Will you attend the Kingdom Hall for a funeral of parents who are still JW's? If not, do you tell them beforehand?

by ThomasCovenant 38 Replies latest jw friends

  • Broken Promises
    Broken Promises

    What would happen at a kh funeral if there were numerous non jw's there and some of them requested to speak?

    I don't know the official line but I would imagine the elder who is the speaker would request that they keep their comments until after the service, or maybe at the grave site or cremetorium.

    If a group or even one person made a scene about being allowed to speak during the funeral service, it would be bad form, regardless of whether it was in a KH or another church.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    I would go to the KH, can't see any sense in not going.

    But I really want to say is that this thread reminds me of that video that was posted on this forum a few years ago where Witnesses had a shouting match with other relatives at a funeral. Does anyone remember that? Is it still online? That was a classic. Not ideal for a funeral to be bickering.

  • wobble
    wobble

    I am wrestling with this question at present,my mother is 91 and an active witness, so it will happen soon, I haven't made up my mind what I will do, I am tempted just to go the the graveside and maybe the wake after, I don't know.

    I really do not want to go in a K.H ever again. I am also tempted to go, and listen to the bit about mum, and then slip out of the rest of the info-mercial.

    I will decide when it happens.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat
    I really do not want to go in a K.H ever again. I am also tempted to go, and listen to the bit about mum, and then slip out of the rest of the info-mercial.

    I don't know if that would be so easy. The funerals I have been to recently they have mixed it up a bit and the personal stuff is sprinkled through the talk.

  • journey-on
    journey-on

    Oh, boy! Funerals and weddings are THE most stressful when it comes to the JW "rules" of engagement. I could tell you some stories that would just make you sick, but if any of my family are lurking....well, you know. (Sorry, I have no good advice.)

  • jamiebowers
    jamiebowers

    My jw mom has shunned me for almost 23 years, so, if I outlive her, I see no point in attending her funeral. But if your friend is still in contact with his parents and in-laws, he could focus on supporting the jw survivors at the funeral home, the wake, and at home after the service.

  • AGuest
    AGuest

    Isn't NOT going doing "as they do", dear TC (peace to you!)? If so, how can one point a finger at the other? Isn't that what hypocrisy means - doing what others do while acting as if you aren't (because YOUR actions/inactions are "justified" in YOUR mind and heart)?

    Why not do the right thing, teh BIGGER thing... regardless of the JWs... and regardless of how that loved one treated YOU? I don't ever want to set foot in another church, KH, temple, abbey, or other place of religious worship. They're ALL the same to me: God does not dwell in handmade temples... but in PEOPLE.

    BUT... I loved ones for whom I might have to do so. Notice, I said "loved ones" (meaning I love THEM and not necessarily ones who love(d) me). So what if they didn't love me? As Christ is recorded to have said, "If you love only those loving YOU..." or "If you greet your brothers only..." what extraordinary thing are YOU doing? Are not beng just like those you decry?

    How can one hate them individually for not accepting one and what one no longer believes... if one can't rise above that and LOVE them in spite of it? How is such one DIFFERENT? One is not. One is doing EXACTLY what one "hates" them for doing: making their love conditional and withholding it when it suits them.

    It's hypocrisy. Unfortunately, most truly don't know/get/understand just what hypocrisy TRULY is.

    Again, I bid you peace!

    A slave of Christ,

    SA

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    I would but it would involve great difficulty. It is a mark of respect. I'd refuse to interact with any Witnesses. Knowing me, I probably would interact. I t needs to be limited with high boundaries -- which they will not respect. Without my parents' biological functions, I would not be here. I'd want their community to know how important they were to me.

    No one goes to any funeral to pay respects to the dead. It is respect, grieving with peope instead of alone, and a Christian rite.

    I'd brace myself. See a therapist for clues on how to cope. The day of the event, I'd take some Xanax and alcohol to blunt the trauma of the service.

    This is something that is very clear for me in the abstract. Yes, I would go. It is a heavy price to pay.

    Life s....s.

  • Mary
    Mary

    Since my parents do not shun me, I would go, but the point is probably moot as my siblings (both JW and non-JW) have already decided that we will have the funeral service at a funeral home and not at the Hall. The big question will actually be: will they give my parents a Dub funeral talk since they rarely go out in Field Serve-Us? If they decline to, I will make a point of telling the elders to piss off and don't bother showing up at all and I'll get one of my ex-Witness friends (who used to be an elder) to do the talk. Wouldn't that be ironic---a Witness being buried by a non-Witness because they weren't considered to be a good enough Witness.........

    Witness funerals piss me off royally as there is barely any mention of the deceased at all. Virtually the entire thing is an infomercial for the religion and I know from past experience how shocked and disgusted 'worldly' people are when they attend.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    No..

    They couldn`t get me in a Kingdom Hall while they were alive..

    They won`t do it when they`re Dead..

    ........................ ...OUTLAW

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit