Burials Are Out, So Cemetery Hopes It Can Cash In

Newhouse News ^ | 8/7/2007 | Anna Griffin

[Incorrigible]

 

By the time I'm 100, maybe I can be beamed into space.

 

[mtbopfuyn]

four hours at 1,600 degrees

No thanks.

[taxcontrol]

After I leave this mortal husk, burn it and put my ashes to good use ... under a rose bed sounds good to me.

[Vaquero]

you wont feel a thing...

[AbeKrieger]

This is a shame. I have discovered so much of my family history through actual cemetery burials and records, and nothing compares to the feeling I got when I discovered the burial place of my great-great-great-great-grandfather and then stood on the spot where he rested.

Cremations... out of sight, out of mind, and out of the history books. Then again with the trivialization of family in today’s society, who cares, I guess....

[bill1952]

Just another step in eradicating America’s history and dignity.

Soon, almost all of the graves will be dug up and disposed of, along with any teaching of American history other than to denigrate and debase our ancestors as brutal thieves, and concomitantly, all of the values of Western civilization, replacing them with the multi cultural equality and "diversity is strength" nonsense, as your descendants acquire and accept the gay lifestyle and abort most of their babies.

Decadent: ‘fallen from a higher plane or ideal”

[2Jedismom]

Good point!

My great grandparents are buried somewhere in the cemetery in Jennings Oklahoma. They both died of the flu within days of each other leaving my grandmother, who was 12 at the time and the eldest, alone with several siblings. There are no markers and the records telling where they are were burned up in fire years ago.

If I were to pass on any time within the near future, I would want to be buried in that little country cemetery, with their names mentioned on my headstone.

[patton]

Plant me in the family cemetary - Arlington.

And it’s free.

[Kirkwood]

“Cremations... out of sight, out of mind, and out of the history books. “

It doesn’t have to be. Cremation urns can be buried with headstone markers or placed in crypts. Whether a family chooses to do that is apart from the cremation itself. A family could also choose a standard burial, but still not put up a marker.

[Wallace T.]

I doubt that evangelical Protestants or conservative Catholics will ever embrace cremation, primarily because Scripture indicates that there will be a resurrection of the dead during the end times. While God will reconstitute the bodies of the dead, the act of burial, as opposed to cremation, is a demonstration of faith in the second coming of Christ and in the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, as the Bible promises. The fact that cremation is increasingly popular in the Northeast and the West Coast, the two most secular regions of the country, is evidence of the rejection of the message of the Gospel, even at death, on the part of many.

The people who will be cremated are less likely to have large families, or indeed any families. There will be few, or any, who will remember them after they die. People with traditional values will continue to have larger families, provided this country does not slip into some type of leftist authoritarian regime and mandate abortions as China does. The meek, that is, those who fear God, may yet inherit the earth as the proud secular humanists leave a minimal genetic imprint on the future.

[Leg Olam]

My wife wished to be cremated and so it was. What she did’nt know was that I decided after doing some research that I would have some of her ashes scattered in a place she loved very much and the rest mixed into ceramic glazes for stoneware pottery. The pieces came out really beauitful with irredescent blues and pinks predominating. Everyone got to pick out a piece. Ceramics are forever.

[bill1952]

Once, I would have echoed that statement, but many aging members of my extended family are also choosing to be cremated (in SE Pa.) - and that was a shock to me as they are devout Italian lineage Catholics.

And increasingly, this is not unique, it seems.

[RC2]

When my father passed on, my mother and I went to the cemetery and went through all the normal ritual of locating a plot, casket, etc. The guy at the cemetery gave us a book of caskets so we could pick one out. One was $15000.00. I told him “For that price it must come with a stereo and air conditioner”. The burial plot was $2000. I asked how much the cheapest one was. He said “$700.00 but it’s way on the other side of the cemetary”. These guys are rip off artists. The whole funeral cost us $5000.00. They will play on your emotions.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Slowly decaying isn’t much better, if you’re conscious of what’s going on.

[rahbert]

I visited the cemetary in Raton NM where my wifes great
grandparents are buried - a durable stone helps the generations to come piece the family tree together.

The poor side of the cemetary has traditional NM style burials with wrought iron crosses, a hand lettered sign,
and some toys. Somehow this seems more genuine than an
imposing monument.

[bannie]

Cremations...provide a dead person's loved ones more flexibility about how and when to memorialize.

I tell the kids that they have to have my ashes made into a couple of REALLY UGLY VASES, so that they'll be stuck with some ugly piece that they can't throw away.

I do tell them that; but what I'm really going to have done:

When you get your 21-gun salute, the soldiers hand the next-of-kin the empty shell casings. I'm gonna have my son put some ashes in each of them and have them sealed with a soldered lid--for my kids. (They can toss the rest of the ashes.) I keep trying to get my daddy to agree to do this too.

Seriously, doesn't that sound like a cool idea????

[Marko413]

I suspect a scandal brewing of increased unexplained deaths in Portland.

[discostu]

My grandmother always said land is for the living. she was very insistent on cremation. And it doesn’t have to be out of sight out of mind. With the urn you can keep them in your household, although personally I found that a little creepy. We scattered grandma’s ashes on her favorite mountain peak, which is directly in my line of sight when I go home everyday, and any other time I can see that mountain range.

[Zetman]

Once, I would have echoed that statement, but many aging members of my extended family are also choosing to be cremated (in SE Pa.) - and that was a shock to me as they are devout Italian lineage Catholics.

And increasingly, this is not unique, it seems.

That is a pity. It shows how poorly Catechized we Catholics are in this modern day and age. Interestingly, The Remnant happens to have an article on this very topic recently posted on their web site. It makes for interesting reading, as it gives a history of the Church's position against cremation. Fascinating stuff. There is also some strange stuff there about Masonic plots, which I know nothing about one way or the other, but the historical info is worth a read.

http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/archive-2007-church_and_cremation.htm

[Larry Lucido]

Catechism of the Catholic Church.

2301 Autopsies can be morally permitted for legal inquests or scientific research. The free gift of organs after death is legitimate and can be meritorious.

The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.

Dang uncatechized catechism writers!