STONES OF EVIL
by: Dr. john w. boettjer
managing editor of
the scottish rite journal
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 mid-
dle 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 congrega-
tion of the church. This pastor ministered lov-
ingly to John and Betty for about three hours
that night, ending at about 3:30 AM the fol-
lowing 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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