You see.....this is the type of non-Christian, insensitive attitude that makes it an embarassment to note that we belong to the same Church.
Loran....GROW UP!
Sono was proposing a sincere question.
Here is a sincere answer to that question, Sono.
In all of the LDS funerals I have attended, and have helped plan, there has been a balance. There is a eulogy, normally given by a family member. Sometimes an additional talk by a family member is given. Often there is a musical number. There is also a talk given by a Bishop or Stake President about the Plan of Salvation, and how our earthly life is only a small part of the large life in front of us.
See how easy it can be to be civil, Loran? You should try it sometime.
Liz, GET SERIOUS and cut with the moral finger wagging. Its getting very old very fast. I understand that your cafateria Mormon attitude toward the church allows you to feel free to make common cause with apostates and critics of the church against those of us who accept the entire reavealed system and are willing to support and defend it (as it isn't our church and hence, not our cafateria) and wag fingers of moral sanctimony at others when they return fire on people like Sono once patience has finially been exhausted. You inability (or unwillingness) to see that Sono's question was
neither sincere or intellectually serious is somewhat telling, frankly.
And your response, while civil, does nothing to cut to the heart of the matter. As I said in my post above, the church is about life, and life;
existence qua existence, is the fundamental reality in the universe. We exist, we have always existed, and will, at some l
evel of existence, always exist. A funeral is precisely the time in which we need to be reminded of the truths of the gospel (one of which is tha death is a transition to another state of existence, not the extinguishing of existence in any ontological sense, and hence, somewhat illusory) and the promises of the gospel through the Atonement and ordinances of the Holy Temple.
When someone dies in their sins, that is a tragedy, but dying itself is nothing more than a step through a doorway into another level or plane of existence in which
life continues. We can, through the ordinances and principles of the gospel, be reunited eternally as families and with those relationships intact in an eternal sense under eternal law. Eternal life becomes eteranal lives, and the separation of death becomes only a hiatus, a sabbatical from the earthly relationships we knew while in moretality. There is no permanant separation nor need the divinely sanctioned relationships of husband and wife, son, daughter, brother, or sister, end with mortality.
Now, the very idea that Sono doesn't understand the relevance of general gospel doctrine to a funeral, and to the death of loved ones, is
disingenuous. The doctrines of the Gospel are intended to comfort us under such circumstances. The death of someone who has lived a good life and followed the teachings of Christ to the best of his or her ability is not tragic nor is it even the sad and wrenching thing it is in the world. My own Mother's funeral would be a textbook case in point here.
What we had there was a mini-General Conference, not a "funeral' as normally understood. It was one of the most spiritually energinzing and profound experiences I've ever had in a church service of any kind. I don't expect Sono to understand that, but I do expect some degree of common sense when dealing with the Church, and Christianity in genreal. These doctrines are here to take the "sting" out of the grave, precisely. I do expect you to understand that, however.
At least at this juncture.