I went to a memorial and it turned into a revival

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

This is in a small town in NC. An uncle of my SO. Two preachers, the first of whom at least made an attempt to talk about the dearly departed (who was not a religious man), the second of whom turned the whole thing into a "if you don't get saved, you'll go to hell" fire and brimstone speech. Then he had that southern preacher way of talking, holding the last consonants of words a little longer, followed by that loud sucking-in of breath.

Of the whole 1 1/2 hours of the memorial, I would be very generous if I said that only 25% of the time actually involved memories of the nice fellow who died (BTW, he got cancer after exposure to agent orange in Nam).

I thought it was wholly inappropriate and in poor taste.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. That sucks. How very inconsiderate on the part of the minister. (Although I am

sure in his mind he was very satisfied with a good day's work in saving souls. :eyes:)

[plcdude]

2. How unfortunate

to waste an occasion to celebrate life with an inane goal of "saving" people. The self-centeredness of evangelism seems to escape these people. Sorry about that.

[nini]

3. that happened at my aunt's funeral who would have been royally pissed.

funny thing is he made a few anti-Catholic remarks because of course he was too fucking stupid to not assume there may be some Catholics there - one being a priest (my nephew who was not in the priest garb). My aunt was not Catholic but surely would not have liked her sister's faith being attacked at her funeral.

But then, when my dad died the priest who did his service got into all that crap when it was communion time - I wanted to kick his ass.

They ruin the memorial for everyone when they do that.

[LeftyMom]

5. That happened at my grandmother's funeral. And the minister knew she'd have hated that,

because they'd had some loud, lengthy discussions about his anti-Catholicism, which culminated in her suggesting that she and a few of the other members of their small town's only church might start making the drive into the next larger town for services if he continued to say offensive things, especially since all of her children were/are Catholic, went to Catholic school, raised their kids in the church, etc.

Well, the Catholic children and grandchildren were at the service, and I guess being both a Southern Baptist and an ignorant wanker (after the service he was complaining that his daughter's required science classes at the public uni included evolution and dates older than 4,000 BC, because that's the kind of reactionary ignoramus he is) he just couldn't help himself. I don't believe in an afterlife because if there was one my Grandmother would have come back and strangled the man that day.

[nini]

8. It boggles the mind how these idiots act

I'm sure Jesus approves of their hatefulness :sarcasm:

[hippywife]

4. These fire and brimstones types

can't resist a captive audience for their shtick. :eyes:

[hobbit709]

6. A few years back a friend of mine's father died

Her mother told the preacher(Southern Baptist) that he was there to bury the man, not to save souls.
He actually kept it short and sweet, only 15 minutes.
But I think he was afraid of the old lady-she never backed down to anyone.

[Strong Atheist]

7. Sorry 'bout that... nt.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. During the Iraq War, I attended the funeral of my great-uncle's wife

That branch of the family was in the military and all turned into wing-nuts.

The deceased herself was pretty apolitical, though, always friendly and joking, enjoyed singing and accompanying herself on the piano. For the last few years of her life, she was blind and had dementia, although she could always be persuaded to sing.

Anyway, at the funeral, her son (former army chaplain) gets up and says, "And she would have rejoiced to know that millions of Iraqis have been liberated from tyranny thanks to our brave armed forces."

I had REAL trouble keeping my composure.

[XemaSab]

10. A few years ago my great-uncle passed

His like, adopted nephew is a Baptist preacher.

Yeah, we were all subjected to a sermon about Jeee-sus-uh. :eyes: