Free Republic

The video below shows “American tacky” in all its glory. A man who loved Burger King dies and his family honors him by taking the funeral procession through the Burger King “drive thru.” Free Burgers for all on the way to the Cemetery, hearse and all.I’ve seen worse, I have to admit. Probably at the top of the list is and “Funeral Home Drive- thru” where the deceased is actually on display in a window. No need to get out of your car and actually visit the family. No, that’s too much trouble and lacks the kind of convenience we...

On yesterday’s blog post, I discussed some of the more common problems that arise with funerals these days. That blog post provides the kind of background to the homily I present here. In this homily, I try to teach on what I think are important and central themes that need emphasis in Christian funerals today.The homily is broken into three parts: The Praise of the divine goodness of our God. For at every liturgy, funerals included, the first and primary work is the praise and worship of Almighty God, who has been good to us, and through faith has saved...

Dec. 17--The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday it plans to recover the plane that crashed off Kalaupapa last week with eight passengers aboard, including Department of Health Director Loretta Fuddy, who died after safely evacuating the aircraft. [....] In the Makani Kai case, Maui officials have not yet released an official cause of death for Fuddy,.... An autopsy was conducted Friday. [....] Services for Fuddy have been set for Saturday....

Another controversy hit South Africa’s long goodbye to anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on Saturday when his fellow anti-apartheid foe Desmond Tutu said he had not been accredited as a clergyman at the funeral by the government so would not attend. Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for the South African president Jacob Zuma, insisted that Tutu is on the guest list and that he hopes a solution will be found so Tutu attends. The 82-year-old retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town indicated he felt he had been snubbed by the current government, with which he has clashed several times in the past....

ou can't make things like this up, but this unnamed man apparently did. From AP via My Way News (12/11/2013): Mandela ceremony interpreter called a 'fake' JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A man who provided sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a "fake," the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa said on Tuesday. Asked about the claim by The Associated Press, South Africa's government said it was preparing a statement. Three sign language experts said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages....

Talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh expressed disgust at President Barack Obama’s behavior at the memorial ceremony for Nelson Mandela – and at the mainstream media’s fawning coverage of Obama’s every move. “This whole week is about Barack Obama,” said Limbaugh. “That’s what the script is. (…) It’s all about him assuming Mandela’s place” and “assuming the mantle of world leftist leadership. “It’s a second inauguration if you will,” Limbaugh continued. “Obama is now the conscience of the world. The torch has been passed whether Mandela knew it or not.”

What a depressing site to visit!

A man who provided sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a “fake,” the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa said on Tuesday. The unidentified man seen around the world on television next to leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama “was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for,” Bruno Druchen, the federation’s national director, told The Associated Press.

An international incident was touched off yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa, when a goodwill appearance by President Obama was interrupted by an impromptu funeral. Mr. Obama was generously posing for souvenir pictures of himself with fawning admirers at the FNB Stadium (Soccer City), when security people rolled in Nelson Mandela's casket and demanded to have a memorial service. When questioned as to why they were disrupting Mr. Obama's appearance, the security men offered no explanation aside from "we reserved the stadium last week for this." "This kind of thing is a constant problem for Mr. Obama" said one of his...

Given Obama went to SA today to pay respects to a fellow socialist/communist I wonder what his reaction will be when Billy Graham dies. Will he have glowing words for the man who has really impacted the lives of people around the world of all ethnicities?

After the Rome diocese refused to allow a church funeral for Erich Priebke, a funeral for the convicted Nazi war criminal was held in a chapel of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) outside Rome. The October 15 funeral for Priebke drew a crowd of protesters, with some shouting “murderer” as the coffin passed by, while counter-protesters gave the fascist salute. Police kept the two groups separate. Priebke, who was convicted for orchestrating the killing of over 300 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine Caves, died last week at the age of 100. He had never disavowed his Nazi...

For more than a year, Assembly Speaker John Pérez dated a Hollywood funeral director who faces fraud allegations in one of the biggest financial scandals to rock the U.S. funeral industry. During their relationship, Pérez, a Los Angeles Democrat, mixed political business with his personal life in ways that showed poor judgment, ethics experts say. A Pérez spokesman said the lawmaker conducted himself appropriately during a casual dating relationship. Tyler Cassity, proprietor of a boutique cemetery called Hollywood Forever as well as a Mill Valley cemetery, and defendant in a $600 million fraud lawsuit in his native Missouri, accompanied Pérez...

Over a half a million people were attending the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Monday night in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yosef, 93, passed away earlier in the day. The crowd, observers said, consisted of a cross-section of Israelis, from hareidi to Religious Zionist to secular. Eulogies were being held at the Porat Yosef yeshiva in the Geula neighborhood. Dozens of speakers will eulogize the rabbi. Among the first to speak was Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, one of Rabbi Yosef's sons and current Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. In a heart-wrenching voice, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef spoke of his father, saying that “from the...

There was a scroll on Fox News the other day concerning the funeral of "Aunt Flossie" [spelling?] at Arlington National Cemetery ... Didn't get a chance to see the story - and can't Google it ... Any help?

This sort of thing ought to be left to the Westboro Baptist Church. The Washington Free Beacon reports that a Chicago judge has intervened on behalf of SCI Illinois Services, Inc., a national funeral-home chain, and ordered the local Teamsters chapter to suspend picketing at 16 funeral homes in the area. What prompted the legal action? The company testified in its filing that union members blocked grieving family members from leaving its parking lot, used bullhorns to shout obscenities at workers and mourners, and unleashed a German Shepard on a dead woman’s daughter and husband. The funeral home was eventually...

Margaret Thatcher’s spectacular ceremonial funeral cost the taxpayer just £1.2 million ($1.8 million), just a fraction of the sum claimed by left-wing opponents. The final bill for the ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral was revealed by ministers today in a rebuff to critics who suggested the costs would top £10 million ($15.4 million). Officials said that detailed work on the price of security, policing, staff overtime and hiring the Cathedral meant the total was much lower than early estimates suggested. …

Denver, Colo., Jun 6, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- At the Archdiocese of Denver's Mount Olivet Cemetery, no person is buried without prayers being said over them – even those whose identities are a mystery. “Sometimes we don't even know the person’s name; they could come to us as a John Doe,” Llyod Swint, assistant director of Cemeteries and Mortuaries for the Denver archdiocese, told CNA June 4. “We’ll offer prayers for the repose of their souls, for the forgiveness of their sins, their deliverance into the arms of Christ.” Because Mount Olivet and the Archdiocese mortuary are on the...

“Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled” (John 14:1-6, 27)Let not your hearts be troubled. That is my message to you today--to you, the friends and family members; to you, the fellow members of Redeemer; and especially to you, Robert--to all of you who mourn the death of our dear sister, Edith. Let not your hearts be troubled. What? How can you say that, Pastor? A death has occurred! Edith has been taken from us! We’ll miss her. We’ll miss her pleasant company and conversation. We already miss her. And you’re telling us, “Let not your hearts be troubled”? And another...

Members of the Westboro church showed up today in Moore, Oklahoma to protest the funeral of a child killed in the Moore Tornado. Approximately 100 members of Patriot Guard Bikers showed up to provide a hedge between the cult church and the persons attending the funeral. It is my understanding the members of the Westboro Church were arrested for not acquiring a permit to protest and are currently being booked into the Moore City Jail. It is expected that processing and arraignment will not be completed until sometime after the Holiday weekend. Oklahoma.... is this a great state or what?

Relatives of Navy SEALs who died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan in August 2011 spoke at a press conference Thursday to condemn the Obama administration and claim that the U.S. military presented a Muslim cleric at the dead SEALs’ funeral who disparaged “sinners and infidels who are fodder for the hell fire.” FreedomWatch president Larry Klayman, the attorney representing the families, claimed at the press conference, which Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and former Florida Republican Rep. Allen West also attended, that the U.S. military presented an anti-American speaker at the SEALs’ 2011 funeral.