"I wept bitterly..."

Russell D. Moore writes about the growing use of cremation by Christians — and his discomfort with it:

I knew my grandfather's funeral wouldn't be elaborate or expensive. He was a big-hearted Baptist, generous with his grandchildren but spending little on himself. This was a man who refused the "luxury" of air-conditioning in south Mississippi, a place where most people consider air-conditioning a necessity.

He left instructions that he didn't want anyone spending money on a casket, embalming fluid, or an elaborate funeral. He wanted to be cremated, the cheapest way possible to dispose of his earthly remains. No one asked my opinion on this, but I wept bitterly at the thought of this great man being reduced to ashes in the twinkling of an eye.

I could understand my grandfather's request. He was a practical man who wanted to save money for his family. And the financial racket of cushioned caskets, catered "celebration services," and steel-vaulted graves is a scandal, to be sure. What I couldn't understand was how few of my fellow Christians joined in my horror at the thought of a Christian man's cremation. ....

But if someone had asked any previous generation of Christians or of pagans if cremation were a Christian act, the answer would have seemed obvious to them, whether they were believers or infidels: Christians bury their dead.... [more]

Source: Touchstone Archives: Grave Signs