Seriously?

I've attended Christian funeral services before. Heck, two out of my three grandmothers who passed away in the last ten years had Christian funeral wakes. Both of those wakes were organised by my mom, who invited her Chinese pastor down 

to lead the service. So let's get this straight - I've been to Christian wakes before and I'm generally okay with them. 

However, I don't think I was ever so annoyed and infuriated about a Christian service until tonight, the one held at my aunt's funeral. 

The pastor who led the service tonight was a pastor from my second cousin M's church. He came down, people started singing. The usual. But after my cousins said their bit about their mom, the pastor started giving a short speech.

Usually from the wakes I've attended, the sermons are quite straight-forward. They talk about the person's life, how the person is a caring and doting family member, how the person loves Jesus, how Jesus died on the cross for you and the deceased, and how the deceased is now in heaven with a new body (very important for people who died of a tragic disease) and how we should all look forward to meeting the person again in heaven. Say your prayers, sing a hymn, conclude the session. 

But nooooo. This guy starts off with the usual routine. He starts talking about my aunt and how brave she was fighting cancer in the past two years, how devoted a Christian she was, and how she would attend church services regularly, etc. Fair enough. Then he talks about how Jesus came down and died for our sins, etc. Except that the sermon started drifting off into dangerous territory. 

He started talking about salvation, and how YOU, the friend/family member of my aunt, should be saved because Jesus died for your sins and he'll give you eternal life. 

WHAT? That was when I leaned back in my chair, folded my arms and gave my best 'what the hell' stare from the long ways back where I was sitting. 

Then BEST PART. When he closed the sermon and everyone bowed their heads in prayer (I didn't, because I was still reeling in shock), he asked the congregation if anyone would like to be saved, and if so, to raise their hand now. 

And my first cousin S raised his hand and was led to the back by another church member. 

WHAT? 

That was when I started to get pissed. Just before the sermon started and my three cousins were sharing their memories of their mom, first cousin S had already talked about how he made a promise to his mom to go to church and be baptised if she got better and recovered. It was so important, in fact, that after all three siblings had said their piece, he repeated this promise again.

I understand why S would raise his hand. It's perfectly understandable given the life-changing circumstances of the death of his mother and the promise that he made. 

And the pastor must have known that as well. It's so infuriating that the pastor took such 'opportunities', when people are at their most vulnerable and shaken, to try to convert them to Christ. Seriously? The family just lost a loved one here, and you're trying to use this time when they're at their lowest to evangelise? 

Argh.

I'm not the only one who feels this way. After the service when we were all hanging around and I asked my cousin L (who is another staunch Christian) whether she felt icked out by the service, and she pretty much agreed with me, adding that 'it's not a numbers game'.

Sigh. Like seriously? Throughout the entire sermon I wasn't really paying attention to the pastor, mostly because I was listening out for the way he pronounced words and how he would add a random T to certain words. So 'god' became 'got' and 'loss' because 'lost'. But when he started evangelising, I started paying more attention to content, and by the end of the sermon, I rolled my eyes so much they could have lodged themselves at the back of my head. 

Let's just hope he doesn't do it again today. Grrr.

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