3 Things to Say to a Grieving Non-Christian

Aquilla Report ^ | February 18, 2015 | Megan Hill

[Ancient Man]

How about, “Get over it, they’re dead.”

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Thanks for posting this. I have to admit, I hadn’t thought of that situation.

[showme_the_Glory]

Don’t say “well, they’re in a better place now”. You don’t know that they are, and they might not be. Better to just be sorry for their loss.

[Ken H]

What words can we offer the agnostic friend who just watched her atheist mom succumb to cancer?

"If you think she was suffering then, you ain't seen nothing yet." ?

[ConservativeInPA]

How about, “Get over it, they’re dead.”

Pretty close to what I was thinking. Grieving is a selfish act. The dead do not care, they're dead after all. The grieving shouldn't make it all about them. So, "get over it, and get on with living."

[HiTech RedNeck]

That’s only to encourage yet another mode of selfishness. Why push someone out of the frying pan into the fire?

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

"If you think she was suffering then, you ain't seen nothing yet."

I know that implied the /sarc tag...

[HiTech RedNeck]

Has God never approached anyone “on the way out” with a final and best offer... I cannot say that, I do not have a scriptural basis for it. It is up to each soul to refuse or accept God qua Savior (which is actually another way of saying the name of Jesus — in Aramaic this is Yeshua, or the Savior).

Statements like yours, lacking a context, only appear to depict a cruel and capricious God, rather than a God that respects our choices deeply enough to let us damn ourselves rather than having a puppet salvation shoved down our throat.

[CatherineofAragon]

"How about, “Get over it, they’re dead.”

Profound AND compassionate. /S

[Ken H]

Statements like yours, lacking a context, only appear to depict a cruel and capricious God, rather than a God that respects our choices deeply enough to let us damn ourselves rather than having a puppet salvation shoved down our throat.

I wonder why billions of Asians who have already lived and died over the centuries chose to burn forever. That is the fate in store for the vast, vast majority of them who were non-Christian, according to Scripture.

Why do you think they made such a choice?

[Salvation]

Do these three things really help the person who is a non-believer?

I don’t think so.

[Salvation]

Beginning Experience, a peer facilitated weekend for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one whether through death, divorce or separation.

[Ken H]

What's the going rate for getting a dead relative out of Hell these days?

Is there a volume discount?

[Cold Heart]

How about, “Get over it, they’re dead.”

Fetal alcohol syndrome people and crack babies have very little problems with grieving over dead family members. It’s just another passing incident that has no meaning to them. Unless the food bowl doesn’t show up on time, then they react.

[Gamecock]

Acknowledging grief is important.

Nothing you say can help a person in grief, but since you brought it up, what would you say to an atheist who lost a loved one?

[Gamecock]

Again. The paradigm is non-Christian. I doubt they want to attend a Catholic self help program.

[Salvation]

I would tell them I am sorry for their loss.

And leave it at that.

[Salvation]

BTW, the Beginning Experience weekend is focused on the grief, not the religion. There are teams from other denominations — which, of course, won’t help an atheist.

But the help is there whether it ends with a Mass or a service of some kind.

[Gamecock]

Which is sort of covered in talking point 1.