It really irks me when I am reading an article on history or watching a television program where the “experts” or commentators try to force their 21st century point of view on the time period they are discussing. While I think we can put the past in perspective from the present, I do not think we can determine the motivations of people in the past from our 21st century world view.
Tomorrow is the 44th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. I remember as a small child that my family very much admired President and Mrs. Kennedy and since Caroline was about my age, I was also interested in news about her and her brother John. I remember my grandparents and my mother were thrilled that President Kennedy shared our Catholic faith.
The day President Kennedy was assassinated is ingrained deeply in my memory. I wrote about that terrible day here.
I’ve written about the assassination here.
I remember how deeply my family, our neighbors, our town and our church grieved in the days following the assassination and how memorials to the fallen president started appearing all over our area. There was a deep sense of loss and sadness.
In the book Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic
I recently read this bit of sloppy historical analysis from a blogger who was set to discredit Currie’s book because of his eventual conversion to Catholicism.
The author begins by recounting the day John F. Kennedy was shot. Even as a boy, he felt a great sadness at the thought of this noble statesman going to hell because he was Catholic. This bit struck me as odd because I think most people could agree that Kennedy was at best a nominal Catholic. His extra-marital affairs are enough to call into question his true belief on a God who condemned the very practice and said in Revelation that the sexually impure would not see heaven. But even if we are talking about a president who had lived an exemplary life in Christ, sorrow over the thought of anyone being in hell is expected. So this is just a ploy for sympathy toward his position.
At the time of President Kennedy’s assassination, the nation was shocked and stunned. There was also a great deal of sympathy and love for Mrs. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. My own family grieved for Mrs. Kennedy in particular as she had also recently suffered the loss of her newborn son Patrick, just three months prior to the loss of her husband. That part of Mr. Currie’s experience I think was widely the experience of most people in the country at the time.
Coming from a Catholic family of the time, I can remember that we considered the Kennedy family to be strong, devout and reverent Catholics! President Kennedy’s picture was in our home along with pictures of Jesus and Mary and the Pope! We didn’t consider him to be a nominal Catholic because we didn’t have any reason at the time to believe that he was.
Over the ensuing decades, the stories and revelations about President Kennedy’s life came out. I remember my mother and grandmother denouncing them as shameful lies at first, but eventually over time, with one revelation after another their fierce defense turned to sad acceptance. My mother, who will be 80 in February, has said a number of times that she felt so disillusioned about President Kennedy.
A more critical and analytical approach would have asked some basic questions, like what did the public know about Kennedy’s infidelities, and when did they know it. A 30- minute visit to the library might have revealed that the general public was not aware of any of that on November 22, 1963. Kennedy’s affairs were nothing like the Clinton/Lewinski mess. In fact you can find articles and references that the press helped to keep a lot of that FROM the public. That’s hard to wrap our 21st century minds around too, but in 1963 the attitude was to suppress the scandal not publicize it.
This blogger is apparently unaware of all of this in her embarrassing attempt to discredit Mr. Currie and assign his early memories as a “sympathy ploy.” Aside from the not-so-subtle logical fallacy, this sloppy analysis showed a glaring lack of research and critical thinking.
Today I think most Americans, certainly most younger Americans view the assassination of President Kennedy as a turning point in history, but the personal shock, horror and sadness has been overshadowed by other events such as 9/11. That’s probably how it should be. For me, it’s a good reminder as I teach history to my own children, that history is more than names and dates, and that to understand and the time and place, we have to really try to put ourselves into that moment, instead of just observing it from this one.
My review of Currie’s book at Amazon; short answer: it’s a personal favorite.
I grant the blogger it starts off with an emotional hook … a ploy that ought to be very familiar to Evangelical readers. Again, Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ has similar vignettes at the start of every chapter – to soften the heart, one supposes.
My assessment of Kennedy has moved in a direction exactly opposite of yours! I grew up thinking him a despicable Catholic, rationalizing that he could only become President of the US by being a bad Catholic. But I was projecting today’s political climate – with Kerry and Giuliani (‘though I’m not saying they’re bad Catholics) – back 40 years! With the rise of fundamentalist Evangelicism, especially in politics, Americans are actually more anti-Catholic today than a generation or two ago! Because Kennedy, a conscientious Catholic, could be elected President.
Since everyone is calling for Romney to make “the speech,” I listened to Kennedy’s to the Houston ministers for the first time yesterday. It’s simply amazing.
Theresa, how old are you? I think that will have a lot to do with how you grew up viewing Kennedy. My children share your view, but they weren’t alive during the Kennedy administration. I was four when he was assassinated and living in a deeply Catholic, Democratic home. I remember how the man affected my family. But I definitely think had it been 10 years later when my folks were becoming disheartened and disillusioned, it would have been much different.
I’m almost 40.
My father had a love-hate attitude towards Kennedy that tended towards pessimism, like “see what you get when you try to do good.”
Dad definitely considered Kennedy’s assassination a martyrdom. My father was the sort of man who deliberately hung an American flag outside the house to dispel the myth that Catholics can’t be patriotic.
As a local businessman, he knew there were certain civic organizations in which he was not welcome, as a Catholic.
My hometown may have had a Protestant majority or, rather, the Protestants held more power. It was also largely Democrat because in those days, even rural Protestants were Democrats. It’s all changed now, of course, such that most religious people feel compelled to be Republican.
Happy Thanksgiving!