There is a myth within the Bible-belt (and other areas of religious cultures) that the more spiritually-minded someone is, the less the sting of death. I turn this on its head by saying, those who know God best, mourn death the deepest. You can listen here.
New Podcast: On Death and Dying, a Candid Conversation.
One response to “New Podcast: On Death and Dying, a Candid Conversation.”
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Just listened to it.
What you describe as a Christianese funeral (where you were houseitting) is called a “Homegoing Celebration” i.e. “HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY! JOY! HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY! JOY!”, something you find all over the Herman Cain Awards on Reddit, always between the calls for Prayer Warriors and the GoFundMe appeals. (When dying became “Homegoing” in Christianese, I knew this was not going to end well.)
This has been building for a long time. I remember a short missionary biopic in Campus Crusade (Cal Poly Pomona, late Seventies) where missionary & wife go on field (to Amazon Basin jungle tribes?) and near the end the wife takes sick from one of the local tropical diseases and dies. Missionary husband’s reaction is to drop to knees and pray. Jump cut to missionary right back out Witnessing to the Natives, flannelgraph and all.
The other Campus Crusaders gushed how the sudden cut going right back out Witnessing showed how Christian he was, how Spiritual, how Soul-Winning. My reaction (kept secret for personal health reasons) was “He didn’t give a damn about her. She DIED right in front of him and he just goes right back out Preaching. Maybe a momentary pause at the speed bump, but that was It.” For over a decade afterwards, whenever i heard about a death scene, my first question was “did he cry over her?” (This from a guy whose reaction to death is to numb out.)
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J. Michael Jones
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