In my mid Life I was an actively engaged Christian

[SmilingJack]

Nothing is personal, permanent nor perfect.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Now in the last ten years I have attended a lot of country funerals-GFs relatives mostly- and the graveside preaching screams of being saved, heaven and hell, blah blah Most of the preachers are some version of Baptist I guess ( not Dean Smith's Binkley Baptist church). Mostly Trumpsters for sure

I don't consider my past-present religous beliefs as being on the same planet as these folks-yet they say they are Christians

This part really hit home to me. I've reached the age at which many of my aunts and uncles and other older relatives are passing away. My mom came from a large family and a number of her siblings have passed away in the last few years. My favorite uncle on her side of the family passed from cancer earlier this year, and his sweet wife passed from cancer less than two years ago. I've attended nearly all of their funerals, and they've all been small-town country Southern Baptist funerals.

And I've just been appalled at most of these funerals by how the preachers have preached at the family and other mourners about hell and heaven and how everybody there just needed to "get right with god" or they'd never see their loved ones again, because they're now in heaven and if you're not saved and born again you'll never get to heaven to be with them. I grew up in country Baptist churches but having left that denomination many years ago I'll admit I had forgotten just how much they openly try to frighten and scare you into finding Jesus. And if you want to believe all that then fine I guess, but I think a funeral is just a totally inappropriate place for that kind of hellfire-and-brimstone preaching.

My uncle who died earlier this year was a sweet and caring man and I knew him well growing up and his passing was hard to take, yet one of the old country preachers who spoke barely mentioned my uncle's life or personal qualities, but just rambled on and on about how he was now with Jesus and that we all had to get right with Jesus or we'd not go to heaven and would never see him again and so on. I was kind of angered, to be honest, that he barely mentioned my uncle or his life at all, and several of my other relatives who have also left the Southern Baptist church were angered as well. I will say that going to these funerals has only justified my decision to leave the Southern Baptist church - as Snoop said recently, it's really just a lot of (Old South) social conservatism/Trumpism with a "Jesus is your friend who forgives you whenever you sin" mentality thrown in.