Is Cremation Wrong For Christians?

Naomi4Christ · Jun 5, 2007

marezee said:
I wanted to know if there are any scripture-based reasons for NOT being cremated...or FOR being cremated for that matter. Any??

Don't know of any specific scripture, but on a practical level, we have virtually no space for burials in our area. We don't have a choice. Our churchyard is officially closed, and has been for many years.

karen freeinchristman · Jun 5, 2007

Naomi4Christ said:
Don't know of any specific scripture, but on a practical level, we have virtually no space for burials in our area. We don't have a choice. Our churchyard is officially closed, and has been for many years.

Yeah, ours too. Only chance I have of being buried is to be shipped back home to California.

gtsecc · Jun 5, 2007

Time to invade France!

marciebaby · Jun 7, 2007

Scripture does speak of burial-Jacob died in Eypt, but his remains were carried back to the Promised Land: "Bury me not, I pray, in Egypt: but I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place"? (Gen. 47:29-30)

I think the Hebrews and Christians rejected cremation because it was common practice in the pagan cultures and they outwardly rejected anything associated with other religions and cultures.

But, there were many Christian martyrs who were burned at the stake at the hands of Nero (and elsewhere in history), so I'm sure God can resurrect those reduced to ashes just as well as those who have been buried.

marezee · Jun 7, 2007

marciebaby said:
Scripture does speak of burial-Jacob died in Eypt, but his remains were carried back to the Promised Land: "Bury me not, I pray, in Egypt: but I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place"? (Gen. 47:29-30)

I think the Hebrews and Christians rejected cremation because it was common practice in the pagan cultures and they outwardly rejected anything associated with other religions and cultures.

But, there were many Christian martyrs who were burned at the stake at the hands of Nero (and elsewhere in history), so I'm sure God can resurrect those reduced to ashes just as well as those who have been buried.

thank you..i think that's the first time anyone has quoted scripture for me here in this thread!!

And I appreciate the fact about Christian martyrs, but if we were cremated intentionally, would that make a difference? Would we be judged for that?

PaladinValer · Jun 7, 2007

There is a difference though with those martyrs:

They died by fire. Cremation is not the cause of death but specifically deals with the body after death. The martyrs were not cremated so much as executed.

No Swansong · Jun 7, 2007

Just a heads up I haven't heard from Keith yet.

marezee · Jun 7, 2007

jtbdad said:
Just a heads up I haven't heard from Keith yet.

ok. thanks!

marezee · Jun 7, 2007

PaladinValer said:
There is a difference though with those martyrs:

They died by fire. Cremation is not the cause of death but specifically deals with the body after death. The martyrs were not cremated so much as executed.

thanks...but that doesn't answer the ? : would we be judged for being cremated?

PaladinValer · Jun 7, 2007

They weren't cremated. It wasn't their choice to be reduced to ash; it was their mode of execution.

A person who dies by fire is not cremated in the religious sense. No one sanely willingly to die in fire (unless under perilous duress). If they did, that'd be suicide. In this case, this isn't suicide but execution. They may have chosen to die, but it wasn't their choice to actually be killed; that's the whole premise of martyrdom.

Cremation occurs when a person, while alive, has asked to be so upon death. If that person's body is so burned, it is cremation. If that person unintentionally is killed by fire, then it isn't willful.

There requires an intent. If there is no intent, then there is no foul.

karen freeinchristman · Jun 7, 2007

PaladinValer said:
They weren't cremated. It wasn't their choice to be reduced to ash; it was their mode of execution.

A person who dies by fire is not cremated in the religious sense. No one sanely willingly to die in fire (unless under perilous duress). If they did, that'd be suicide. In this case, this isn't suicide but execution. They may have chosen to die, but it wasn't their choice to actually be killed; that's the whole premise of martyrdom.

Cremation occurs when a person, while alive, has asked to be so upon death. If that person's body is so burned, it is cremation. If that person unintentionally is killed by fire, then it isn't willful.

There requires an intent. If there is no intent, then there is no foul.

I think she understands this, PV. She's asking whether we would be judged by God, in your (our) view, for being willfully cremated after our death.

My view: no.

Albion · Jun 7, 2007

marezee said:
thanks...but that doesn't answer the ? : would we be judged for being cremated?

The longstanding Christian opposition to cremation--now relaxed--was based on one and one only consideration--

Is it disrespectful to destroy, as cremation does, that vessel, our bodies, that received the body and blood of Christ in Communion and that is the temple of the Holy Ghost?

Nothing else is really in play, not the idea of the body being incapable of being resurrected if it's in pieces, not the idea that any Bible passage tells us not to cremate, etc.

No Swansong · Jun 7, 2007

Actually if you think about that is it more disrespectful to the vessel to cremate it or to allow it to decompose naturally? I am not sure one is any more or less disrespectful than the other.
I enjoy the discussion on this very much by the way.

Albion · Jun 7, 2007

jtbdad said:
Actually if you think about that is it more disrespectful to the vessel to cremate it or to allow it to decompose naturally? I am not sure one is any more or less disrespectful than the other.

I think you've said it well. We did as a people think that cremation was disrespectful in earlier times. Today, that is not held much anymore, certainly not in the Roman Catholic Church which probably was opposed more than any other church. We have to understand that respect is eternal, but what is respectful and what is disrespectful may in our minds change. When heretics and criminals were routinely burned at the stake and dismembered, and in a time when we literally believed that our bodies were going to be resurrected just as they lay in the ground, cremation seemed wrong. Emphasis on "seemed." Today we feel more that our bodies are going to be glorified, not just revivified, and we don't associate being burned with being a heretic or witch. Marciebaby's point about pagans customarily burning their comrades' bodies at an even earlier time, is correct, too. All that dramatized differences in another time, but now we don't see things that way. And although burial is considered, by the Bible, to be respectful, the idea of cremation being worse is of human origin.

PaladinValer · Jun 7, 2007

karen freeinchristman said:
I think she understands this, PV. She's asking whether we would be judged by God, in your (our) view, for being willfully cremated after our death.

My view: no.

Perhaps not, but I still find the burning of the body to be like a denial of the physical.

Cremation rites back in the days of the Early Church were the funeral rites of non-Christians who rejected the physical, thinking it either lesser, evil, an illusion, or a combination of those three.

I would argue, as I did before, that there are probably exceptions to the rule. Perhaps there are mitigating circumstances that don't allow a natural burial. Disease, especially a very deadly and contageous one, would be a fine example of such an exception. Lack of space I suppose would be another exception: Japan has little ariable land and what is usable is necessary to live upon and grow upon, to give a very powerful example.

Lack of money is one that I don't seem to be able to find an exception for. Surely there are alternatives for a costly casket that excist that circumvent a "required cremation."

I suppose then it depends on the circumstance, but due to the fact that it is a willful destruction of the body that is not a natural mean, I cannot condone or agree with cremation. It simply runs into too many theological problems for me to give it a general acceptance.

Vasileios · Jun 7, 2007

Since the Orthodox were mentioned:
Albion is correct. We oppose cremation for that reason alone. The body is to be treated with reverence, as it held the Body and Blood of Christ and was the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Burial was and is the way for thousands of years, from the Old Testament days, as noted already. Christ Himself was buried. It is the natural way and the appropriate theologically way: "dust to dust...". We return where we came from. And there our body awaits the ressurection.

Glen: we say that the body and soul can separate. At the hour of death. But we also point out that this is unnatural, the consequence of the fall. Just for a clarification.

Personally, I see cremation as unnatural, violent even. And it does seem to regard the body as an empty shell, something to be discarded quickly, not to take space...

Of course, if it cannot be helped the Orthodox Church will provide the funeral (like in Japan? or China?) where cremation is demanded by law, or perhaps in the case where the cost is prohibitive (I guess). But I do not think it will if someone just prefers it. Although that is also a guess. I never heard of such a case.

Hope I did not intrude.

Albion · Jun 7, 2007

Vasileios said:
Personally, I see cremation as unnatural, violent even. And it does seem to regard the body as an empty shell, something to be discarded quickly, not to take space...

Although I took a softer posture with regard to cremation in my comments, I agree with you. I do feel that to burn the body into ashes--and mixed with the remains of the coffin as well!--is unnatural and disrespectful. I know others don't see it that way, and I wouldn't say that they are less Christian or violating any Biblical admonition, but I wish not to be cremated for the reasons cited.

No Swansong · Jun 7, 2007

That's interesting. Perhaps because I have been present for several exhumations I find cremation much more respectful. Years in the health care field including Emergency Medical Services and witnessing at least 20 exhumations has left me with impressions that I will never be able to forget.

As a side note I am not sure about every state but in Ohio you are not cremated with a casket unless you choose to be.

Albion · Jun 7, 2007

jtbdad said:
That's interesting. Perhaps because I have been present for several exhumations I find cremation much more respectful. Years in the health care field including Emergency Medical Services and witnessing at least 20 exhumations has left me with impressions that I will never be able to forget.

I'm sure you are referring to the probably ghastly look of the body at that point, but there is a difference. This decomposition is because of natural causes; cremation is, as was said, unnatural and violent, a human obliteration of everything reminiscent of what the person was in life.

As a side note I am not sure about every state but in Ohio you are not cremated with a casket unless you choose to be.

I guess someone could research this for us, but I'm quite sure that at least some states require a kind of container like a coffin to be burned with the body. It's not as elaborate or expensive as the casket, certainly, but it still results in body ashes and "casket" ashes being intermingled. In addition, there are quite a few people, I am finding, who want parts of themselves buried somewhere after cremation and the rest of their ashes scattered from a plane or on the seas, etc. That's open to being considered disrespectful, don't you agree?

No Swansong · Jun 7, 2007

Albion said:
I'm sure you are referring to the probably ghastly look of the body at that point, but there is a difference. This decomposition is because of natural causes; cremation is, as was said, unnatural and violent, a human obliteration of everything reminiscent of what the person was in life.

I guess someone could research this for us, but I'm quite sure that at least some states require a kind of container like a coffin to be burned with the body. It's not as elaborate or expensive as the casket, certainly, but it still results in body ashes and "casket" ashes being intermingled. In addition, there are quite a few people, I am finding, who want parts of themselves buried somewhere after cremation and the rest of their ashes scattered from a plane or on the seas, etc. That's open to being considered disrespectful, don't you agree?

Well as they say opinions vary. I really see no difference in "nature" between one decomposing and one being consumed by fire.

As for violent, I do not view cremation as any more violent than decomposition.

One thing I would ask though of those who oppose cremation; do you feel that the decision to be cremated would be considered sinful or if one choses to be cremated that they have affected their salvation?

Is Cremation Wrong For Christians?

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