Classy vs. ClassLESS

You're at a funeral. The church is packed with people who have come to honor a life well lived, a life rich with honor and influence, a life which made many other lives better.

What would you want - what would you need - to hear? I'd need a focus on that life. I'd want to celebrate the accomplishments, the grace and honor that dwelled in that life. I would want to hear praise and comfort. I would need to be uplifted, and reminded that this life here on earth is not all there is.

Apparently, former President Carter and Rev. Joseph Lowery don't believe in behaving properly at funerals. As speakers at Coretta Scott King's funeral yesterday, they chose to deviate from honoring Mrs. King's life and plunge into politics.

Former (thank God) President Carter:

Carter, who has had a strained relationship with Bush, drew cheers when he used the Kings' struggle as a reminder of the recent debate over whether Bush violated civil liberties protections by ordering warrantless surveillance of some domestic phone calls and e-mails.

Noting that the Kings' work was "not appreciated even at the highest level of the government," Carter said: "It was difficult for them personally — with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretapping, other surveillance, and as you know, harassment from the FBI." Bush has said his own program of warrantless wiretapping is aimed at stopping terrorists.

Oh, please, Mr. Kotter Carter. Can you be more irrelevant? You have a history of calling evil good, and good, evil. You endorse tyrants and petty dictators in their pretend "elections," and set yourself against true freedom and democracy.

Then Rev. Lowery shows his lack of grace and Christian charity (same link):

The most overtly partisan remarks came from the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a King protege and longtime Bush critic, who noted Coretta King's opposition to the war in Iraq and criticized Bush's commitment to boosting the poor.

"She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar," Lowery said. "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we knew, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."

Shame! Shame that a "man of God" should stoop to such speech, when his concern ought to be focused on comforting those who mourn and reminding them of the rich heritage given to them by Mrs. King. Shame on him for failing to focus on the rewards of heaven and God's grace and love. Shame on him for his divisive remarks and sullying the Church's image!

On the other hand, there was one man who knew his responsibility to eulogize Mrs. King, and he did it with grace and joy in their mutual Lord and Savior:

To the King Family, distinguished guests and fellow citizens. We gather in God's house, in God's presence, to honor God's servant, Coretta Scott King. Her journey was long, and only briefly with a hand to hold. But now she leans on everlasting arms. I've come today to offer the sympathy of our entire nation at the passing of a woman who worked to make our nation whole.

Americans knew her husband only as a young man. We knew Mrs. King in all the seasons of her life -- and there was grace and beauty in every season. As a great movement of history took shape, her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. When she wore a veil at 40 years old, her dignity revealed the deepest trust in God and His purposes. In decades of prominence, her dignity drew others to the unfinished work of justice. In all her years, Coretta Scott King showed that a person of conviction and strength could also be a beautiful soul. This kind and gentle woman became one of the most admired Americans of our time. She is rightly mourned, and she is deeply missed.

... Dr. King left behind a grieving widow and little children. Rarely has so much been asked of a pastor's wife, and rarely has so much been taken away. Years later, Mrs. King recalled, "I would wake up in the morning, have my cry, then go in to them. The children saw me going forward." Martin Luther King, Jr. had preached that unmerited suffering could have redemptive power.

Little did he know that this great truth would be proven in the life of the person he loved the most. Others could cause her sorrow, but no one could make her bitter. By going forward with a strong and forgiving heart, Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband's legacy, she built her own. Having loved a leader, she became a leader. And when she spoke, America listened closely, because her voice carried the wisdom and goodness of a life well lived.

In that life, Coretta Scott King knew danger. She knew injustice. She knew sudden and terrible grief. She also knew that her Redeemer lives. She trusted in the name above every name. And today we trust that our sister Coretta is on the other shore -- at peace, at rest, at home. May God bless you, and may God bless our country.

Now, that's how you deliver a Christian eulogy. With grace, love... and class!

Thank you, President George W. Bush, for being an example of a good man honoring the life of a good woman.

(Crossposted at CatHouse Chat)