sin of segregation and  the blackness in their own hearts. Holliday s view
that Kennedy s death helped Lyndon Johnson get a much stronger civil
rights act is interesting and probably true. The deifi
cation of Kennedy is
almost complete here, although Holliday hesitated about Kennedy having
 the power of the grave.
PART ONE
In John, the third chapter and the fourteenth verse, we find these words:
 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of man be lifted up.  And as Moses lifted up, lift up, the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
I have been moved to talk with you briefly tonight about the
assassination of President Kennedy and the crucifixion of Jesus. There
has been much speculation and books written about the life and death
of our late president, but none of them seem to deal with the human-
ity and the religion of the man. To me John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the
thirty-fifth president of the United States, was one of the most brilliant
statesmen of our time. He was born rich, yet humbled himself with love
in his heart for all mankind. He was Christ-like. He took the oath of
office and accepted the responsibility as leader of this great nation at a
time when our country faced crises too numerous to mention. He
courageously accepted what he called  the challenge of the twenties. 93
He realized that the twentieth-century president is summoned to live
and serve in a grand and awful time. This is a century of crises in which
mankind is caught between the thrusts of two efforts. Our civilization
is experiencing the dying groans of the old order and the birth pains of
the new. The twentieth century is a century of bewildering contradic-
tions. Armed with scientific knowledge and technological skill we have
produced countless gadgets to enhance our comfort and conveniences.
Discoveries in nuclear energy has [sic] made it possible for man to
probe into outer space and bring faraway planets within our reach. We
have the resources with which to ascend into the heavens or to make our
bed in hell.
W. H. Auden has called the twentieth century  an age of anxiety. 94
The sickness of society is seen in man s, eh, in man s strange ways and
[ 156 ] The Day the Worl d Stood Stil l