Awful WTBTS " infomercial " funeral service talk

by RULES & REGULATIONS 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  respectful_observer

  I had an uber dub pioneer aunt comment to me about a wordly funeral she attended of a bible student. "you know (with a look of disgust on her face) they must of only spent 5 or 10 minutes talking about the person and the rest of the time was taken up with the church". Just hit me like a bus that comment. WOMEN OPEN YOUR EYES!!!!!! Of course I never said anything.

  Ha! I had the same experience. We all went to a the funeral of a non-JW relative. When we got back in the car, the first thing uttered by my father was:

  "That was disgusting. The priest only spoke about him for 10 minutes. Obviously he didn't know him that well, otherwise he would have said more about him. The rest of it was just like another Mass."

  "Dad, I was thinking the exact opposite. He spoke about him for much longer than the JW memorial talk outline allows for. You get, what, maybe 5 minutes about the person? The rest is just the standard outline about the Ransom and resurrection."

  "Well that's different. There's a reason we do it that way. This priest had no excuse."
• 

  sir82

  A lot depends on the popularity of the JW who died, and to an extent, the age & circumstances.

  A 60 year old woman, low-hour publisher, married to an unbeliever? She gets 20 seconds of eulogy and then the standard infomercial, delivered by a random elder to a 2/3 empty Kingdom Hall.

  Long time elder, district convention speaker, "patriarch" of an extended JW family, with Bethel connections? He gets about 50/50 eulogy/talk, delivered by the circuit's best speaker, in a rented auditorium to accomodate the 400 or 500 who will attend.
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  respectful_observer

  Oh, and one other experience.

  I went to a large memorial service for a young brother who'd died after a short illness. It was attended by hundreds of people, many of which were his co-workers. When it ended, a J-dub sitting in front of me turned to one of the "worldly" co-workers and said "Wasn't that a wonderful service?" The man replied: "Actually this was the worst one I've ever heard. They barely said a word about him. All they did was try to sell his religion! I worked with him for almost 10 years, and he never tried to push his religion on anyone this much. I actually hope he is 'asleep' or whatever. Because if he had to watch this from heaven, he'd be embarrassed!"

  The J-dub was left speechless. I asked him afterward what he thought of the response. He replied, "Oh, I didn't really listen. He obviously just doesn't like Witnesses."
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  KateWild

  Sir82, sounds about right, I have seen it happen like that too. Kate xx
• 

  AndDontCallMeShirley

  Some have thought that a funeral is for the purpose of eulogizing the deceased

  Yes, "some" have thought this. It is everyone except JWs. WT fails to understand the rest of humanity has a heart, so considers it a fatal flaw to actually want to eulogize a loved one.
• 

  Vidiot

  William Penwell - "If their goal was to attract new recruits, all it did was turn off the outsiders. People are not stupid and see it for what it is a cheap info commercial to get new members."

  Which leads me to the conclusion that it's not meant to attract new recruits.

  x

  It does, however, really have the hard-core loyalists all in a tizzy, giving them something new and shiny and thusly providing an easy incentive to stay...

  ...whilst giving the fence-sitters (whose collective reaction is generally summed up by "WTF???" ) yet one more incentive to cross the fence.

  x

  In that respect, it's a resounding success.
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  punkofnice

  I've seen 'home made' funeral service programs with sh1t like 'all donations to the WBT$(tm)'. VOMIT!
• 

  Theredeemer

  Im dreading my mom's funeral. She is 84 so I know she wont be around much longer. I am contemplating having a seperate funeral after the JWdub one for me and her nonJW family.

  The sad thing is , very few (if any) JWs visit her. NO one ever takes her or picks her up for the meetings, not even my Dub family. She has dementia but she is very mobile and healthy physically, however, because she wasnt a big wig, married to an elder or a pioneer she gets no help or attention.

  This other JW her age who also has dementia and is much more of a handful but because she was married to an elder big shot and a pioneer herself has so much attention from the cong and other congs.

  This sis has a volunteer witness as a provider and even the cong had people volunteer to fix up her house. Meanwhile, my mom has to pay out of pocket to have a provider and her house is falling apart. I know I sound like a hater but it's is really sad. How do you think I'm going to feel when I have to sit there and here some witness give a talk and see all these JDubs who really could give a rats ass? Not to mention how they have treated me and my wife.

  Only, love and respect for my mom will I hold my tongue. Thankfully , my non-JW dub family and close friends will have my back.
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  BluesBrother

  I hate the J W funerals too. If they are well done they can be O K (to a guy like me hardened to listening to all their you-know-what)

  All too often they are badly done with speakers making inappropriate comments about the deceased, sometimes saying too much, sometimes not enough.

  That WT article in the O/p had a strange line

  And further, when a service is held for a deceased faithful servant of Jehovah God, the occasion could well be used to note that one’s integrity-keeping course in spite of all manner of obstacles. (2 Sam. 1:26) True, as Mark Anthony said in his famed funeral oration: “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”So our purpose is not to eulogize or extol creatures, but to consider their example as one to be imitated.

  The writer evidently used a book of Shakespeare quotes and was not familiar with the play "Julius Caesar" . If so he would have known the context, that Mark Antony faced an antagonistic crowd who were expecting him to try and defend the currently unpopular Caesar..hence the line "I come to bury , not to praise" By the end of his brilliant speech the crowd were swung back on Caesar's side and looking for his killers. That is hadly true in our modern funerals. The quote is using the words, ok but in the wrong context.
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  sir82

  The quote is using the words, ok but in the wrong context.

  That of course is the standard the WT has used for the past 50 years.

  "Context be damned, is the stuff between the quote marks accurate? Then use it!"