I’m a somewhat practicing Catholic, and it’s not always easy. Regarding the Church’s position on human composting, my first thought (and I am far from being a biblical scholar) was the quote from Genesis, “Remember thou art dust, and to dust thou shall return.”
Thank you for keeping this topic on our radar. When you first wrote of this bill, I contacted our state representative to vote yes on moving it forward and urged everyone in my family to do the same. I'm at the stage in my life where part of my estate planning included calculating the cost of shipping my body to a compost-friendly state. Would love to continue my biological journey where I was born and raised. Your "how dare they" reference to the entities that oppose the bill purely for greed is right on. Both traditional funeral providers and the catholic church have historically grown rich and comfortable fleecing the gullible for useless "services."
"But how dare these prissy busybodies impose their beliefs on others when it comes to such a personal act?"
Imposing their beliefs on others? The Catholic church? The guys who put the Latin in Latin America? They're kind of old hands at this.
Still, after watching them rail in righteous indignation about abortion, gay marriage and women's rights, it's kind of pitiable to watch them go out on a limb on a relatively non-divisive issue like this. Like watching Sammy Sosa play kickball on a team of third graders.
Follow the money. The Catholic Church and funeral directors do not want to lose the money involved in traditional masses, wakes, burials and plots of land.
Hey I’ll be first in line to have my corpse turned to soil (especially if I’ll be used to grow the turf at that new Bears stadium), but I deeply appreciate the counter-arguments; we will need such voices in our ears to balance and measure our ever-growing ability to manipulate human biology.
Only had time to look at your lead about human composting. I think I commented on this when you wrote about it. And totally agree on your comments about church issues. We actually do compost at our place and have for many years and purchase large quantities as we need to for the produce we grow. It would be a great honor to at some point be placed at a spot on our property to nourish the plants I have tried to support for the past 30 years we've lived here. I totally support this bill. Yes, Mary--dust to dust.
Concerns that composting "degrades the human person and dishonors the life that was lived by that person" is fairly rich coming from the Catholic Church.
Exactly under what authority is this Daniel Welter making this “decision”? He appears to have no active office in the Catholic Church. He does not quote any law or directive by the Pope.
In regards to "Racism is discrimination on steroids" I can agree. As for social favorings regarding race, my perspective from the early 60's was that whites did not live in a black society, but rather the reverse. To be sure, societal evolution is still happening, but true to its nature, evolution is a slow process. I don't believe my past perspective is as pronounced now as then, but pockets of resistance to change still exist.
Regardless of what they're trying to distance themselves from now, the views of both candidates have been fairly clear. At a time of historically low poverty and unemployment rates, here's a look at Johnson's take on looting 2 years ago in a WGN interview:
I voted for Sophia King in Round 1. Vallas was in the middle of the pack. Johnson was on the bottom of my list, and remains there.
The larger question is how much power the Mayor actually will have with implementing said views. This isn't the Daley years. Either candidate can expect fierce opposition.
My mother strongly wants a green burial. So she cannot be buried next to her husband in the plot she bought in the cemetery of the Catholic Church in which she served and raised five children. All due to this stupid position of the Church. They claim their stance is to honor the person's life, but they are degrading and dishonoring her life and her wishes as she is a firm believer in protecting the environment, which aligns with the Pope's view of respecting & protecting the planet. Instead the Church would force her (well, her children) to pay for toxic formaldehyde for embalming, creation of a concrete vault (one of the *worst* environmental pollutants), use of a casket containing metal, wood, and non-biodegradable plastic, and taking up land in a cemetery that can never be used for any other purpose.
So instead of 'returning to dust' the Church wants to force people to further degrade our planet. I cannot believe the Pope supports this; it's that particular form of arrogance of American Catholic bishops.
I have my estate planning documents telling my survivors that I would like my body to be composted if it is legal to do so in the state where I die. Composting is environmentally friendlier that cremation which puts millions of pounds of carbon dioxide into the air each year. Plus I feel that there is something beautiful in becoming soil that can provide a place for other life and life-sustaining plants to grow.
I’m a somewhat practicing Catholic, and it’s not always easy. Regarding the Church’s position on human composting, my first thought (and I am far from being a biblical scholar) was the quote from Genesis, “Remember thou art dust, and to dust thou shall return.”
Cremation used to be forbidden to Catholics. Now it isn't (my mother, a daily Mass goer, was cremated). Sins come and go ...
Laughed until I cried. Uncle Duke is amazing.
Thank you for keeping this topic on our radar. When you first wrote of this bill, I contacted our state representative to vote yes on moving it forward and urged everyone in my family to do the same. I'm at the stage in my life where part of my estate planning included calculating the cost of shipping my body to a compost-friendly state. Would love to continue my biological journey where I was born and raised. Your "how dare they" reference to the entities that oppose the bill purely for greed is right on. Both traditional funeral providers and the catholic church have historically grown rich and comfortable fleecing the gullible for useless "services."
"But how dare these prissy busybodies impose their beliefs on others when it comes to such a personal act?"
Imposing their beliefs on others? The Catholic church? The guys who put the Latin in Latin America? They're kind of old hands at this.
Still, after watching them rail in righteous indignation about abortion, gay marriage and women's rights, it's kind of pitiable to watch them go out on a limb on a relatively non-divisive issue like this. Like watching Sammy Sosa play kickball on a team of third graders.
Follow the money. The Catholic Church and funeral directors do not want to lose the money involved in traditional masses, wakes, burials and plots of land.
I know that I’m the dumb dog here. But can someone explain that tweet. I truly don’t understand it.
Hey I’ll be first in line to have my corpse turned to soil (especially if I’ll be used to grow the turf at that new Bears stadium), but I deeply appreciate the counter-arguments; we will need such voices in our ears to balance and measure our ever-growing ability to manipulate human biology.
Only had time to look at your lead about human composting. I think I commented on this when you wrote about it. And totally agree on your comments about church issues. We actually do compost at our place and have for many years and purchase large quantities as we need to for the produce we grow. It would be a great honor to at some point be placed at a spot on our property to nourish the plants I have tried to support for the past 30 years we've lived here. I totally support this bill. Yes, Mary--dust to dust.
Say Eric, can we only watch the debate live, or will it be available to stream later too?
Concerns that composting "degrades the human person and dishonors the life that was lived by that person" is fairly rich coming from the Catholic Church.
Exactly under what authority is this Daniel Welter making this “decision”? He appears to have no active office in the Catholic Church. He does not quote any law or directive by the Pope.
Looks to me like a personal opinion.
In regards to "Racism is discrimination on steroids" I can agree. As for social favorings regarding race, my perspective from the early 60's was that whites did not live in a black society, but rather the reverse. To be sure, societal evolution is still happening, but true to its nature, evolution is a slow process. I don't believe my past perspective is as pronounced now as then, but pockets of resistance to change still exist.
Regardless of what they're trying to distance themselves from now, the views of both candidates have been fairly clear. At a time of historically low poverty and unemployment rates, here's a look at Johnson's take on looting 2 years ago in a WGN interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VadFYX0xSo4
I voted for Sophia King in Round 1. Vallas was in the middle of the pack. Johnson was on the bottom of my list, and remains there.
The larger question is how much power the Mayor actually will have with implementing said views. This isn't the Daley years. Either candidate can expect fierce opposition.
My mother strongly wants a green burial. So she cannot be buried next to her husband in the plot she bought in the cemetery of the Catholic Church in which she served and raised five children. All due to this stupid position of the Church. They claim their stance is to honor the person's life, but they are degrading and dishonoring her life and her wishes as she is a firm believer in protecting the environment, which aligns with the Pope's view of respecting & protecting the planet. Instead the Church would force her (well, her children) to pay for toxic formaldehyde for embalming, creation of a concrete vault (one of the *worst* environmental pollutants), use of a casket containing metal, wood, and non-biodegradable plastic, and taking up land in a cemetery that can never be used for any other purpose.
So instead of 'returning to dust' the Church wants to force people to further degrade our planet. I cannot believe the Pope supports this; it's that particular form of arrogance of American Catholic bishops.
I have my estate planning documents telling my survivors that I would like my body to be composted if it is legal to do so in the state where I die. Composting is environmentally friendlier that cremation which puts millions of pounds of carbon dioxide into the air each year. Plus I feel that there is something beautiful in becoming soil that can provide a place for other life and life-sustaining plants to grow.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/is-cremation-environmentally-friendly-heres-the-science