Desecrating a Grave
9/30/2023
Sorry this one is a little late. I saw the need to put off what I wanted to write about this week to comment on an absolutely hateful practice that I am seeing far too often these days - the funeral dog-pile.
This week Diane Feinstein, long-serving Senator from California died. It was not sudden. It was not unexpected. She has been in poor health, and not cognitively functioning for the last several years. The fact that she was still allowed to "serve" was a dishonest attempt by power-brokers to not destabilize the almost 50/50 split in the Senate that the media uses to continuously keep us in a state of anger and fear. . It is nothing but the commission of elder abuse against the shells of former holders of power, by current holders of power. That is a separate and political issue that I will leave for another to write about.
I have no water to carry for Feinstein in this. I would say the same about anyone. All of these people who get trampled in contempt and ridicule don't care, they are dead. However, all of them had families who are in deep pain because of the deaths. The people who are ridiculed feel no pain, but it is certainly felt by their sons and daughters, their children and grandchildren, their husbands and wives, their brothers and sisters. These are the people bearing the brunt of your outrage and snark.
The funeral dog-pile is the ultimate move of a bully. To pound on someone who cannot fight back. To instead of eulogize, present a list of crimes and accusations that they would not bring when the person was alive to denigrate the entirety of the life that they lived. To dismiss both whatever good they may have done in their lives, and the very essence of their humanity.
From a purely human standpoint, this is an evil in itself. The denial of humanity to any individual or group is the basis of the marginalization and demonization that runs so rampantly through modern society. It is the undoing of civilization, not becoming more civilized. As a human being, it is a most inhumane act.
I am speaking as a human first - now I speak to those who claim they follow Jesus. WTF, people?
Jesus left us a set of instructions, which in their most basic form are "love your neighbor" and "do not judge". What part of this allows you to think that pissing on someone's grave is an appropriate response? Is your life so free of wrongdoing and mistakes that you have the moral authority to pronounce judgement on another life?
You do not. Judgement is the sole purview of God. That is how Jesus taught it. Even in the most evangelical of churches, it isn't Jesus doing the judging, it is God Almighty. Jesus just provides the free pass in. You and I have no authority over anyone to determine their fate in the after life. Our wants or desires have no bearing on whatever occurs beyond the life we live here and now. It has no bearing on any life other than our own.
Celebrating someone's death is cringe. Speculating on someone's "damnation" with a smirk and a giggle is exponentially worse. Even to Jesus. Even to the Creator. Participating in this behavior is extending a giant middle-finger to God's request, as spoken through Jesus, to show others love and respect. It is not respectful. It is not love. By participating in it you willfully and happily dismiss God, Jesus and everything you profess to believe in.
If your claim is that you are a free agent and you can do what you want, well, that's true. And if your goal is to be thought of as an ass, I have every expectation you have met that goal. Congratulations.
For those who profess Christianity, the path is showing kindness and respect to the living for those who have passed on. God and history judge the dead. Not your snarky little jabs to beyond the grave.
Consider carefully the kind of person that you are, and if that's the kind of person you want to be.
In Peace, Faith and Love,
Ecc.RL Brandner, New Ecclesiastes Ministries