Would your church hold a funeral for the death of a gay loved one or friend?
This article really appalled me. I read John O'Keefe's blog at Ginkworld and you can check him out in my links section. I stumbled upon the article Church Nixes Memorial For Gay Veteran today from his blog.
Now keep in mind that the article has a lot of He said/She said stuff in it. So I can't really say who is and who is not telling the truth in the article.
I still think it was wrong for this church not to conduct a funeral for this guy. It is even harder to stomach that they did it at the last minute.
The stuff in the article about the tribute video showing affectionate kisses between the deceased and his partner? I probably would have asked them if we could not show that part if indeed it was on the video. Other than that, I am somewhat offended that this church denied this man's friends and family a funeral.
This could be a very controversial subject. But what are some of your thoughts on this?
Be MoVeD!
posted by Keith at 6:17 PM
5 Comments:
Regardless of anyone's personal beliefs -or those they may say the Bible says pertaining to homosexuality -bottom line is he was still a child of God and as such, should have been afforded a proper Christian burial if that is what he and his family wanted. To deny that, whether it is based on that church (or any church's tenets about homosexuality) is taking on the role of God, as the one who judges all of us, isn't it? It's putting aside all the other teachings of Christ, beginning with that one about "Judge not, lest ye be judged." It also makes a mockery out of the words of Christ -"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." So, if a church regards homosexuality then as a sin, and that sinner unworthy for a farewell service from their sacred building, then who would they allow to have a funeral held for there since we are all sinners? What makes one sin then higher on the list than others?
I agree with you Jeni. I am on the side of the family myself. I think you made some very good points in your comments and they came from God's word, the Bible. Thanks for your input.
When my father died, I flew up to northern Michigan, to find that he and the minister at the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, in the little town that he lived in, had had a falling out a bit before he died. The subject of their disagreement isn't important to the story. It wasn't doctrinal or faith based. My Dad got mad at the young whipersnapper. Or the young whippersnapper got mad at my Dad.
When I arrived, I found out that the funeral would not be held at the church that Dad and others had built, mostly by hand. Rather, we would have a service at the furneral home and then a send-off at the local volunteer fire station, that he and his friends had also built.
As you have probably noted in my comments, I have a problem with oraganized religion. Following my father's death, I wrote a letter to the Synod. No one responded.
I read a piece in the paper this morning that there's a controversy in another Lutheran group. Some there are not at all happy with gay ministers.
To my mind, religious people should learn to minister to those that are unwashed, rather than the members of the current club.
I think this sounds a bit angry. It is and I'm going to leave it as it is.
I agree with you two, this is wrong. The church was looking at the speck in that man's eye, and ingnoring the plank in their's.
We are all sinners.
"religious people should learn to minister to those that are unwashed, rather than the members of the current club."
I completely agree.
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