Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 121:482 (Apr 1964)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 121:482 (Apr 64) p. 170

Periodical Reviews

Tebbel, John, “Remembering The President,” Saturday Review, February 8, 1964, pp. 50-51.

Hardly a periodical has appeared since that fateful day in November without some comment on the assassination of President Kennedy. This includes religious and theological journals as well as the general magazines. It applies to foreign as well as domestic publications. Little wonder, therefore, as this article points out, that “the flood tide of memorabilia” which follows “a President’s death” has swept the material concerning President Kennedy “already in third place” behind Lincoln and Roosevelt (Franklin D.).

Tebbel gives an interesting account of the monumental journalistic efforts which produced part of this Kennedy memorabilia. He reports also the record commercial success they achieved (Life’s Kennedy Memorial Issue and American Heritage’s Four Days, “The Historical Record of the Death of President Kennedy,” etc.).

But more important, Tebbel also accurately analyzes why the Kennedy memorabilia “has sadly come to occupy third place.” His answer is twofold. One reason is the spectacular nature of the assassination, which he calls “the most dramatic event in American Presidential history since Booth shot Lincoln.” The second reason is the power of mass communications. As Tebbel says, “It came at a time when the mass media, both print and electronic, were reaching many more people than they ever had before.”

Most of the comments on President Kennedy’s death were proper eulogy. But many were effusive adulation, some designedly and for ulterior motives, others unthinkingly under the hysteria of the times. Mass communications accelerated this adulatory tendency as each commentator strove to outdo the other in lavish praise. The perspective of history will give John Fitzgerald Kennedy his proper place, but one wonders to what degree it will be distorted by the hero worship accentuated by the media of mass communications.

For all citizens, and for Christians in particular, this display of the power of mass communications should be instructive. Mass communications is like fire. Properly controlled both are faithful servants, but both can become destructive, tyrannical masters. The power of mass communications without question will be a useful instrument in securing the worldwide obedience and worship of the anti-Christ.

BSac 121:482 (Apr 64) p. 171

Fitch, Robert E., “The Sexplosion,” The Christian Century, January 29, 1964, pp. 136-38.

“The United States is suffering from a sexplosion” and from “sex-ploitation,” Fitch asserts. He especia...

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