A follow-up on religious preaching at funerals

Dear Readers,






I don't think it is appropriate for religious officiates at funerals to evangelize and proselytize to grieving people. Not everyone at the funeral home or church are members of the same Christian denomination, sect, branch, splinter-group or movement. Not everyone at the church or funeral home is a Christian or even religious.  Funerals are a time to honor the life of the deceased person lying in the coffin, not hear about how much Yahweh loves you and prattle on about what will happen if you do not accept Jesus the Christ as your personal lord and savior and read the Bible in a literal fashion which will result in your either burn in a pit of hellfire for all eternity or being annihilated by Yahweh's angelic army when Armageddon comes. How nice, huh? Any god who would do either of those things is not worthy of my worship, even if such a god did exist.   I don't have a problem with anyone mentioning the religious or spiritual-but-not-religious beliefs of the deceased person as long as the officiate doesn't constantly talk about that persons religious or spiritual-but-not-religious beliefs.




















Trying to convert grieving people to a certain religion or denomination within a religion is, I think, preying on people's emotional vulnerabilities and that is not right. It's wrong in my eyes.  When one of my friend's grandmother died during my involvement with ( The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints) Orthodox Mormonism, I understood that she had her beliefs, though she didn't ever talk about religion or act if she was religious around me, when I knew her.  I knew she was associated with the fundamentalist Independent Baptist denomination, had once taught Sunday School and had sung in her church congregation's choir, but other than that, she never talked about Yahweh, Jesus , Christianity, the Independent Baptist denomination, the Bible , church or organized religion at all that I remember. My friend, her grandmother had her own religious beliefs, fine. 




The pastor at the funeral, he told the mourners that they should not view the Bible as being just like another other book, he basically said that they should accept the Jewish and Christian Bible's claims on faith without any supporting evidence.  No, dude. Sorry. I don't accept any of the Bible's claims without any supporting and conclusive evidence and even if those claims were proven to be true, that doesn't mean that those claims are "moral" or "good" or that I would view them as such.  It's was very rude of him to assume that everyone there believed  or to tell people what they should or should not believe ( such as believing in the promise of "heaven" and shunning going to "hell". 






The belief in "hell" is not talked about that much anymore according to him at that time and telling people that they need to accept Jesus the Christ as their personal lord and savior and carry out Yahweh's commands as written in the Bible which is to be read literally and try to convert others to Christianity, specifically the Independent Baptist denomination; then they will be cast into "hell" when they die which is where they will be tormented in "hell" for eternity) because if they don't, then they will face a harsh punishment after they die. No. Sorry, dude.  I don't buy into fear tactics like that and I never did even when I was involved with any of the over 20 religious groups that I was associated with before becoming an atheistic and cultural Jew.  He may have tried to calm the mourners with his words, but I now see them as quite manipulative and could even see how screwed-up they were.  The pastor feels the mourners with hope of something that hasn't been proven, not very smart.  He also insisted that this woman was looking down on them, was "home" with her god and "wasn't really dead" and that "death wasn't really the end".










What gives him the right to assume what she would want people to believe? What gives him the right to assume that he knows everything that she believed? This man seems to have had little to no respect for the fact that not everyone believes what he or my friend's grandmother believed. I believe that he loves his children and wouldn't give them up for anything in the world, like he said. I don't see eye-to-eye with him on his views of the Bible, afterlives or Jesus.  What gives him the right to tell people that they need to have "faith" in the "divinity" of Jesus, trust what is written in the Bible without question or that my friend's grandmother is in "heaven" and would want people to "dedicate" their lives to Yahweh? Again, prove it pastor, prove that these claims you make are "true".  He can say what he wants, but I'm not obligated to uncritically and unquestioningly agree with him, and his " I want to believe it because it makes me feel better" sermons.  I know the older folks at the funeral seemed to agree with what he said, that's fine.  I personally don't. I don't share the views of those older folks now nor did I back then either.  I'm glad I was never an Independent Baptist. My friend's grandmother was a wonderful person, but I don't agree with what her pastor said at her eulogy nor do I agree with the beliefs that she herself held.






It was rude and ignorant of this man to assume that the mourners held the same beliefs that he and my friend's grandmother, which obviously wasn't true.  That doesn't mean that I have to agree with all or any of those beliefs, no matter how nice and sweet she was, my friend's grandmother. I personally don't agree with most of those beliefs that she held, and I personally don't find very much "moral value" in them.  I understood those are the beliefs that she chose to hold to, I'm okay with that.  It was her life.  I am also entitled to my own views.




Did you ever found yourself, particularly if your an atheist who is formerly religious, ever find yourself in a house of worship as a religious person and having to listen to beliefs that you did not hold to and disagreed with? Think about it.






Sincerely,


B.W.