Human Composting?

As you may have heard, Washington State could be the first state to allow human composting in 2020 if a current bill is signed by their governor.  

Don’t know what human composting is?  Stay with me.

There is a gentle video online showing the care and respect provided for the family who lays their loved one in a special core to decompose.

Through the breakdown of natural material like straw or wood chips, your loved one’s body decomposes and then “becomes a new material” which is basically soil.  

If a family wishes, they can take the yard of soil that is their loved one’s remains, and spread it on the ground to bring new life out of their death.  For instance, “You can even become a lemon tree” if you want to, according to the founder of the company promoting this.

Like so many other things that are sacrilegious, the video explaining how this takes place and the process itself is all dressed up in a sweet-talking, gentle, explanation.  It is like an old advertising trick.  You can sell anything to anybody if you decorate it well enough and tap into their emotions.

For instance, years ago I sat with a mother who was deliberating about what to do about the frozen embryos she and her husband had in storage.  

Understandably, probably in order to soothe her own conscience, she pondered out loud how they would get rid of them.  Maybe they would have a nice “spiritual” service, etc., etc.  

She and her husband had been sold on freezing their embryos and now they found themselves in quite a quandary as to how to get rid of them. The best they could do was try to somehow tap into the spiritual aspect of death.

It’s the same way we got to where we are with abortion in this country.  Dress it up like it is about the freedom to choose what to do with your own body, rather than what it actually is, a license to kill an unborn human, and you basically have window dressing. Again, it taps into human pride and our desire to be in control and totally dismisses the fact that the act intentionally causes the death of a human being.

The pattern that emerges reveals the idea that “what I want is more important than anything else.” So many people buy into this because there is a thread running through it that speaks to the vulnerable part of humanity.

We know that every human life has dignity, but now we clearly need a lesson that highlights the dignity of our body in death as well.

I want to call your attention to a great instruction that the Catholic Church put out in 2016 about cremation and burials.  It gives a great explanation as to why the Church does not allow a person’s cremains to be distributed, as is so common today.

It also explains why you should NOT be retaining your loved one’s ashes’ urn in your home.

Please read the document HERE.  It’s short.

What this Recompose company is doing is abominable, but again, it taps into something.  I think the idea will unfortunately spread because it will be attractive to people who cannot resist our innate desire for God, but cannot seem to embrace the faith in any substantial way.

Here is a quote from the 2016 instructional document, which again, you must read:

“By burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity. She [the Church] cannot, therefore, condone attitudes or permit rites that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration, or as the definitive liberation from the “prison” of the body.”

In selling the human composting idea, Katrina Spade, the founder of Recompose, starts off her video by saying, softly, “Imagine it.  Part public park, part funeral home.”

They talk a big talk about nature and death being a part of life, but they completely miss the reality that there is a God who created each of us and to whom we will one day return.  

Since cremation is allowed, do we know what happens to the body on judgment day, when we rise from the dead? Can God collect all the ashes and reform them? 

What about our soul?

Again, read the document.

How we treat the human body in death is just as important as how we treat it in life.

Listen to the soft sell on the Recompose website.  

“We emulate nature’s cycles and regenerative design.

We believe everyone deserves choice when it comes to the end-of-life.

We hold transparency and participation dear, and work them into everything we do.”

This is deplorable, but as I said, it taps into something very human. 

Can you see it now, in their language? 

I mean, the idea of nature and regeneration, end-of-life choices, transparency, etc., etc.?  Don’t be fooled, it is pure emotional advertising and without a solid faith foundation, many people will find it attractive.

This company says they want “to offer ‘natural organic reduction’ to the public.”  In the future, they plan to “provide the service of recomposition in facilities by staff who value transparency, participation, and choice.”   

They say they “recognize that for many, death is a momentous spiritual event.”

And there you have it again.  Choice.  A spiritual event.  Natural organic reduction. 

There is nothing that will tap into this generation like those code words.

Like I said, we have an innate desire for God our Creator and everyone knows it, especially those who are trying to sell a “spiritual event” to those who have not quite yet embraced the reality of God and eternal life.

And don’t forget, they are basically turning you into potting soil, but what they are actually spreading is something else.   

Don’t be fooled.  While they genuinely might have good intentions, their ideas simply do not hold up against our understanding of the resurrection and the dignity of our human bodies.

Watch for this, because it’s coming.  Don’t forget to read the instructional document so you are educated about this when decomposition facilities start popping up across this country. The bill has already passed the Washington State legislature.

Janet Cassidy

Janetcassidy.com

Janetcassidy.blubrry.net