My parents attended the funeral of an elderly family member today. Being out of state I was unable to attend. I asked how it went and was told that "worldly" people don't care enough about anyone to mention anything personal. They stated they were horrified by the cookie cutter talk and couldn't believe not much was said about her personally. Having been to many JW funerals I politely pointed out that JW funerals are an outline and are not personalized. Weeeellllll....that hit a nerve. I heard the indignation in the voice and then the retort that JW funerals have an outline but they personalize it and center it on the person. I then calmly stated that I had never been to such a memorial and moved on. Apparently when you are "in" the recruitment edge of the talk is not even noticed. I have to keep my mouth shut to placate my family but wow. That was so ridiculous to hear.
Baffling comment by my JW parents about non-witness funeral
by joyfulfader 31 Replies latest jw experiences
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sspo
The watchtower does it always better.....you should have known that.
I'm glad you spoke up.
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rmt1
I am ruminating and attempting to quantify on an epiphany someone else had here on JWN:
Since there's a raging inflammation of the PC in the body politic, this use of "worldy" by JWs is standing out starkly. If a bureaucrat in the highest diocese of the PC clergy compared the word's tone or tenor to the panoply of other words that are used with structural violence to ostracize, alienate, intimidate and denigrate other races, religions, orientations, socioeconomics, they would find some similarity with other words that are now categorized as hate speech. I never needed to read up on what exact tone or tenor, from a structural violence standpoint, goes into the Jewish (Hasidic?) term Gentiles / goyim / etc. Is there more or less """"hate"""" (Caprica gods almighty I cannot stand that usage) in the JW word "worldly" as opposed to the "goyim"? (rhetorical) -
steve2
Excellent opportunity for you to flat-palm your forehead and abjectly apologize:
"Oh, so sorry Mom. What was I thinking? You're absolutely right - Jehovah's people are the Kings and Queens of Caring; worldly people are mere peasants."
Sad thing is if you spoke that way to most JWs, they'd see the compliment and not the sarcasm.
Bite your lip girl!
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Oubliette
I have used the WTBTS's Funeral Discourse Outline.
It specifically instructs the speaker to NOT eulogize the deceased:
"Instead of eulogizing the deceased, use the material in this outline to give a fine witness concerning the truth."
TRANSLATION: This is just another opportunity to spew WT propaganda to a captive audience.
Whenever someone closely follows the outline as below (which all elders are supposed to do) they will spend only a few minutes talking about whoever died and the remaining 20-30 minutes about Jehovah God as understood in WT "theology."
Read the second sentence in the NOTES section at the bottom and also the last one concering length:
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rmt1
Well that's quantitative. You could spend 70 or 80 years in the machine, with 50 to 60 years paying monthly contributions, and have max 10 minutes' acknowledgement to show for it. Brooklyn could at least print a 4-color t-shirt.
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DesirousOfChange
The two most recent JW funerals I have attended have actually broken rank and given a very nice eulogy of the deceased. I was shocked. Both were prominent elders in their local area. A VERY prominent former Bethelite gave one of the discourses. I thought perhaps there was a new outline allowing some kind comments about the dead person. After all, that individual's memory is why we all gathered.
Doc
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William Penwell
I think it depends who is giving the memorial talk. As long as the Elder that is giving it is not a conservative type and have to stick to the outline and they know the person personally then they might perosonalize the talk some what. Otherwise in my experiance it just becomes a big preach fest.
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William Penwell
The two most recent JW funerals I have attended have actually broken rank and given a very nice eulogy of the deceased. I was shocked. Both were prominent elders in their local area. A VERY prominent former Bethelite gave one of the discourses. I thought perhaps there was a new outline allowing some kind comments about the dead person. After all, that individual's memory is why we all gathered.
I have to say that when my father passed away the Elder giving the talk knew my dad and really personalized it. I would say he spent most of the time talking about my father and maybe 10 to 15 minutes about the religion. The Elder that gave the talk knew my dad and really genunely liked him. I think that made a big difference.
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joyfulfader
I have such a hard time when witnesses criticize and condemn others without looking in the mirror. My dad gave many memorial talks as an elder. I last went to a JW funeral for a child and not one thing...not ONE thing was mentioned about the child's personality or the amazing things he was able to accomplish in his short life. Sad thing is is that the "loving" elder who gave said talk and his oh so "loving" pioneer wife couldn't even visit the family the day he died because they had parts on the meeting and couldn't possibly shirk their "spiritual" duties.
Witnesses live in a self absorbed fantasy world...blinded robots even when people need them the most.
