Your opinion of a church that cancels a funeral one day before it's scheduled date?

Question

-The deceased was an army veteran, fought for our country .
-The deceased was found out to be gay.
-The church cancelled the funeral after they found out the deceased was gay....because they were afraid that they would be singing gay songs and showing pictures of men kissing.
-The song that was sang was Amazing Grace.
-The pictures shown had no gay content.

If the church has a written policy about whose funerals to allow and whose not to, feel the church had every right to refuse to host the funeral in the beginning. However, after accepting the "booking" should not be allowed to cancel. I feel this was mean and cruel to do the family.

Would the church have refused to host the funeral had the person been Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, Atheist...or some other group they do not agree with?

How messed up are our churches anyway? What about honoring this person for being a veteran?

Are churches so blinded by hate that they forget about compassion? Is this of God?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/081307dnmetchurchfolo.32404b1.html

Answer 1

The homophobia in this country is rediculous. Churches do funerals for theives, murders, and adulterers (you know, those actual Commandment thingies), but they refuse to bury a gay veteran? That seems a little...um...arbitrary. Bordering on childish.

Answer 2

What I don't understand is why the church offered to have a memorial service for someone they didn't know in the first place. If the deceased was a member of the church and the church had a "anti-gay" stand, they should NOT have granted him membership in the first place. If sexual preference is that important to them then they should have found out his preference before they granted membership...they messed up.

If he wasn't a member, why were they going to have the service? Sounds to me like someone dropped the ball here.

Was it a publicity stunt to increase attendance (have a memorial service for an honored vet to get people in the doors of the church that wouldn't ordinarily attend?). If it was, then the person that had the idea should have done some research before even scheduling the event to make sure something like this wouldn't happen!

If they just wanted to honor a service person, then they should have gone through with the service...the man's sexual preference did NOT alter the value of his service to his country.

It is also possible that the church was deceived by the people that wanted to hold the service. According to the story, the church did not know until after it was scheduled that the man was gay AND that there was a plan to celebrate his life including his homosexuality during the service. It is possible that the whole thing was a setup by some gay activist that wanted to use the platform of the church to promote a gay agenda...if that was the case, then I support the church's decision not to play along. Not saying this was the case, I wasn't there and I'm smart enough to know that the media isn't telling the whole story...but it is possible.

Answer 3

First of all, the man who died was not a member of the church, nor was any member of his family. The church had an arrangement with the funeral home to perform the service if the deceased had no home church.

Second, why would a Baptist church hold a funeral for a person who did not accept its beliefs? Yes, the church would have refused to hold services for any of those groups listed. How many Baptists do you suppose have funerals in Catholic churches.?

Third, why should a church honor a man above God? So what if he was a veteran? How does that override the laws of God?

Fourth, if it was so important to whomever that they have the funeral for this man in that particular church, why did they tell the church the man was gay?

Fifth, what difference does it make to the dead man?

Stop trying to conform believers to the (low) standards of this world and disguising it as compassion.

Answer 4

Thank you for your comments. I have two points to make. First, this is a horrible thing to do to this man and family on any level. When someone is dead, it's not time to demonstrate our personal opinions of the person or his/her life. Honor him as a vet who served his country and as a human being who was loved by family, friends and others. The Bible tells us there is a time and place for everything. This is not the time nor place for this church to granstand about its views on homosexuality.

My second point is that this is precisely the reason so many gay people are completely turned off by religion. They see this and just view it as example No. 1,999,999 of Christians and/or religion showing intolerance toward gays. This kind of stunt makes many gay people think all Christians are like this. This is the equivalent of putting a stumbling block in front of gay people. It prevents them from even thinking they can, much less trying, to know Christ. People who snatch faith from others will be judged by God.

And the saddest thing about this is that this church will not accept one ounce of responsibility for doing this. When criticized, they will give the typical response: Oh, it's not us who think homosexuality is a sin, it's God. If you have issues with this teaching, you need to take it up with God, not us. We did not stop the memorial, this man did by his gay "lifestyle" which was contrary to God. The total denial of any personal responsibility is what is most infuriating to me.

Here is the link to the church, by the way, in case anyone wants to contact them: http://www.churchunusual.com

Answer 5

Its insensitive on the part of the family moreso than the Church which has rules it has to uphold. All who castigate the organization are at fault too because while Jesus says we need to love others more, he does not say we need to break our moral codes to do so. That the man went to war, he didn't do it for the Church which abhors war, he did it for his country and everyone claims they want seperation of Church and State but refuses the Church its rules makes any sense? Thats like joining the SPCCA and using ones membership in the KKK as a reference, get real.

Answer 6

All churches claim to be of and about god and run by god but in reality they are made for and run by humans. Mostly people who used their god to justify anything they want to do. That's why there are so many many churches because each wants to do what the hell they want to do and justify it by the teachings of their god. In my personal life experiences I have found and witnessed that the most vile, mean spirited and hateful people I have ever known were doing so in the name of their religion.

Answer 7

I think this is the churches fault, they should have done more research before agreeing to bury this individual, this shows how much the church actually care's about all the people they bury, is it too much effort for them to go ahead and do some research...or are they just in it for the $$$...?

Answer 8

if its true then the church were wrong. I am sorry for the family but it is often that funerals like marriages should only be held in churches the person has attended.

Answer 9

I don't really like GAY people but...

Gay or not everyone is entitled with respect. My real opinion would look like this **** **** church but since you cant read it I will put it this way. The Church should be demolished. The head of the church(the one who made the decision) should go kill himself right now and go straight to hell.

Christ's real "homies" were the sinners. If that church would consider that man as a sinner then that church is NOT as Christian church. What I hate most in this world are people who say things that they do not truly believe in.

Answer 10

It is especially inappropriate to cancel the funeral service because the man was a sinner, considering that every person whose funeral service has been held at that church was also a sinner.