BeliefNet listicle, part 3: gossip, and what to actually do instead
The article's sixth item, 'did you hear that...,' warns that the urge to explain tragedy breeds gossip and conspiracy theories. The hosts close the article with the positive prescription: don't reach for quippy phrases; just be present. One host recounts officiating a baby's funeral where a well-wisher told the grieving mother her unbaptized baby was in hell; another recounts leading a candlelight service after a friend's father accidentally shot and killed his own daughter while drunk. The takeaway: silence and presence beat borrowed psychology.
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