>>The speaker ran through the usual suspects. I am starting to despise the 23rd psalm, as beautiful as it is. He went on and on about the glories of God. Uh, was it God who died or Andy? He even managed to include what I consider the most irritating passage in the Bible, the bit about I am the way and the light and no one gets to God but through me. He was done in 15 minutes and out the door 3 minutes later.
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>Exactly the same hijacking of private life as a communist funeral used to be. Your friends got to say a word or two, your family too, but nobody was able to kick out the guy from The Party who had to read a referat, which was more or less an essay about the current political situation, a certain political subject, or how did any of these connect with the deceased. "You left us at this dire moment, when forces on the international scene threaten to..." and so on and so on.
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>The difference is the same. They all push their agenda.


As is already clear, I like funerals where people who knew the deceased talk about them. Hearing about the good things the person did, or funny things that happened, takes some of the sting out of the occasion. To me, if there are both tears and laughter it's a good funeral.