JWs funerals.......forget about the dead person lets preach! (page 2)

garybuss

You wrote: "I was thinking if he dies before me I could always bury him as a catholic."If they beat us with a Witness funeral, we could dig the bastard up and re-bury him as a Catholic.

Lol!! You Know Gary all kidding aside. I guess he can't bear to see me any other way. I took your advice though on appreciation and respect and have been using it. It actually works! You wouldn't think so, but it does. I think sometimes he likes me more than my brothers. Isn't that irony. I know about the last will and testament but I think that would only work if I had money. I guess it doesn't matter in the end, cause I won't be around anyways, but it makes me feel that my life is not being respected as I would like it to be and I will be misrepresented and am not taken seriously by the people that are supposed to matter. It's those that are left alive that will tell the tale. The only other option is to disappear into oblivion and let the state take care of it. The disadvantage of that is I will just be a statitic with a toe tag . It will also cause upheaval again. Some things in life no matter what you do, you can not escape the gravitational pull of your destiny.

free2beme

Why not just put a swimming pool for baptism next to the speaker and ask for people to take the plunge in their grief. I always felt sick at Witness memorials. I think it was the spirits of those who passed around me, confused and upset at the way things were handled and how they so much wanted the people there to feel the truth that was sealed off from them. I personally think many Witness spirits wonder around for awhile in disbelieve and hopeless desires of changing people. Who know, maybe their efforts are not all that fruitless, as I have long since felt my grandmother and great grandmother, might have played a hand in getting my sister and I out.

Navigator

I have threatened to return and haunt my family should they attempt to give me a JW Funeral.

Tyrone van leyen

Ya, the afterlife if it exists may be the perfect place to even the score.

Hortensia

when my stepfather died, my never-a-jw husband and I went to the memorial service. The elder started the sermon (that's all it was) with "Ken died of SIN!" Followed by an hour talk about why Jesus died, just as if it was the usual Sunday meeting. My husband was astounded, he still talks about it and it has been seven or eight years since then. He just couldn't believe how impersonal and negative it all was.

Then my mother died a couple of years later and one of my dear non-JW friends, who was also my mother's chiropractor, went to the memorial service as a supportive gesture. Similar sort of talk, mostly focusing on how my mother loved to go in service, and that the only reason she was sad to die was that she wouldn't be able to go in service any more. Hoo boy, that sounds really weird to an outsider. My friend asked me what it all meant, and why the singing was so awful. I just laughed - JWs have their own weird way of doing things. My husband didn't even go to this one, he offered to but I told him to skip it. He kept saying over and over, "Ken died of SIN!" and asked me if they talked about my mother that way too.

But the most amazing was when my own father died, about 30 years ago. He was never a JW, in fact died of alcoholism. We hadn't seen him in years and didn't miss him, which is a sad statement, but my mother insisted on a memorial service at the kingdom hall and the congregation obliged. They all know perfectly well that by their own beliefs there was no way in hell (pun) that my father would make it in the resurrection. However, they gave the same sort of Sunday meeting sermon, about the resurrection and when they mentioned my father, which wasn't often, they sort of shrugged. Strange strange strange.

becca1

This issue has bugged me for quite a while. The same applys to wedding talks. Wedding and funeral talks are both manuscripts so there is little room for personalization.

They seem to hate anything being "special", never mind original. Everything must be "by the book".

The recent WT study articles on weddings were a perfect example. Rules and more rules to make every aspect of our lives uniform and routine.

troubled mind

The worst funeral I ever attended was my non-JW Grandmothers . She had the terrible luck of having two JW daughters that thought since she read the occasional Watchtower surely she would approve of a witness funeral for herself ! She never claimed any denomination and told me personally she hated having the witnesses shove the "truth " down her throat. Alas my Mother and Aunt thought it would be such a good witness to ALL the relatives (since she came from a very large Christian family ) It made me sick . An elder that never even met my grandmother stood up there and read the obituary then proceeded to give an hour talk about sin from Adam to the glorious hope of the 144,000 . Of which of course no one in the audience could fathom. People were audibly disagreeing with him and whispering hateful things about JW's to each other. NO ONE cried because they were in such shock at the BS being spewed forth . That was 27yrs ago and it still haunts me.

BabaYaga

Wow. You have hit the nail on the head with this one.

When my Mother died, I was there as a comfort for my Dad. I had not attended a Kingdom Hall in ages, but I sat there next to my bereaved Dad and looked up all the obligatory scriptures. They did not say a WORD about my dear Mother, who had been faithful for over four decades!!! She was a wonderful, incredibly talented person, and all they could say about her was she was a bit "shy".

When I lost my beloved Dad just a few short years later, I was already overdosing on the "good will" shown by the Witnesses who would tell me how sorry they were (when it was their bloody stupidity which caused his death... he died due to the blood issue.) I told my precious sister that she had her support group (the congregation) and I had to go home to mine, because I could not bear another funeral where all they do is preach and ignore my beloved ones. She took that pretty danged well, really.

Anyway. Yes. Exactly.

Baba.

Highlander

I have extremely mixed feelings about this issue. On the one hand, funeral 'talks' involving some of my family members have been very warm and heartfelt. This is probably due to the

influence some of them have had over the years and the fact that many elders and ms reside among my family structure, which means they can probably give the 'talks' with a more

personal edge to it. On the other hand, I've attended many funerals over the years and are exactly as described in previous posts: two minutes discussing the person, then the rest of

the time is spent 'preaching to the choir'.

When my parents pass on, I don't know if I will attend the funerals. I may have my own personal gravesite memorial and show my true respect. Though I hate my mom's disgusting

belief system, I do love her and will show her more respect in death than she will receive at the j-dub funeral.

JWs funerals.......forget about the dead person lets preach!

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