Rare is the Overlapping of Famous People's Death Dates in Differing Years

Contact: Dennis Mansfield, 208-353-3252, Dennis@DennisMansfield.com

OPINION, Nov. 18 /Standard Newswire/ -- Dennis Mansfield, of Boise, Idaho, submits the following Op-ed for publication, and is a available for comment:

3 Men and Eternity; November 22, 1963

By Dennis Mansfield

Rare is the overlapping of famous people's death dates in differing years.

Rarer still, when the collision of those death dates occurs within the same 24 hours. Though not replete with such occurrences, the pages of history do tell us of some examples.  For instance, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day – the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration Independence – having just healed old political scars and reconnected as friends. Together, they seem to have found their rest and peace before their deaths.

The month of November offers a trifecta of famous deaths on the same day. On the 22nd day of that month, back in 1963 three very famous men slipped through the bonds of this world and gently set down, if you are so inclined to believe, onto the tarmac of eternity's nether-world.

John F. Kennedy, Narnia's author, C.S. Lewis and Brave New World's Alduous Huxley died 33 years ago, this November 22.

An odd historical footnote? Possibly.

More to the point in the culture of America in 2006 and 2007, it might be possible to draw a deeper meaning from the comparison of their lives and worldviews – and how those competing points of view have set in motion much of the culture clashes of today's life and times.

Peter Kreeft, in his marvelous play, Between Heaven and Hell, captures a possible conversation between these three brilliant minds of the last century as they are somehow suspended in space and time - just prior to judgment day:

Scene opens -

Kennedy: Where the hell are we?

Lewis: I say, aren't you President Kennedy? How did you get here – wherever here is?

Kennedy: I was assassinated, I think. Hey, I didn't see any God here, did you? Is it heaven?

Lewis: No God, then it can't be heaven, either. I wonder if we're stuck in limbo.

Huxley: Oh, I say! Kennedy and Lewis! What good company to die in – or live in, whatever we're doing. Where is this place, anyway?

And so begins the great post-death conversation, each explaining why his legacy will last…while wondering where he, as a soul, is headed.

Take, Kennedy for example. The horrible and senseless  interruption of his administration  (and the dreams of many, dubbed Camelot), via a series of high velocity rifle rounds, was also a catalyst for a school of thought that just this month returned the Democrats to power in the US Congress. His belief? A secular US Government can solve our ills. From Kennedy's legacy sprang LBJ's Great Society, Jimmy Carter's foreign policy and Bill Clinton's re-mix of JFK's amoral abuse of power. Speaker-elect Pelosi's expected U-turn move back towards a secular Government-focused solution-based matrix may well be an extension of JFK's belief system.

Huxley's atheist premise, for many of his writings, vibrantly springs off the pages of Kreeft's play and onto the front pages of every newspaper in the US. His belief: America and Western Civilization have been done a great disservice by people of organized faith. Elton John's recent public statement that organized religion should be done away with, due to its inherent bias against gays would find a nod of the head from Huxley.

Lewis' evangelical worldview peppers the play with a sort of pit bull ferocity leashed to Christian fact, faith and at times, feeling. He is an unapologetic "apologist" for the faith of Jesus. (Figure that one out secularists!) His worldview can be found in the works of Chuck Colson, Francis Schaeffer and Idaho's own, Tri Robinson (of www.LetsTendTheGarden.org). Lewis' belief: God exists. Government was ordered by God. Rights come from God, not Government. Eternal judgment awaits us all, with the judge asking us one question: Was Jesus the savior of the world and the savior of your soul? (It's a narrow pathway of questioning.)

The conflict of these three worldviews remains with us today, even stronger and less likely to find common ground, some would say.

Imagining that there is a "holding area" for three such notable individuals is quite creative, as a basis for a play. May I submit that this is more than a play? In fact, could it be that these 33 years since their day of demise, may well be the very holding area for each of us? Let me explain.

We each have to decide what worldview we will follow. A Kennedy-type, Lewis-type and Huxley-type of view. These views do compete in the market place of ideas for our current lives on earth as US citizens. That view has public policy consequences.

That same choice just might surprise you as you enter into eternity. Kennedy, Lewis and Huxley know the truth of heaven, hell and earth, don't they?