Officating a funeral

Talk about legalism and hatred. WOW! How is your hatred for Catholic Priests and different then Westboro Baptist Church's leaders for Jews? Does your congregation know that you harbor this kind of attitude?

 

If it were me, I would sympathize with the emotional nightmare and grief she's going through, as well as the awkardness of her position, caught between her beliefs, honoring her son, and honoring his father's wishes, but then I would also explain that Catholics preach a radically different Gospel, that the Bible tells us that we're not to have anything to do with false teachers and their heresies, and that I, specifically, am charged with protecting Christ's sheep from the wolves.

If she wouldn't listen, then I'd simply tell her that I understand her feelings and that our prayers are with her and her family.

You always want to be firm but anytime a death is involved, particularly of a child, you don't want to be firm at the expense of being loving and supportive. You want to take her well being into account, but not at the expense of the integrity of the church or its testimony before the world. And you also want to be able to discern what is a legitimate need, what is a reasonable request, and what is, as annsi called it, emotional blackmail.

People leave churches for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they're legitimate, sometimes they're not. If she doesn't feel that she can submit or if she really feels that this is a deal breaker, then I don't want to keep her in a church she doesn't want to be in. But when we get the call asking for her "letter" and asking why she left the church, I just hope she isn't mad when we tell them.

But the other thing is that if that were the "compromise", I'd tell her just to go ahead and do it in a Catholic Church.

And then there's the matter of, if the boy is Catholic, then what do you do when faced with having to preach the funeral of a non-Christian.

And then there's that. If the boy was Catholic, then how could we in good conscience stand there while a priest tells everybody that the boy is on his way to Heaven (after a few thousand years in Purgatory, of course) because he followed Catholic rituals.

I'm not sure how legalism enters into it, as legalism involves subjecting people to the law and man-made requirements as a condition of salvation, but I can assure you that it has nothing to do with hatred, but with the love of God's Word and the church for which Christ died.

I don't hate Catholics. In fact, in spite of my strong disagreements with Catholic heresies, and the policies and alleged "authority" of the Catholic Church, I believe I've spoken of the priests and nuns who taught me in very glowing and affectionate terms.

I believe you can be against a religion's teachings, but still love the people in that religion.

Many of the people here know the story behind our church. Nearly 2/3 of our membership are new converts (and when I say "new", I mean within the last three years) to Christianity. Because we live in such a heavily Catholic area, a significant number of those 2/3 came from Catholicism. I seriously doubt they would have converted, much less chosen our church, if they thought we hated them.

If it makes you feel any better, I do hate fire ants.

I certainly hope so.

By the way, not to poke at you, but I can't help but wonder if anybody else sees the irony of you accusing me of legalism for not allowing a religion that is based on legalism to have access to our pulpit.

 

Hello, JDF. I haven't heard much from you lately but I see you are just as equivocal as ever about your attitude toward the Catholic faith. Anyway, it's good to see you're still around.

Recently one of the young women in our church married a Catholic boy. The bride and her parents insisted on the wedding being in our church. The boy balked, knowing that his church would not normally recognize such a wedding, so they got a dispensation from the bishop for the wedding to be in our church. Our pastor and the Catholic priest co-officiated and everyone was happy. The priest wore his black suit and clerical collar (not the fancy robes) and there was no mass. There were no reports of fire or smoke damage to the building.

 

I am? I thought I was pretty consistent.

That's unfortunate on a number of levels.

First of all, should we be in the business of marrying Christians and non-Christians? Was the girl counseled against being unequally yoked? How do Christians invite non-Christian religious leaders into a church without giving the world the message that we approve of false religions? From a practical piont of view, how do you overcome the fact that Christians and Catholics have radically different views of the nature of marriage?

I couldn't do it and I can't wish you Godspeed, but it is what it is. The pastor may will be held accountable, if not by his church, then by God.

 

Have you comprmised your beliefs by having another religion attend such a service? If you have, then it shouldn't happen.

I attended a funeral in our local Catholic Churh because the family insisted I be there. For that family's sake, I attended. The local priest and I are good friends, so he knew what I believed. I am well known in the community, and the people are well aware of my beliefs. Hence, I did not believe there was a compromise of my firm beliefs.

In the army, asa chaplain, I performed last rights on a dying Catholic soldier. We were required to do so in the army in the absence of an RC chaplain. The man was dying. Hardly time to preach the gospel or become anti-catholic. Give the lad a moment's peace as he draws his last breath. I would do it again, and God will be my judge whether I did right.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Thank you. That's very kind of you to say.

 

We would have been charged. Remember too, we were all Anglicans in the military in those days..we followed the Anglican prayer book...I became a Baptist after my time in services.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Well, to know me is to love me.

Thank you. And just so you know, I have been reading your posts for some time and often pray for the churches we talk about here, including yours.

Well, there's a reason for that. We don't have one. I know that everybody has a website for everything these days and we've talked about it, but we just never did it. Personally, I think the internet is just a fad that's going to go away any day now, anyway.

 

Another true story: A man who had been a member of our church in his young life had been attending the Caholic church for many years when he died. There was a funeral mass at the Catholic church. At the conclusion of the mass, the priest stepped aside and turned the service over to one of the senior deacons of our church to do the eulogy. This really surprised me because this man is as fundamentalist as you can be and still remain a Southern Baptist. Again, there were no reports of any fire or smoke damage to their building.

 

Hardly the time to preach the gospel?!

You would rather give the lad a "moment's peace as he draws his last breath", and then an eternity in Hell, than to give him a chance to spend an eternity with God?

 

Since when is a building the temple? WE are the temple of God not a building. That being said this is a private choice with each church, but trying to point to scripture as justification one way or another is really a stretch..