In a week when I read about author Hunter Thompson’s ashes being shot out of a cannon in Colorado, when my classical philosophy class at Southern Seminary read through Plato’s Phaedo (where Socrates shows the greatest disrespect for the body), and when, preaching through Genesis, I came to chapter 50, which concerns the remains of Jacob and Joseph, I couldn’t help but think of cremation.
Nationwide, one-fourth of the dead are cremated, and that percentage is much higher in some states, such as Colorado, where it is 50 percent. What is one to think when a loved one says they prefer it?
The arguments given for cremation include the following:
1. It’s less expensive, roughly one-fifth the cost of the traditional
funeral.
2. It takes up less space.
3. The remains and their fortunes aren’t as “yucky.”
Furthermore, the Bible doesn’t prohibit it, and it won’t be a hindrance to resurrection. God can reconstitute your body wherever, whenever and however He pleases.
Still, I lean toward a traditional burial. Let me offer 10 reasons:
• It shows peculiar reverence for the body. In the first century, many thought the body was vile, but Jesus became incarnate, to the consternation of Gnostics and their fellow travelers. In our century, the culture adores the body, spending billions for fitness club memberships, flattering fashions, cosmetic surgery, manicures and such. But there is little appreciation for bodies “past their prime,” for bodies broken by disease or accident. But loved ones cannot help but cherish the last touch of a wrinkled hand, with liver spots and veins ruptured by multiple IV punctures. Here was a body which bore you in its womb, which nursed you, which held you it its arms when you were struck with fever. It was a body whose face, limbs and stature were a comfort to you, not as so much “sand,” but as a creature in human form. And it is in that fo€LVALXretrieval of bodies, whether under the fire of combat or in the archaeologist-like search for bones at decades-old airplane crash sites, reflects this concern for more than tokens of the departed. Interest in wakes, visitations, vaults, embalming, and ossuaries seems to be a natural outworking of a fundamental human interest macro-preservation. Perhaps it is a sad attempt to deny the reality of death, but it is just as likely a function of reverence for these “jars of clay.”
• It tweaks the environmental extremists. Much environmentalist literature disparages “anthropomorphism,” the elevation of mankind above the rest of nature. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) calls Thanksgiving “Holocaust on a Plate,” comparing the slaughter of turkeys to the slaughter of Jews in Auschwitz. Zero Population Growth (ZPG) fanatics try to intimidate those who would presume to “clutter” and “choke” the world with more than two kids. For one thing, all 6.5 billion people in the world could stand together within the city limits of Houston, Texas. We’ve got room for more people. But, of course, you need more space for burial. Still, it’s not that daunting. Providing a generous nine-foot by six-foot plot for each person, all of Illinois’ 12.5 million residents could be buried in about 25 square miles, or about a square quarter mile in each of the state’s 102 counties. We can manage, thank-you.
• It magnifies cemeteries. Not only do cemeteries testify to man’s mortality — a useful message in a world disinclined to contemplate such sobering truth — but they also serve as a rich cultural and spiritual resource. If scattered ashes, mantle urns, or tiny plots were the norm, then one would miss such stirring experiences as a visit to the graves of Southern Baptist greats in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery –- John Broadus, J. M. Frost, and A. T. Robertson.
• It can serve archaeology and forensics. Scientists and historians are indebted to those who have chosen traditional burial.
Please don’t think this is an ad for funeral directors and cemetery developers. While many are honorable and helpful, others are predatory, exploiting the vulnerability of grieving families. The explosion of interest in cremation and do-it-yourself burials is in large measure a reaction to the funeral industry’s cost racketeers. But the issues are separable, and the point stands: The traditional burial has much to recommend it.