Sadly, my brother died a little over a week ago after a long illness. The funeral was last week. Our family is Jewish, with varying levels of observance/agnosticism, and denominations from classical German “high church” Reform to Modern Orthodox and several in between.
This post isn’t really about Judaism, or even about theology, really. Nevertheless, you should understand, if you don’t already, that there are a few essentials of a Jewish funeral. Only one, the prayer “El Malei Rachamim” (God of Great Compassion), really mentions any kind of afterlife. It does so only obliquely, saying “may his/her rest be in the Garden of Eden,” understood here to be something like the Christian Heaven. But as I said, this isn’t really about Judaism.
My question is for those Christians,* or atheist former Christians. How do you deal, as a listener or even as a pastor, with hearing or believing that certain people are going to be going to be consciously tormented for all eternity?
For example, if you’re a Christian, and your loved one isn’t: If they die, do you actually believe they’re in hell now? Being tormented? If so, how do you incorporate that into your grief? If a pastor mentions this, does it upset you? If you’re a pastor, do you avoid that topic completely at the funeral? I know I would… How do you deal with believing that billions of people who don’t believe what you do — including my brother — are burning in hell for all eternity?
If you’re an atheist at a Christian funeral: How do you incorporate into your grief that some people think your loved one is burning in hell?
Or is the entire topic just not thought about or talked about at funerals? Because at a certain point I would think it has to come up.
R&I~Smit
OP Image fixed ~ Primus Pilus
Arbustin
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/