Posted on 07/10/2009 5:38:22 AM PDT by jacknhoo
On Speaking Ill of the Dead A bit of advice to my fellow conservatives:
Do not speak ill of the dead.
I think you know to whom I refer, do you not?
A second bit of advice to my fellow Christians:
Do not speak ill of the dead.
Let us suppose that you are a wretched man, recently died under unseemly circumstances, whose life was made all the more wretched by fame. Oh? Do we not believe fame brings wretchedness? It brings its own temptations and its own sorrows that we private people, we happily private people never hunted by the sharkpacks of the press, never bloodlet by the parasites of wealth,know nothing of. It is like having a genii in a bottle: a very ignorant, somewhat diabolical genii, who will gleefully grant you the very wish that is your deepest wish, even if it destroys you.
Let us suppose you are a wretched yet famous man, who, passing through the horror of the grave, suddenly finds yourself, awed and surprised and terrified, at the gates of the Country of Endless Joy. And here at the gate sits your Creator, who made you for far finer things that what you have made of yourself, and now you must answer to Him. You must answer not for your public image, but for your innermost secret thoughts. You must answer for things no one else knows, not even your closest friends. Your heart will be measured in a balancing scale against a feather, and if your heart is heavy with sin, you will be thrown into an outer darkness, where the only sound is a wailing that does not end. But if the other pan of the balances lifts, the gates of bliss shall open.
How can you not pray, O Christians, for someone facing that judgment seat? You will stand there too someday. Your every word, including whether or not you spoke ill of the dead who cannot defend themselves, will come out of your own mouth to accuse you, and He who searcheth hearts will search yours.
When a man is alive, he can defend himself from criticism, whether justified or slanderous. When a man is dead, the angel of death who once passed over Egypt, sparing no first born of that land, stands at our elbow when we speak of the dead: and if he wears a helm of darkness, as the pagans feigned, we shall not see him, despite how real he is.
Remember, before you open your mouths, O my fellow Conservatives, O my fellow Christians, that your time on earth in not immortal either.
Michael made all his own choices. He got messed up because of them. Just another ordinary weirdo.
What if the wrenched fameoid is being deified. Should we still keep silent?
Thank you.
Many people who believe, actually do so for want of a justification tool, and as a psychological convenience.
Yeah, about a guy who shagged little boys who could not defend themselves.
I don't pray for child molesters.
So I shouldn’t speak ill of Hitler, Mao or Stalin?
While true that our sins are equal in God’s eyes, I don’t intend to freak out at the passing of a mentally ill man.
I will say that the picture I saw yesterday of Michael Jackson inside a Publix that closed so he could walk around and ‘put things in a shopping cart like regular people’ kind of broke my heart.
Nobody said to pray for him.
So are we to praise Hilter, Stalin and Mao? What about Saddam Hussein? Ted Bundy?
We're supposed to, you know. We're supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner, and pray for our enemies. We are to pray that the evil receive the grace of faith and are redeemed. The great saints prayed for those who persecuted and killed them. Christ prayed for those who were killing him, and asked that God forgive them. We are to imitate Christ.
Now this doesn't mean that I spend time on my knees praying for Michael Jackson, as I have bunches of other people to pray for. But we shouldn't rule out praying that dictators, killers, child molestors, etc. see the Light.
It’s about 2 weeks too late to pray for Michael Jackson.
Speaking truth, at any time, is no vice. One needn’t be vicious about it, though.
Luke 6:37
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
I’m of the opinion that as a rule one should show consideration to the family of the deceased. However if no one ever spoke ill of the dead how could history ever be realistically taught? That devils like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were humanitarians who delivered the goods?
I don’t know, I’m not sure time operates the same way in Heaven as it does here, or even if it exists at all. Time may be something that exists only within the universe.
I was just about to post something along the same lines. I’d draw a distinction between telling the truth and engaging in pointless vitriol, however. Truth should be foremost in our minds. So we can say, “Yes, Michael Jackson was in all probability a child molester and it’s wrong to glorify and adore him,” and still pray .
That is a perfect course of action.
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