STONES OF EVIL
Bro. and Dr. Boettjer is a member of Cypress Lodge #295 of Naples, FL. He
is the managing editor of The Scottish Rite Journal. This STB Was taken from am
article appearing in the 12-96 issue of The Scottish Rite Journal reprinted here
with permission. --Editor
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 Rev.
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.
Statement of Mrs. Donna Ward-Meekins, Widow of Arthur S. Ward
When I became aware that the garden to the memory of my late husband, Arthur.
had been viciously and sadistically, 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 Rev. 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 1, 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.
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