November, 22nd, 1963- a date that will live in infamy (along with December 7th, 1941, and September 11th, 2001, among others). For any American born since about 1955, that date is forever etched in our memories as the day when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald.
If you are old enough, you probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news. I was sitting on a table in my sixth grade classroom at the old Sealey Elementary School helping a classmate cut cardboard with a paper cutter. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday, so I was excited about the weekend. Then suddenly, someone walked in and said, “The President’s been shot!” At first we thought he was joking until the teacher from next door came in and said, “You may want to turn on your TV.” Who can forget the shock soon after when Walter Cronkite faced the TV cameras and, with a choking voice, announced, “This just in from Dallas, Texas. The flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00pm, Central Standard Time…2:00 Eastern Standard Time…38 minutes ago.”
It was the beginning of a time of great mourning and sadness for America, just days before Thanksgiving. For weeks after that people remained in utter shock (and fear) as they watched the news of the President’s death and then, two days later, the killing of Oswald by Jack Ruby. The next day, on Monday, November 25th, the nation stood transfixed to its TV screens to watch the sad funeral and burial of President Kennedy. We can never forget the heart-wrenching scenes of his wife, Jackie, and two small children, as they followed the horse-drawn caisson carrying the President’s body.
Not long after that conspiracy theories abounded as to who was really behind the assassination. Various theorists alleged it was the work of Khrushchev and the Soviet KGB, the Cubans (Oswald was a Communist supporter of Fidel Castro), the Mafia, a cabal of extreme right wing Texans, a group of weirdoes in New Orleans, and even the CIA. To this day some of those bizarre ideas still have committed advocates. The official version remains that Kennedy was killed by Oswald who, for whatever reason, acted alone.
Whatever, the truth may be, we still look at November 22nd ,1963 as a day of tragedy.
But November 22nd, 1963, could also been seen as a day of celebration. It was not only the death day of President Kennedy, but also of someone whose influence and legacy may, in the eternal sense, even be greater than that of any President. November 22nd, 1963, was the day of the home-going to heaven of C. S. Lewis, one of the 20th Century’s greatest Christian writers and apologists. He died on that day just a week short of his 65th birthday. Sad to say, Lewis’ passing was overshadowed by Kennedy’s. His books (both fiction and non-fiction) and lectures, for nearly a century, have affirmed the intellectual and spiritual validity of the Christian worldview. It is impossible to know how many people, some even hard-core skeptics, have come to faith in Jesus through his writings. As Lewis said in one of his most famous quotes:
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
That is something to celebrate and for which to give thanks.