Gordon Clark: Assassination of President Kennedy (The Reformed Presbyterian Advocate)

1963. Assassination of President Kennedy. The Reformed Presbyterian Advocate. December. pg. 2.

The assassination of President Kennedy has produced expressions of shock from the ordinary people who lined the streets of Dallas and from the high officials of government.

There have been expressions of sympathy for Mrs. Kennedy and her children. Sudden bereavement is hard to bear. But let us also remember the bereaved Mrs. Tippit, whose husband was also slain as he tried to arrest the assassin. The one bereavement was as much a sudden shock as the other.

But the President's death receives the greater publicity, not because he was a husband, but because he was a president. His was a death that affects the whole nation. The stock market lost ten billion dollars, not because a husband died, but because a president died. Because of the president's death the policies of the government, both foreign policy and domestic policy, may be realigned. Reporters rushed to politicians and asked how the assassination would alter their plans and ambitions. No one can exclude from his mind the realization that politics will be different. But while the deceased president's body lies in state, it is inappropriate to issue public pronouncements on politics. Equally inappropriate is it to discuss the plans of politicians in church.

Most appropriate, however, and especially in church, is a recognition of the criminality of assassination. God has commanded, Though shalt not murder. The Church, as God's mouthpiece on earth, must proclaim the righteousness of God and call the people to obey his laws.

Unfortunately the visible churched have failed in their duty, and great sections of the American people ignore God. Well organized groups have been at work to eradicate the idea of God from our national life. Even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court objects to having the motto In God We Trust in the courtroom. 

These attitudes have caused an increase in crime. Criminals go unpunished. Instead of being treated as wicked, they are treated as if they were sick. And the result is ever increasing crime.

This is the climate that breeds assassination. The communist assassin is a man who has denied God and has rejected Christian morality. He is a supporter of Fidel Castro. He is an exponent of violence. He is an example of the end product of godlessness. 

Will now the shock of assassination be sufficiently strong to create a demand for righteousness in America? Will the people require action against communism, a curb on crime, and high morality on the part of government officials? Will the people correct their own conduct? Or will America like ancient Israel ignore God, His warnings, and His preliminary judgments? Will the United States, like ancient Judah, be enslaved by a godless power?

Today we must think of the future, but we cannot see it. We do not know what victories or what defeats are in story for our nation. But for ourselves as individual Christians we know the God of Heaven, who removeth kings and setteth up kings, causes all things to work together for good to them he has called to love Him.