Went to my grandfather's funeral service at the Kingdom Hall today. Two or three minutes were spent on grandfather, and the rest on the Bible, Jehovah, how sin makes our bio cells degenerate, etc. etc.
Fortunately, I'm well past the stage of anger at the Witnesses for shoving their religious beliefs down my throat. I wasn't too terribly bothered with the speaker's constant insistence that "only the Bible, only JEHOVAH can give us ANY HOPE OR COMFORT at a time like this."
I found it amusing how the speaker needed 6 or 7 Bible texts to prove to his audience that death is nonexistence, and about 6 or 7 more to prove that the dead are coming back. I should think that one or two each would have been sufficient (nobody was there to be preached to), but it sure felt like the speaker thought it was of utmost importance that everyone go away from the Kingdom Hall believing in his sermon.
There wasn't much else interesting to report. The beginning of the service was sad, grandmother and others crying, but about 3 minutes into the talk, like I said, focus shifted from grandfather to the Bible, which got everyone too bored to think about their sadness.
I guess there were a couple of interesting people there. The elder who gave the talk is a very old family friend and long-time JW who excels at speaking and relations (always has parts and responsibilities at district conventions). He also gave my mother's brother's funeral talk 38 years ago.
Also, the chairman of the appeal committee which upheld the initial judicial committee's decision to disfellowship me two years ago was there. He has known my father for at least 35 years. As I was standing with my father and grandmother, he extended his hand to me and said, "Hello, I'm Ray G...." I said, "I know who you are," smiled, and shook his hand.
A few other old family friends were there. Only one of them gave any indication that she was shunning me (probably more due to the fact that I had neglected to invite her to my wedding, which hurt her deeply, so I've been told). Some came up to me and chatted for a few minutes. I really rather mystified as to how many people both in my family and in congregations where I am familiar know that I am disfellowshipped.
Anyway, I felt like sharing today, thanks for reading this. Back to scanning some old pictures I have of grandfather to share with the family tomorrow.