A Sincere Apology Accepted

The following letter was received at the headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses from a doctor of philosophy and counselor in psychology:

Dear Jehovah’s Witnesses: I am writing to apologize to Jehovah’s Witnesses for something I took part in in the spring of 1942 in Brookhaven, Mississippi. I was 16 and too young to enter the military, but filled with a fervor about the war. On the strength of a rumor that a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses were encamped in trailers outside of town and that they were encouraging people not to participate in the draft, about ten of my fellow high school students and I strapped on pistols and went to the encampment. We made what we thought to be patriotic speeches to them and told them they had better be out of town by the next night. They were. I don’t recall any discussion with my friends about what we would have done if they hadn’t been.

The temper of the times was reflected in the fact that the Jackson “Daily News” carried an editorial praising our ignoble act.

The atrocity of U.S. aggression in Indochina precipitated my complete conversion to pacifism in the ’60’s, and it is ironic that the only two boys in my son’s high school who refused to participate in R.O.T.C. [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] for moral reasons were my son . . . and a Jehovah’s Witness.

I have learned a lot about freedom and democracy, as well as the pacifism of the Christians who lived during and within the first 400 years of the life of Christ, since my 1942 “patriotic” speech and I want to extend an apology to all Jehovah’s Witnesses even if it is 37 years overdue. Sincerely, [signed] F.H.W.

We are sure those of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were affected directly by this incident will accept this sincere apology, in imitation of their Master, Christ Jesus.—Luke 23:34.