Reply #13: They're dead, they can't care. The funeral is for the living. [View All]

[hunter]

If friends and family will be comforted by a preacher, ask a preacher.

Same with weddings. A brother of mine and his wife tend to be anti-religious but they got married by a preacher. The preacher wasn't of a religion most of our families were comfortable with, but it was enough to comfort the religious among us that my brother and his wife were married in the eyes of God. (Those religious zealots who were not comforted are never satisfied anyways, so you can't really worry about it...)

I figure God knows if a couple is married or not.

If you are dead, He knows that too. Everything else is a public celebration, in the case of a funeral, it's a celebration of that person's life and a formal acknowledgement of their death.