Saturday, January 26, 2013

Another Mormon Funeral

An LDS friend of mine recently had a family member pass away, and I attended the funeral to show her some support.

The family has a pre-funeral gathering/viewing where they pray and whatnot.  As I am not family of the deceased, I waited outside in the foyer.  As the mourners gather in an LDS meeting house, they wait in the chapel until the casket is brough in followed by the family.  At this point, I joined my friend and sat with her for the funeral, hoping that the family did not mind that I walked in with them.  She assured me that they did not.

I bought a white shirt for the occasion and I am sure I looked just like a Mormon with my recent hair cut and tie.  Before the funeral started as I was waiting in the foyer, a man came into the building from the January weather wearing a ski jacket and shorts.  His legs were heavily tattoo'd.  He obviously didn't fit into the Mormon mold.  He walked down the hall out of sight for a moment but promptly returned and left the building.

Another man waiting in the foyer came up to me, assuming I am Mormon, and asked me if I had noticed "that guy" and made a comment resembling, "I wonder what he wanted."  Good old Mormon judgments at it's finest.

We presently found ourselves seated on the extremely uncomfortable wooden pews in the chapel.  They are not designed in the slightest to give comfort to the poor behind that has to park on them.  The cushion on which I was steated was not very thick and the back rest had no padding at all.  Throughout the nearly two hour service, I was constantly shifting around trying desperately to get comfortable to no avail.

The service was opened with a prayer offered by a son-in-law of the deceased.  He approached the podium and stood there very quietly for several minutes before beginning.  His prayer was five minutes long and my butt was already getting numb by the time he finished.  He rambled on and on about the power of the gospel and how true it all is and how families can be together after death if they all cling desperately to LDS gospel prinicples.

The prayer was followed by a congregational hymn (#97 in the Mormon hymn book, which I now forget the title of) which hardly anyone sang.  Or if they were singing, it was barely audible.

This was followed by a euligy offered by the deceased's sister which was funny and entertaining.  She talked about growing up together and read passages out of her journal in which she had recorded the very brief meeting, courting, and marrying of her husband.

The 8 grandchildren in attendance then sang the song "Love Is Spoken Here".  As they gathered, the podium was lowered and a grandson lowered the microphone.  Then they did the traditional turn-your-head-and-look-at-the-pianist-to-make-sure-she's-there gesture.  I have never seen a musical number performed in church where this is not done.

The music of the song itself is quite beautiful and the lyrics are equally as enchanting to the young Mormon mind.  They go as follows:

I see my mother kneeling with her family each day.
I hear the words she whispers, as she bows her head to pray.
Her pleas to the father quiet all my fears.
And I am thankful, love is spoken here.

Mine is a home where every hour
Is blessed by the strength of priesthood power.
With father and mother leading the way,
Teaching me how to trust and obey.
And the things they teach are crystal clear,
For love is spoken here.

The girls then sing the first verse together with the boys singing the second, and when done properly, sounds very nice.  However, the boys were all tone deaf and it sounded just awful.  But no one cares because the spirit is so very strong at this point.

This musical number was followed by a son of the deceased who thanked everyone on behalf of the family for the kind support from everyone and then shared favorite moments of his memories with his mother and siblings.  He made sure to throw in lots of preaching and quotes from church leaders.

This was followed by a daughter-in-law who sang a song which I have never heard.  The family all seemed to enjoy it, but to me it honestly sounded just like screeching.  I felt embarrased for the poor woman.  Obviously, it's not easy to preform a musical piece while you are at the height of your emotions, so I tried not to be too critical.

The presiding bishop then made a few short comments (thankfully) and it was time for the closing hymn and prayer.

The five-minute closing prayer was offered by another son-in-law and, naturally, he too paused before he began the prayer, and he made a deliberate attempt to make his prayer even more righteous-sounding than the opening prayer.  The words "in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen." have never sounded so sweet.  It meant I could relieve the pressure on my posterior and allow blood flow to return to the area, which was now feeling nothing.

During the entire funeral, the grandchildren were crying and the atmosphere was sad as funerals usually are.  This heightened sense of emotion is used by the church at funerals to envoke powerful feelings of helpless dependence on the gospel.  It is clearly preached that they will all be reunited with the deceased someday IF they all stay strong in the gospel.

It is sad but true that a Mormon funeral is not used to honor the deceased but to create a stronger emotional attachment to "revealed precious gospel truths".  This particular funeral, while preachy, did actually give me a good sense of what this person was like during her life.

In mentioning the opening and closing prayer givers, it became obvious to me that there is real competition among the priesthood holders to project the most righteousness.  Image is everything in the church, and the person who can offer the most humble yet powerful prayer is highly regarded by everyone.  The feeling of Mormon superiority is futher demonstrated by the comments that were made before the funeral about the improperly dressed man who made a short appearance.

That was about all the Mormon preaching I can handle for a long time.  And my ass is screaming at me to never go there again!

26 comments:

Andrew Hall said...

Religion loves to co-opt every life transition.

Mormon411 said...

Especially death.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Seriously, what is wrong with you man? I sincerely get a kick out of your posts. Never in my life have I seen someone try to conjure up issues out of something that has no issues. It was a fricking funeral and you are acting like they were doing something wrong.

Haven't you done anything hard in your life? I was raised on a cattle ranch, and worked on it from age 0 to 18, then spent 4 years active duty as an infantryman in the US Army. This whole thing about "Mormonism is so awful" sounds so lame to me.

Seriously, what is so cool about the whole Neanderthal rather than God thing. So we moved into Europe and beat up on Neanderthal Man and interbred with him. So we have 2 or 3% Neandertathal DNA in us. Neanderthal Man believed in a Supreme Being, so did Modern Man. In fact you have had Hundreds of Thousands of ancestors (perhaps Millions) believe in a Supreme Being, what makes you so special that now you show up in the 20th Century and say: "Stop the press everyone, I've got it all figured out, God does not exist and now I am going to make an entire blog changing everything Western Civilization has ever taught. I'm even going to make fun of their fricking funeral service!"

Heather said...

Every Mormon funeral I've been to since I left has about the resurrection of Christ and his atonement, not much thought about the person who had just died. My grandfather lived to be 94 and his life sketch was 10 minutes long, but the churchy talks were over an hour. THE MAN LIVED TO BE 94! His life meant more then 10 minutes!!!!

I feel bad for the guy in shorts and tats. Had he stayed he would have gotten looks, pointed at etc. A funeral is a celebration of life and those who were able to share in that persons life. so sad he didn't feel welcome enough to stay....

C. Marshall said...

That your life is so very empty that you have nothing better to do but criticize others and how THEY choose to mourn their loved one is pretty darn pathetic. If mormons bug you this much, then for heavens sake, stay away from them. I am sure they would appreciate it. Is it totally lost on you the absurdity of you posting your snarky judgements of them for their (supposed) judgments of others. I have lost my only two siblings in the past nine months. Their funerals were a deeply sad and vulnerable time for me and my family. Our family carefully planned out both services with a mind towards what they would want. Who are you to say what someone should have at their own dang funeral?! The thought that someone would come to such an event with that spirit in their heart literally makes me sick. Stay home next time, Please!

C. Marshall said...

Tell you sorry butt to stay home too!
(I just re-tortured myself by reading over your silly post again.)

C. Marshall said...

re-tourtured. That is what happens when you get so mad you start making up new words.

Mormon411 said...

Weston, the bandwagon fallacy is the argument that since everyone believes it, it must be true. Nice try. For a very long time everyone believed the earth was flat. Did that make it true?

Where did I make fun of them? I attended the funeral and gave an honest review of it.

Have I done anything hard? I grew up on a potato farm hauling heavy sprinkler pipes through mud up to your waist. I did 8 years in the military. I went on a Mormon mission. The hardest thing I've ever done, by far, is see the truth about religion and have the strength to walk away from it. You choose the quick and easy path. "Everyone believes it so I will too!"

Thank you Heather. A funeral is meant to honor and remember the person. Many churches, not just the LDS church, make a funeral service into more propaganda. It's sad.

Marshall, I do stay away from Mormons. They are the ones who keep knocking on my door and sending me monthly news letters at an address that I NEVER gave them! I am no one to say how a person should have their own service presented. But I wrote a post about a man I knew who died a few years ago who wasn't even Mormon and for some reason his service was at a Mormon church at it was all just preaching and preaching. He was not a religious man and he WOULD NOT have wanted that.

What is so hard about the concept for you, Weston and Marshall, that the purpose of a funeral is to remember the person? When I come along and write a post on how THEIR services were nothing but preaching, you two throw a fit like it's the end of the world!

All I am saying is talk about the PERSON at their own memorial service! And you attack me for that like I am a beast with horns. You are actually defending the idea that a person SHOULDN'T be talked about at their own service. I'm embarrassed for both of you.

I do stay away from the Mormons and if the two of you hate me so much, then why do you keep coming here? Why don't you stay away from me and my evil influence? I clearly stated at the beginning that I only went to the service to support my friend. It had nothing to do with wanting to go and bash them. But I figured that since I had gone, I would write a review.

Why don't the two of you find a more worthy cause to throw a fit about like global warming or world hunger?

Mormon411 said...

BTW, Weston, it wasn't a funeral...

It was a two hour preaching session.

Anonymous said...

You must admit that using a funeral to take pot shots at Mormons is in very bad taste. It just is. Using a funeral to take pots shots at ANY religion would be in bad taste. You are obviously a very liberal person so I will put this in terms you can relate to. What if I came from a Navajo funeral and posted; "Those Indians are so dumb, they think they came right out of the ground and were created by some Earth Mother God, when we all know they came from Asia!" It's one thing to take pot shots at how many wives Brigham Young had or Kolob or whatever, but to take pot shots at a funeral?

I come here because this is part of my religion big boy: Proclaiming the Gospel, Perfecting the Saints, Redeeming the dead (and because you are one of the very few Anti-Mormons who will let me post). Why aren't you out fighting world hunger?

I don't believe in God because everyone else does, I believe in him because he exists, I have learned this after many many years of struggling and inactivity.

I'm gald you served our country, what branch were you in? Thanks for letting me post. Believe it or not I do have respect for you, I just think you are on the wrong path.

C. Marshall said...

DUDE! Do you not get that it is just in bad taste to attend someones funeral to be "supportive" of your friend and then turn around and write a post criticizing said funeral. I am sure your mother raised you better than that. Do you really think your friend would feel supported if they read your blog about it. I sure would not. As far as I see funerals have two purposes. 1. to memorialize and remember the departed. 2. To comfort their loved ones left behind. Maybe the person who passed was not religious, but their loved ones were. Maybe having a religious funeral for that person gives their loved ones some much needed comfort. If what you believe is true and there is just oblivion for us at the end of this life, why would a person begrudge the people they cared about most comfort when they are grieving? Also, I think it is pretty arrogant for someone to assume they know how religious a person was unless they were very close to the person. My brother died last April. He had spent the last ten years in and out of prison. Many who came to his funeral were friends he made during that time. I am sure they would not consider him a religious person. However, I read the journal he had been keeping, I saw his dogeared, much highlighted scriptures he had by his bed, I read what he had written about his belief in God and his testimony in the gospel. He was a believer. Should our family just have ignored that fact and had a service that was more in line with the life he showed to the outside world or the one that matched what he had in his heart? Again, as you were an outsider, I ask who are you to pass ANY judgement at all on someone elses funeral who you were not very closely connected to. If this is who atheists are you are really giving them a black eye. Why don't you let me know next time you experience a major life tragedy so I can stop by and "review" you and the dumb things I think you are doing to cope with it. I don't know why you asked me why I keep coming here when I hate you so much. First of all, I came here for the first time yesterday by way of a pinterest crock pot chicken recipe. I don't hate you, or think you are evil. I don't even know you. I do think your blog post made you appear to be very mean spirited, bitter and small minded though. If that was your goal, then "nailed it".

Mormon411 said...

Weston, the Dalai Lama said, "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they are not on your road does not mean they are lost."

I did 8 years in the Army National Guard. Granted, it was just the one weekend a month deal, but it was still service. It really wasn't that bad, but I wasn't fond of it.

I'm surprised to hear you say that more ex-Mormons don't let you post. I believe if we have to shield ourselves from the opposition, then our own convictions are very weak.

All animosity aside, I would sincerely like to know the reason why you claim to believe because he exists. How do you know he exists? The problem is that you truly don't know. You think you do, because of strong feelings and maybe an experience or two.. But how do you explain people of different religions having the same convictions in their own gods?

I respect that you have done your homework and have arrived at your conclusion. The problem is that most people who do their homework, usually come to the opposite conclusion. People who study the history of religion, study myths, read the Bible cover to cover.. most of them end up not believing. So I'm curious how you came to your conclusion. Are you sure it's not just wishful thinking?

You admit in your comments that we have Neanderathal DNA. That means we couldn't have been created the way that the Bible claims. You admit that Native Americans are of Asian descent. That means the Book of Mormon account is wrong. How do you justify these things in your mind? It seems like you have compartmentalized your brain, one area for your religious beliefs, and the other for established facts. How do you have these two conflicting ideas in your mind and believe both of them? I don't understand it.

The much more logical thing to do, is give up on the made up stories (bad ones at that) and accept reality. The moment "god" shows up in all his power and glory, then I'll be the first on my knees. But until then, it's just a story. And I am not afraid of a god in a story book.

Lastly, I wasn't meaning to take "shots" at the Mormons. I simply went to the funeral and wrote about it from an outsiders point of view. That's all. If it is considered taking shots, then maybe you need to learn to be less offended at other people's opinions. My main observation is simply that MOST Mormon funerals are 90% preaching and 10% talking about the deceased. If they want it that way, fine. It's just an observation.

If I went to an African country and wrote an article on the things I saw the natives doing, would that be taking shots? No, it would just be reporting what I saw. That's all I am doing here.

Mormon411 said...

Marshall, I thought I had recognized your name from past comments, so I wasn't aware that you were a new visitor. My bad.

My friend and I have had religious discussion in the past and she is very aware of my views. She knows I am an ex-Mormon and an atheist. She knows I consider all the preaching at the funeral to be rubbish. However, she was still very grateful that I went. So this particular friend I honestly don't think would mind what I wrote, but you do have a point that most people probably wouldn't like it.

In my view, funerals are completely for those left behind. Yes, if death is the end then the dead have no idea or cares about what is said at their funerals and it ultimately doesn't matter. That's not the reason I wrote the post. I wrote it because I believe the LDS church uses the high emotions people feel when someone dies as a way to further sink the hook. I view it as a way to make sure they stay paying, praying, and obeying.

I didn't know the guy real well that I mentioned, but well enough to know that he was not religious at all. He was a heavy smoker and drinker and very open about his views.

Let me ask you this... Do you deny that Mormon funerals are mostly preaching? That's my point. It's not a "judgment" or "criticism". It's simply an observation. Do you deny it?

If it's a black eye against atheism, I don't care at all. My beliefs, or lack of them, do not require you to believe. I get zero bonus points for converting new atheists. Everyone already thinks we worship the devil and sacrifice children, so this is a pretty minor black eye, if it is one at all.

And as far as mean spirited, don't Mormons view all those who leave the fold as deceived by the devil and full of hate and anger? So no matter what I say, you're already convinced that I'm hateful and bitter. I write a review about a funeral and that means I'm mean spirited... OK. You're entitled to that opinion but it is very, very wrong.

Mormon411 said...

Reading briefly through the post, I honestly don't see where I have taken any "shots" at anyone. I gave an account of what happened. This person spoke, that person sang. If that is offensive, then wow. That's all I have to say. Wow.

BTW, Weston, I have briefly visited your blog. I will write a post about it. My one concern is how you lump all ex-Mormons and anyone who disagrees with Mormons into a group of "Mormon-Haters". That is a huge turn off. I do not hate Mormons. They are my family and friends. It is an offensive term. The target audience of your blog is people who are looking for evidence for the church. Therefore, most of your readers probably aren't LDS. To stereotype like that will make any serious non-LDS reader immediately turned off. It makes you look defensive and makes it hard to take you seriously.

C. Marshall said...

I appreciate you acknowledging that most people would not be excited about someone "reviewing" their funeral the way you did. It gives me hope for you. I am still a little puzzled at how you seem to not grasp the idea that when people talk of their religious faith in the afterlife that it is simply a tool of comfort for the grieving. This is not a particular feature of the mormon church. I have been to baptist, catholic, jewish and quaker funerals and they all contained this element. That you want to attribute it to a diabolic or mercenary motive is really an idea of your own creation.

In attending funerals of those I love, it gave me strength to be reminded of my faith and what my hopes are for the future. I am going to believe what I believe whether it is spoken or not. It is reassuring to hear it though. If some random person who showed up felt "preached" to, well, I just don't care. So I do deny that mormon funerals are all preaching. What you take as preaching I take as reassuring and comforting the bereaved, which as you agreed with, is pretty much the entire point of the funeral.

At my fathers funeral my sister read the words to a Johnny Cash song. Should the people there who did not like country music feel preached to, or think that johnny cash is just trying further sink his hook in? Sounds pretty silly to me.

It seems to me that you have some serious paranoia issues. You feel as if every action done by a member of the church is meant to either disrespect you (or other non-believers) or drag you back to the fold kicking and screaming. I think what you want is just to be left alone to follow your path. I am 100% cool with that. That is all I want. My experience has been that people ebb and flow in their spiritual lives. We are all at different points all the time.

What I am getting at is that I just wish you would offer to mormons the thing that you want. Just let them be. Respect their choice as you want them to respect yours. I do not think you can honestly claim to not be taking "shots" at people when you use words like, cling desperately, screeched, tone deaf, sounded just awful, helpless dependence etc. These are not exactly value neutral statements.

Yes, maybe they are going to send you annoying newsletters or sing badly at funerals, but you are going to dedicate an entire blog to mocking pretty much everything they hold dear. Some of them might think you are evil, but you in turn are thinking what gullible idiots they are, so how are you any better? You remind me of that old saying about how people can leave the church but they cant leave it alone.

I do appreciate you letting me speak my piece here though. It is good to be forced into some good old self examination sometimes. thanks.

Anonymous said...

Those would be very long answers. Entire books have been written on the subject of "Why I believe in God".

Last time you made a post about me you hammered me pretty good. I expect full-power hammering on this one, and I will be very dissapointed by anything less, heh heh. So long as it is truthful.

Anonymous said...

*Disappointed* Let's see what you got;)

Mormon411 said...

I do understand that the words spoken help the mourners to cope. And that's all fine and good. I wouldn't reasonably expect there to be no religious talk or mention of an afterlife at a funeral. If I gave that impression, I did not mean to. I just think it's sad that it is made mention of so much that there's hardly any time left to remember the person.

And yes, I have been to funerals at other denominations and they talk afterlife and Jesus just as much.

Church should be for preaching and reinforcing religious beliefs. A funeral should be for remembering the deceased.

Your Johnny Cash comment would make more sense if that all they did... quote Johnny Cash and talk about how wonderful he is the whole time. What if they had done that at your father's funeral? What if they had talked about and praised Johnny Cash so much that your father only got briefly mentioned? You'd be upset by that, and that's my whole point here.

Oh, I know that members don't intend to disrespect me. But when a Mormon is nice, I always have to question their motive, because often times, getting you to go to a church function is their motive.

Mormons love to quote that saying, "they leave the church but they can't leave the church alone." In response I say of the Mormons, "They leave the world, but they can't leave the world alone." As soon as they stop knocking on doors and trying to recruit the whole world, I'll never write another post here again.

I still don't consider it taking shots. I do tend to get excited when I write. However, the term "cling desperately" really means the same thing as "endure to the end". I word things that way just to get my readers thinking outside of the box a little. And as far as screeching, it really was awful. Even if I had attended the funeral as a believer, it still would have been screeching.

I know they hold the church dear and I don't force a single person to read my words. I don't knock on their doors and try to convert them away. I only discuss it with them when they come here, so I am leaving them alone. The only time I discuss religion with them is when they come here and talk to me first.

I write this blog for LDS members who may be feeling surpressed or doubting like I was. Yes, I consider them gullible, but do I think I'm better than them? No. To the person who feels like they are under the boot of the LDS church, like I did, that is who I write for. I'm trying to be a support to those who lose their faith, because Mormons and most other religious groups certainly aren't.

Anyone is always welcome to come here and say anything they want. I don't care if they agree or disagree. I just ask that it be kept respectful as much as possible, and I believe we are accomplishing that. If I have made you think, then I have done my job. In the end, if you further evaluate your beliefs and still stay with them, then at least you have done it for you and for no one else.

I fear that all too often, it is done for everyone else.

Mormon411 said...

Weston, long books have also been written on why "I don't believe in god". The reason I don't believe is simply because there's no evidence of a god. I'd rather say "I don't know" than make up a good sounding story. And in my opinion, religion is nothing but a good sounding story.

I don't remember writing a post about you. I'll have to go back and see. I'll be honest in this one, as I'm sure you have no doubt, but I will try to make it objective. Hopefully I can get to it before Saturday.

Anonymous said...

"Really Bad Mormons" was kind of about me. Religion is a good sounding story that has been going on for a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time, that's what I want you to understand. Most religions are 90% the same. They almost all believe in an afterlife, doing good to others, a Supreme Being, a spirit world, etc. Billions of human beings have believed in religion. I'm just trying to get through your head how unusual it is to believe in nothing except what your 5 senses experience. I know there are millions of atheists out there, but for every atheist out there there have been millions of believers. I just want you to place yourself in the right perspective in the big cosmic plan.

I say this to you because I really do believe that one day you will die and say, "Well what do you know, there IS something after that life after all." I want you to be ready for that moment. It will be here before you know it (even though I hope your life here on earth is very long and happy).

Mormon411 said...

Are you the Screaming Nephite? Must be.

Yes, religion has been around a long time and believers greatly outnumber non-believers. I have never argued that.

However, just because 20 billion have believed/do believe/will believe in a supreme being, doesn't make him real.

Death is coming for all of us. And when my time comes, I will be pleasantly surprised if there is more. And even if I am wrong and it turns out there is a god, I'm sure he won't be so shallow that he'll damn me to hell just because I didn't believe in him.

Anonymous said...

Remember what Jesus said to Thomas. Something along the lines of, "Blessed are you for believing what you see, even more blessed is he who believes without seeing."

The dog belives in something once he smells it, his eyes might deceive him. A shark believes something is there once his sonar tells him so, his nose and eyes might deceive him too. Senses are weak and fluctuating, your spiritual sense is more constant. You know you have a 6th sense, we all do.

I have been many names. I used to keep reinventing myself because all the antis would block me. But now I use my name and nothing but my name. I was the Screaming Nephite, the Lone-Danite, Spider-Rico, and a plethora of other akas.

I wont comment on this post after this one and will let you get the last word. God is waiting for you, he is waiting for you with outstretched arms all day long. He loves you and believes in you even though you don't believe in Him. I've never seen him before with my physical eyes, I don't need to.

Mormon411 said...

Yes I am aware of that saying. IMO, that just makes a virtue out of taking everything blindly without question. I don't see that as a virtue. I see it as gullibility. If a person's reward is based upon believing without seeing, then any infinite number of things COULD be true.

It could be the truth that a random rock is the true path to heaven and only by belief in the rock can one make it. Granted, a far fetched idea, but hopefully you can see my point. When something is taken on faith and belief without seeing, it makes your chances of being right very, very small.

I disagree that senses are weak. Yes, they can be misled. Yes, they can be misinterpreted. But, science is based solely on what can be directly observed and tested. And look at all the wonderful things that science has done to better our world.

I believe in a "sixth" sense as far as a conscience or a knowledge of right and wrong, but to use feelings as the only factor in decision making is a bad idea. Sure, some things you just get a bad feeling about. That's your instinct. There is no evidence that such feelings are linked to a holy spirit out there in space somewhere. And often times, even in Mormon culture, decisions made based upon such feelings are often wrong. I have blogged about that very thing in the past.

The post prior to this post was written beautifully by an author who talks about the subject of emotion being communication from god. If you haven't read it, I suggest that you do.

I'm sorry to hear that you have been blocked. Not cool at all. The only time I would block you is if your comments were offensive and insulting. But even then, I might just not block them.

Please keep commenting if you'd like. I'm not trying to get the last word in. I am willing to explore your arguments if you are willing to explore mine.

One thing though that I mentioned a few comments ago. The idea of grouping everyone opposed to the church into "anti" or "hater" groups really is wrong. Those tags are really a very small minority. If I was a true anti-Mormon, then I would try to bomb temples and meeting houses. Please try to move away from referring to people like me in that regard because it simply isn't true.

I like where this is going. Please do keep commenting.

I will publish a post about your blog soon. Maybe a few.

Unknown said...

What a pathetic narcissist. I have never understood people like you. If you don’t like someone or something, stay away. But you can’t stay away. Instead you offered “support” for your friend by giving a critic of how they said goodbye to their loved one. You complained about a 5 minute prayer and yet you spent way more than that creating your prayer of criticism and how you were put out in your “support” for your friend. I’m sure glad you are not my friend.

Unknown said...

You are very self-centered. It's hard to believe you were more concerned with your physical discomfort, family members singing off-key, and thinking about those speaking at the funeral as having ulterior motives instead of giving them the benefit of the doubt that they may just be doing their best to comfort those attending the funeral. Funerals are to give eulogies, comfort those attending the funeral, and show your respect for the deceased. Some focus on one of those aspects more than others, but all you were focused on was yourself and finding fault in others. You didn't approve of the man who wondered what the person who entered the building briefly wanted, but most likely he was wondering since the man was clearly out of place. The man obviously wasn't there to attend a funeral. However, you criticized grieving family members and those there to help comfort them. You are far more judgmental than the Mormon man. Think about it. I'm not a Mormon, but it's easy to see that you are the one with the problem. I'm not an Atheist either, but I would guess that other Atheists would argue that not believing in God doesn't mean that Atheists don't have compassion for others and lack common courtesy. It also shows poor character that you went to the funeral just for show. If you didn't go to pay your respects and you didn't go to offer comfort to the family, then why didn't you simply send a card and some flowers? It's obvious you have a chip on your shoulder about the Mormon faith. The polite thing to do would be to simply move on and respectfully let others worship how they choose without being judged by you since I'm sure you expect them to respect your decision not to worship and would like them not to judge you.

Mormon411 said...

To both Todd and Mike,

You are certainly free to your opinion that I am a low-life scum bag that is unworthy of any friends. The fact of the matter is, I went to the funeral to support my friend. That was the purpose. But seeing as how I author a blog that disucsses Mormonism and my views on it, I figured I would also turn it into an opportunity to share the experience as seen through the eyes of a non/former Mormon. If you don't like that, no one is making you stick around, are they?