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My longtime assistant had a beautiful, graceful soul. Kind, wonderful attitude, and never had a negative word about anything or anyone. She was the kind of person who never thought of herself first,....
So my wife and I attended her funeral, fully prepared to be devastated by the loss of such a trusted friend and colleague. Instead, we were deeply angered by the preacher, who delivered a twenty-minute harangue about sin and evil, capped off by speculation on whether she was roasting in hell or enjoying heaven. It was less about Kellie or compassion for her family and more by-the-numbers blatant self-promotion. I left wondering if the nitwit had more than a five minute conversation with the woman. It was a deep disservice to a woman whose walk with Christ was patently obvious to all who knew her.
If you are indeed of the fire-and-brimstone approach to Christ, have at it during your regular Sunday services. But a funeral is about commemorating the dead and comforting the survivors, not a golden opportunity to get your digs in.
Oh my gosh, this really happened? This may be one of the worst church/pastor stories
I have ever heard.
Boy, would I ever be writing letters in my city to expose this guy to everybody
who would listen, and especially, print it!! Grrr...ok I'm calming down...
This from the article which I found very interesting:
Quote:
The Catholic Church has backed off its tough stance on suicide in recent years, finding that it can be forgiven under certain circumstances.
Circumstances which the RCC will decide based on how expedient it is for the RCC's benefit.
Notice that Christianity is like a chameleon--it can change its colors depending on the environment. How convenient to be able to say "This will send you to hell" one day and then the next be able to say, "We've prayed about the matter and the holy spirit spoke to us and told us this is what he has decide is the truth about the matter".
You just gotta love Christianity's "flexibility"--or should I just spit it out and say "hypocrisy".
Sort of like people going on Christian message boards and attacking religion, trying to destroy their belief. There are bad people that just like to mock people everywhere. This priest was wrong.
If Christians could make a strong and cogent case for their claims then atheists would not go onto Christian message boards. Indeed, if Christians could make a strong and cogent case for their claims there would be no atheists. As it is, Christians tend to hide out in the Christian subforum and refuse to defend their beliefs. Like turtles pulling in their heads. So non believers tend to go where the Christians are hiding out.
All you have to do to keep non believers away is overwhelm the non believers with the undeniable truth of your beliefs. That you feel mocked and under attack really says it all.
A priest laid it right between the eyes at a funeral, to the mourners as well as to the parents; the 18 year old youth, a Straight A student, who committed suicide was not going to go to heaven. I am uncertain whether the priest had any control over the matter, but apparently, it does not matter how the person lived their life or what drove them to the point of desperation.
Most of the leaders in my particular religion, thankfully, believe that the right question to ask is not whether the person is going to heaven or down below, but what kind of life they lived, and who they've helped, in the living world. But to me, this is no way to comfort mourners. It is a public shaming, and why?
That is what the nuns taught me in the 1950s, that they went to hell. The priest must have been old school. The only problem with that type of teaching, is that everyone winds up in hell/Sheol/the grave (Jeremiah 31:30), yet the mourning public wants to think the deceased are strumming a harp, sitting on a cloud, with their deceased Fido at their side.
As a 3 times a week and twice on Sunday good little Baptist girl but already questioning, it wasn't until my teens that my mom told me I had been "born and promised to" the Catholic religion (Her marriage to a Catholic which required her to agree that any children would be Catholic)
She reneged on that when my Dad killed himself and was refused burial in the Catholic cemetery, especially since a neighbor down the street sucked on his car exhaust a few weeks before but, being a more prominent citizen and bigger church donor was ceremoniously interred there.
So she "crossed the street" with all of us and it was a very nice place to be.
The OP's story (and mine)does demonstrate how the representatives of a church can be detrimental rather than inspirational.
A priest, or any person on Earth, can make any statement. It just an opinion, nothing more.
If this stuff bothers you, ignore it and move on. Be concerned with what YOU think; not the opinions of others. You're not going to change anyone's opinion anyway. Translation for the dense-minded: you're wasting your damn time.
A priest, or any person on Earth, can make any statement. It just an opinion, nothing more.
If this stuff bothers you, ignore it and move on. Be concerned with what YOU think; not the opinions of others. You're not going to change anyone's opinion anyway. Translation for the dense-minded: you're wasting your damn time.
Wonderful suggestion. As if it wouldn't any sense to replace the priest, or to at least send him to a training class.
He was an experienced priest. He represented his whole church and congregation. He wasn't a lone entity.
A training class? For an established priest?
Catholic churches and priests seem to do any thing they want...hence the ongoing sexual abuse scandal. I'm done excusing anything they do.
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