I don't know if he was that popular. People felt vulnerable b/c how could such a dashing president be shot down. It shook my young world completely. I have no recall of the KH experience that week or even year. My surmise is that JFK was no good b/c he was not a Witness. What did his death matter? Well, I was just a kid and his death mattered to me. How could I be safe? I saw Ruby assassinate Oswald on live TV. It certainly wasn't Bonanza or Gunsmoke with law and order triumphant.

  There was always cognitive dissonance with me being a history and current affairs buff and the Society's take. For example, there was much coverage of the Holocaust and the bravery of WWII soldiers, the war effort. Yet Witnesses never raised the Jewish question and the very men who gave their lives so that JWs in America and Europe could have the freedom to knock on doors were denigrated. I knew who I favored in my heart. Of course, I said nothing to Witnesses.

  I was utterly shocked when a circuit overseer dined with us and it was revealed that Southern KHs were segregated. I was always so impressed with how integrated the Witnesses were. Martin Luther KIng and the whole movement was dismissed as troublemakers. I was so young but so shocked to hear of segregation that I questioned how Jesus' teachings could be reconciled with segregation. I was told it was to accomodate white Southern society. Maybe I was young but it was an outrageous answer to me.

  In fact, just knowing the main news stories often caused me trouble. Being a Witness was never an affirmation of faith for me but a look the other way and have a core morality that you can not let anyone see.
• 

  clarity

  Terry, that day was the shock of my life too, when JFK was shot.

  I can't imagine how much more intense this would be as you were so near and your friend had just seen him!! omg

  For starters he was a star, and handsome with a mouthful of great white teeth and a beautiful soft spoken Jackie. A fairy tale. Always on television ... "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what canyoudoto........" Invinceable!

  And now he was dead. Guess I never realized a fairytale could end so badly.

  He was a catholic, the arch enemy of JW's. Or so it seemed.

  Maybe that was partly why we were told from the platform, to not discuss this 'incident'.

  Yes the reaction of rest of the world was in sharp contrast to the witnesses, and other than try to use his assassination to prove that armageddon was just around the corner ........ we just carried on as usual.

  >

  ".....deep e-m-p-t-i-n-e-s-s...." another word for serving an organization!
• 

  Band on the Run

  A side question. Why in JW theology are Catholics far worse than Protestants? Does anyone notice that the EAstern Church's beliefs and liturgical practices are never mentioned. They don't seem to hammer against the Buddha or HInduism. What is it in JW culture that they despise Catholics over everyone else?

  I grew up being taught how bad to the core Catholics were. Well, when it comes to Witness doctrine, any Protestant should also be as bad. I had no clue what Luther or Calvin taught. Well, actually, I had no idea what Catholics actually believed.....
• 

  Violia

  I was in 6h grade math class when it was announced--we were all in tears. The school closed and sent us all home. My parents and I were glued to the TV set for sometime. It was very sad time as I am in Texas and fairly close to where the shooting occurred. My father had hoped to take the day off to see JFK. the days after the shooting where just as wild with Jack Ruby and all. It seemed we were all so wounded and I felt embarrassed to tell anyone I was from Texas.

  I recall Meat Loaf's book " Back into hell" and how involved he and his father were . He and a buddy were at Parkland when JFK came in and his father was a Dallas Police officer.
• 

  tec

  Jw's have some things in common with Catholics. Submission to clergy/Pope... same as submission to elders/GB. That's got to irritate on some level. They condemn catholics of going beyond the bible with the trinity, but they do the same with Jesus is Michael (actually, they're even worse). During my study I saw a few things that they condemned in Catholics; yet seemed to also do in their own theology.

  For instance, they condemned how the catholics would have allowed people to turn their pagan places of worship into worship of Christ and God... as a sort of making it easier for people to make the switch. But when I asked how I stop celebrating Easter and such with my children, it was suggested to me that I replace Easter things with something else that might be fun, as a way of easing them from one practice to another. Seemed like the same thing to me.

  But I also think they're a pretty good target for going 'beyond' the bible. It's the protestant groups that tend to take the bible as the Word, and law, right? Aren't JW's an offshoot protestant group?

  Peace,

  Tammy
• 

  tec

  and.......nothing.....happened.....at......all....................except..........deep e-m-p-t-i-n-e-s-s....

  I've felt this before, so I understand what you're saying. (not a religious thing, mind you, but I hear what you are describing) It must have felt pretty surreal. Perhaps made worse because you did something that you understood in a moment of clarity, was not right. Then nothing happened to prove that thought wrong, and you had to go through the motions of something you knew was wrong. Then later convinced yourself meant nothing, because we can do that.

  Peace,

  Tammy
• 

  I quit!

  I didn't appreciate it at the time but reading post like this makes me realize how lucky I was to have very liberal parents who weren't JWs. I brought Jehovah on myself but you guys (Terry and Band on the Run) had him and his crazy ways forced on you.
• 

  man oh man

  Wasn't born then but seemed similar at 9/11. I was so pissed and ready to join up and take out some terrorists and everyone was just excited at how the preaching work was just going to take off. Thats the JW's real world. Hey who cares who died lets make some converts!!!!
• 

  DaCheech

  I'm sorry to rain on your parade.

  -->I've had to endure people making fun of my accent

  -->I've had to endure bullying/beatings.

  -->I've had to endure natural catastrophe's.

  But, the worst week of my life was 9/11 (and I'm across the river)

  To see, and think of the carnage........... the buildings........... the aftermath....... the fragility of life!

  I was physically drained and depressed for over a week..........

  I remember having no way to cope, but to take long walks in the park with wife away from TV.