EPILOGUE: THE FRUITS OF ANTI-MASONRY
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
--Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:20
PART ONE
GARDEN OF EVIL?(97)
Purification? Vandalism? Pagan ritual rooted in superstition? Take
your pick. These appear to be the three main attitudes toward a local
memorial garden in Virginia. In late April, five members of Westwood
Hill Baptist Church of Kempsville, near Virginia Beach, Virginia, believed
there was a powerful evil on the grounds of their church.They consulted
with their pastor, the Reverend Jess Jackson, two associate pastors,
and several other church members. It was agreed that the evil lurked
in a garden area between the old and new sanctuaries. Telltale clues,
they thought, were a large cross fashioned from old basketball goal
stanchions, a rose bush planted beneath the cross, and a cobblestone
path with unusual patterns. Most incriminating of all, a stone carried
a plaque dedicating the garden to "The loving memory of our teacher
and friend, Arthur S. Ward."
There was the key! Arthur Sedrick Ward, a Mason. Worse yet, the cross
and rose in the garden suggested he could have been a Scottish Rite
Mason. Clearly, the garden had to go.
What are the facts? First, when he died of a heart attack on April
28, 1979, Arthur S. Ward was a member of Corinthian Lodge No. 266 in
Norfolk, Virginia. There is no record, however, of any Scottish Rite
membership, be it in the Southern or Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.
Arthur Ward's widow, Donna Ward Meekins, said, "There was never an evil
bone in Arthur Ward's body. Yes, he was a Mason, but after our two sons,
well, he got so involved in their sports and school and things, he just
didn't have the time."
Ward's younger son, Gary, a Virginia Beach schoolteacher, said, "I
don't recall him being in it [Masonry], going to meetings and that type
of thing. He never spoke of it much. And It certainly wasn't an important
part of his life."(98)
By all descriptions, Ward was a devout man, his life centered on his
family and church. A retired supervisor for the Norfolk & Western
Railway Company, he was a founding member of the Westwood Hill Baptist
Church and turned the first spade of earth for the new sanctuary which
was under construction when he died at the age of 64. The Sunday School
class he taught for many years dedicated their donations and labor to
creating the garden in his memory.
Yet on April 23, 1996, 17 years after Ward's death, ten members of
the Westwood Hill Baptist Church, believing the garden was endowed with
Masonic symbols, tore up every plant, removed every cobblestone (each
a collector's item over 100 years old from streets in Norfolk), burned
the wooden cross, and broke the stone on which the garden's memorial
plaque was mounted.
What could not be burned was hauled away as trash. "Then, according
to church members, they reconsecrated the ground by sprinkling it with
holy water." William Forbes, charter member and longtime deacon of the
church, said, "It sounds so ridiculous. It sounds like something out
of the Dark Ages."(99)
Some 200 church members were as outraged and heartsick as the Ward
family at this demolition of the memorial garden and protested the action
at a Sunday evening "family meeting" on Mothers Day, May 12. The Rev.
Mr. Jackson held steadfast and presented a slide lecture to explain
the "pivotal issue," "the presence of a rose cross, an occult symbol"
of Freemasonry in the garden.(100) One
wonders if the rose bush in question were part of the original garden,
planted nearly two decades ago, a later replacement of an original planting
of another plant which was not a rose or, in any case, an aesthetic
decision that favored roses over marigolds or other flowers. The choice
of plant probably was based on horticultural taste and only coincidentally
related to any possible Masonic significance. Undoubtedly, the Rev.
Mr. Jackson is confusing the emblem of the Scottish Rite Eighteenth
Degree, Knight Rose Croix, with an emblem from Rosicrucianism, "an intellectual
and mystical phase in Germany between the Renaissance and the scientific
revolution of the 17th century."(101) One
of Masonry's well-known scholars, Henry Wilson Coil, notes: "Great confusion
has prevailed as to the name Rose Croix and its variations...from which
Rosicrucianism is presumably derived. This confusion has enabled some
writers [and others, like the Rev. Mr. Jackson] to connect Masonry with
Rosicrucianism... and has produced a considerable volume of literature
principally notable for its imaginative qualities."(102)
True, the rose and cross are central to the Scottish Rite's Eighteenth
Degree, but here they maintain the traditional symbolism of western
culture, i.e., "the cross in Masonry represents a statement of infinity"(103) with
allusions in the Degree to suffering, a redeemer, and God's unlimited
love. Likewise, "in Masonry, the rose has taken on the meaning of immortality"(104) and,
as sometimes in Christian symbology, the blood of Christ or the beauty
of "the Rose of Sharon" in the Bible's Song of Solomon, 2:1. Also, Jesus
wore a crown of thorns during His passion, thus relating Him to a rose's
thorns. The merger of the rose with the cross was inevitable in western
civilization and, consequently, it is a symbol shared by Christianity
and Freemasonry. The seal and coat of arms adopted by Martin Luther
as a publishing trademark, for instance, is a cross rising out of a
heart at the center of which is a five-leafed rose.(105)
Thus, in Freemasonry, as in all western culture, the cross and rose
have retained their traditional meanings. To see these shared symbols
as "occult" in Freemasonry (or Christianity) and, in particular, in
the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is illogical. This absurdity is even
more pronounced when a dubious "occult" interpretation of the cross
and rose is used to attack Arthur S. Ward who was not a Scottish Rite
Mason.
Still, on June 9, 1996, in a formal meeting of the Westwood Hill Baptist
Church to consider by vote whether or not to dismiss the Reverend Jess
Jackson, a strong majority stood in his defense, and he was not dismissed.
Why? In recent years, Westwood Hill Baptist Church, like many congregations
in the Southern Baptist Convention, has become dominated by newer members
and a bolder leadership intent on establishing and defending what it
considers fundamental principles of the Baptist faith.
For instance, of the ten people who tore up the Arthur S. Ward garden,
only one or two, if any, had ever met Ward, and some had been with the
church for two years or less.
Disconnected from the long tradition of toleration within the Baptist
faith (Baptists were once a persecuted minority) and, probably, only
tenuously connected to a larger view of religious faith in the world,
past and present, these new church members and leaders are likely to
embrace ideas and actions which set them apart, in their view, as purer
and better and truer to their faith than others.
To attain this exclusionary singleness of character, extreme stances
and interpretations of doctrine are embraced, and those who will not
toe the new line are sidelined or expelled. When the Rev. Mr. Jackson
became pastor of Westwood Hill Baptist Church, for instance, average
church attendance was 500. Before the Arthur S. Ward Garden incident,
attendance had fallen to about 300. Since the incident, another 140
members of the church have left. Most of the people who left are not
Masons. There were very few Masons in the church.(106)
Who, after all, would wish to stay? As news of the garden's destruction
spread, a near hysteria, reminiscent of the Salem witch trials of 1791,
gripped the congregation. Church members reported nightmarish visions
welling up from the garden's soil. Sunday School children, hearing the
adults, began stories that bones or bodies were buried in the garden.
These reactions following the garden's destruction only seemed to validate
the actions of the perpetrators who believed a cloud of evil threatened
the church's purity. Clearly, something drastic had to be done to reestablish
the church on its primitive principles. Despite the action's macabre
aura of resurrected corpses and howling werewolves, the memorial garden
was destroyed.
The Reverend Richard D. Marks, a Baptist minister who teaches at Regent
University, founded by Pat Robertson, spoke at the May 12, 1996, meeting
of Westwood Hill Baptist Church. It was hoped he could help heal the
growing divisions within the church. His words form a fitting close
to this story:
"I don't think it [the garden with its cross and rose] has any evil
import. Evil is in the meaning you attach to something. There are a
lot of Masons who are good Christians.... To say this whole organization
is made up of thousands of men who are evil, out there practicing as
satanist, I don't believe it."
Don't you believe it, either.
* * *
PART TWO
STONES OF EVIL
Background: The October 1996 Scottish Rite Journal carried the
article "Garden of Evil?" about several members of the Westwood Hill
Baptist Church, Virginia Beach (Kempsville Borough), Virginia, who joined
their pastor, the Reverend Jess Jackson, in destroying a memorial garden
dedicated to Arthur Sedrick Ward, a Mason and former member of Corinthian
Lodge No. 266, Norfolk, Virginia. Brother Ward died in 1979, and the
garden, with its memorial plaque dedicated in loving memory to Ward,
was a joint project of about 20 members of the church's Sunday School
Class that Bro. Ward had taught for many years. Two of the members who
worked on the garden were Masons.
In April 1996, 17 years after Bro. Ward's death, certain members of
the Westwood Hill Baptist Church, reflecting a spiritual malaise in
the congregation, came to believe an evil force lurked in the garden
and was affecting the church. To them, the garden's cobblestone walk
appeared to contain curious, possibly "occult," symbols; someone remembered
that Ward was a Mason; others believed the garden's cross, entwined
by a rose bush, was a Masonic symbol and evidence that Freemasonry was
the malevolent force they were experiencing.
Without consulting the church's general congregation, the Reverend
Jess Jackson, two associate pastors of the church (the Reverend Allan
Riley and the Reverend Randy Goode), and seven other church members
destroyed the garden on April 23, 1996.
Very shortly, as rumors of the destruction spread, the incident came
to the attention of a journalist. According to Brother Ward's widow,
the story did not appear in the Virginia-Pilot of Norfolk until June
16, 1996, because of a pending business meeting of the church on June
9th for the purpose of terminating Rev. Jess Jackson.
When the Virginia-Pilot article came to the attention of Dr. John W.
Boettjer, 33º, Grand Cross, Managing Editor of this magazine, he researched
the news story, wrote the October Scottish Rite Journal article, and
attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate Brother Ward's widow, Donna Ward-Meekins,
before publication. On September 27, Mrs. Ward-Meekins, having been
shown the October Journal article by a friend, telephoned Ill. Boettjer.
The following statement is condensed from that telephone call as well
as one to Mrs. Ward-Meekins's friends, John and Betty, and has been
reviewed, rewritten, and approved for publication by Donna Ward-Meekins.
When I became aware that the garden to the memory of my late husband,
Arthur, had been viciously and sadistically destroyed, I was in a state
of shocked disbelief. The pastor, Rev. Jess Jackson, would only answer
my questions with, "It has been done away with."
When I pressed for information about what had become of the garden's
benches, bricks, and cobblestones, I got the same answer, "They have
been done away with." I asked specifically about the stone with the
memorial message, "In Loving Memory of Our Teacher and Friend, ARTHUR
S. WARD, 1979," you guessed it, I got the same answer, "They have been
done away with."
I finally got the truth from my friends Betty and John who told me
the following amazing story. Five members of the church supposedly had
made a "prayer walk" of the church grounds and had seen a "vision of
evil" in the garden. These people, along with the pastoral staff of
the church, and two wives of the staff members, without knowledge of
the church membership, entered the garden area on the afternoon of April
23, 1996, and began to dig up and destroy every shrub and tree in the
garden and break up every piece of brick and concrete they could find.
They removed a cross and burned it and removed every plaque with the
name of Arthur Ward on it. They disposed of the plaques apparently in
a truckload of brick and stones to the city garbage dump.
One week after the garden was destroyed, word reached Betty and John.
They contacted the Reverend Jess Jackson and had a meeting with him
on Wednesday May 1, 1996, after the Wednesday night prayer service.
John asked the pastor for an explanation, and he was told the story
about the five members having discovered "evil in the garden." Rev.
Jess Jackson said the garden had been destroyed and that he was "comfortable"
with that action.
Before the meeting with the pastor, Betty had observed two cobblestones
in the garden area during a brief look at the former garden's site,
and she asked the Rev. Jackson's permission to retrieve them. The pastor
gave his permission, and the next morning John and Betty went to the
former garden's site with digging tools and unearthed 12 cobblestones,
placed them in the trunk of their car and took them home, placing them
in their yard.
The following evening, May 3, Betty and John's daughter returned home
from five weeks in St. Louis. Early the next morning, she suffered a
cerebral hemorrhage and was taken to the intensive care facility of
a local hospital. On Sunday night, May 5, Betty and John received a
visit at the hospital from two ladies from the church who had participated
in the garden's destruction.
After all other visitors had left, one of the women informed Betty
and John that "We are here by divine appointment." She stated that John's
and Betty's daughter's illness was "not physical but spiritual" and
was the result of their possession of the stones. The women asked where
the stones were and, after learning they were at John's and Betty's
residence, asked if they could go and get them.
The same lady said the stones were "too dangerous to be picked up in
one vehicle." Six vehicles would be necessary to pick up the stones,
she said, because the evil forces in the stones would be increased if
the stones were kept together. She said that John and Betty and their
daughter would be in great danger as long as they had possession of
the stones. The two women did not receive their requested permission
to remove the stones and left the hospital soon thereafter.
John immediately called Rev. Jess Jackson expecting to receive spiritual
comfort, but got only scriptural references to read, references which
appeared to justify the destruction of the garden. After about 45 minutes
in prayer in the hospital chapel, John and Betty decided to call another
pastor of their acquaintance.
This pastor came to the hospital in the middle of a very powerful and
drenching thunderstorm. He heard their story in amazement and anguish
since he was well acquainted with the Westwood Hill Church and its pastor.
He gave them much encouragement and prayer support and assured them
that he did not believe God worked in the manner in which the garden
was destroyed and the way the two women visited the hospital.
He said in his opinion God worked through order and unity rather than
through confusion and disorder. He agreed that this was a matter that
should be brought before the congregation of the church. This pastor
ministered lovingly to John and Betty for about three hours that night,
ending at about 3:30 AM the following morning.
Happily, despite the fact that the stones were not surrendered to the
women, Betty and John's daughter recovered fully. Later, the stones
were brought to my son's home, and they are now in his garden. With
grim humor, my son Gary said, "Look Mom, they don't even glow in the
dark."
My family and I continue to feel the pain and live under the shadow
of this incident. I grieve that my husband's memory has been tarnished.
I was always proud of his Masonic affiliations, and when I remarried,
I was happy that my second husband, now deceased, was a Mason who served
as Master of his Lodge.
From my experience, Masons have been men of high caliber. Incidents
such as this should never happen. The destruction of the garden was
unconscionable. To assure this never happens again to the widow of any
Mason, I have retained a lawyer and have filed suit against the people
who took part in this terrible act.
ENDNOTES
97. The following two articles, which
first appeared in the Scottish Rite Journal, are reproduced with
the kind permission of their author, Dr. John W. Boettjer.
98. Virginia-Pilot, June 16,
1996, A10.
99. Ibid.
100. Ibid.
101. Rex Hutchens, A Glossary
to "Morals and Dogma (Washington, DC: Supreme Council 33º, 1993),
p. 385.
102. Coil, Masonic Encyclopedia
(1961 ed.) p. 187; (1996 ed.), p. 192.
103. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light
(Washington, DC: Supreme Council 33º, 1988), p. 149.
104. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light,
p. 148.
105. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light,
pp. 148-49; CIS [Center for Interfaith Studies] Masonic Report,
Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 1996), p. 2.
106. CIS Masonic Report, p.
1.
