Dear LFTP: the widow cropped out of the church directory
- Am I being overly sensitive that the church cropped my late husband out of the pictorial directory?
A listener writes that her husband died a year ago; four days after the funeral she received the church pictorial directory with his image cropped out of their couple photo, and the cropped photo is also on the bulletin board with two other cropped widows' photos. The hosts say she's not overly sensitive — cropping a deceased person out without asking is invasive, though likely a socially-inept mistake rather than malice; they would have printed the full photo, since everyone knew him. They joke about church bulletin boards and suggest she tell church staff to check with families before doctoring photos. The Secular answer: tell whoever is in charge and the clergyman how she felt and ask for a replacement photograph to be taken and displayed.
More on Grief
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Holy Spirit experience: healing, cessationism, and testing the spirits
- Is there a normative experience of the Holy Spirit in the world today?
The central hard question: is there a normative experience of the Holy Spirit in the world today, and what does it mean for a follower of Jesus?
From No. 593 · Do You Hear What I Hear
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Dear LFTP 3: Mom's false teeth
- What should the family do with their late mother's false teeth?
Mike reads the letter: the family found their late mother's false teeth — creepy to keep, wrong to discard?
From No. 590 · Theodore Franco
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Dear LFTP: should I attend my murdered niece's funeral?
- Should I attend my murdered niece's funeral after thirty years of family estrangement?
Mike reads a letter from a woman estranged from her brother's family for thirty years whose niece was murdered by her husband in a murder-suicide.
From No. 587 · Coffee After Sunday
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Dear LFTP: AA member who witnessed a life-support withdrawal
- How do I come to terms with accidentally witnessing a fellow AA member's life-support withdrawal?
An AA member writes that while visiting a hospitalized fellow member with cookies, he arrived at the exact moment doctors withdrew life support and witnessed the family's raw grief; he now fears he intruded and caused harm.
From No. 568 · Like Jesus