I have heard some really good ones...
and some bad ones in my life: JW doctrine does not take death very seriously, so consolation doen't rank all that high. The funeral talk one of my uncles - the black sheep of the family, a colorful character - got two years ago was a recruitment talk like no other; in the talk he was named and referred to where absolutely necessary, but otherwise he didn't really figure in it. I remember looking around me for obvious signs of indignation in peoples faces and whispered some remarks - nobody seemed to notice.
In my experience dub funerals are also often used by the elder establishment as a political instrument.
An old and faithful MS died after many risky bloodless operations. His children were all exJWs and all wanted to make a personal contribution with a personal speech. One son apparently had had premarital sex with the woman he married afterwards... 25 years ago, and was disfellowshipped for it at the time. The sister/wife of the MS was leaned on heavily by the body of elders not to allow the personal input but she did not give in. Consequently, the funeral was boycotted and the cong was admonished not to attend the funeral. Me and a few others attended. A disgraced ex-elder friend of the family held a biblically consoling talk in the end but was too afraid to say a prayer for fear of being disfellowshipped for it. The cong and all the elders did go to the farewell-condolence ceremony at the funeral home the day before as they allowed this. The funny thing is that an elder from another cong was seen by many there talking amicably to the DFed guy. The deceased MS was hated by the PO who orchestrated the boycott. It shows how those in control apply the rules whenever it suits them.
Shortly afterwards we had a couple more funerals... all involving the same PO.
This time an old sister's funeral was boycotted by her NON-JW and fundi-Christian family who demonstratively stood outside. After the soulless JW funeral talk the whole crowd of unbelievers ventured in. But the PO and his wife ostensibly hurried out because the deceased sister's son who WAS a JW commenced with a short speech for the unbelievers in order to explain to them how his mother's blood refusal had not been the actual cause of her demise... Again the funny thing is that another local elder who was related to the deceased remained in the audience.
At another funeral of a well-liked character/brother, the son of the deceased, a known apostate living abroad, was allowed to speech on tape. The approving PO again used his "discretion" here.
At another funeral of an old faithful sister, her DAed son WAS allowed to speech in person... before the funeral talk, held by a powerful friend of the old sister: the CO. The PO in question went along with this one of course. (The DAed son this time walked out before the COs talk.)
A brother in a neighboring cong was stabbed to death by his young pregnant wife, a sister, after he apparently continued his affair with an even younger girl. This time the cong was more or less summoned on several occasions to ATTEND the funeral in as large a number as possible... sanctioned by the same PO: an example needed to be set (show needed to be put on) since a large part of the bereaved family were Pentecostals... I didn't attend that one.
Now that I've written this, I realize that perhaps it was not such a bad thing after all that my own parents, all those 27 years ago, were not deemed worthy of a funeral talk after having slaved away faithfully for many years until they gave way under the unbearable load. My mum killed herself just before my DFed dad self-destructed. Fortunately no fallacies were spoken over their dead bodies.
VG
