Gary Varvel: Drinking the Kool-Aid
Plus an essay on good and bad funerals, a new Humor Me cartoon and paid subscribers get archived cartoons and commentary
The phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” originated from the tragic events at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 when over 900 members of the Peoples Temple cult led by Jim Jones, committed mass-suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid drink. US Congressman Leo Ryan and four others were also murdered at a nearby airstrip.
Drinking the Kool-Aid became a common idiom, referring to people blindly accepting a dangerous or flawed idea, or blindly following a leader.
Zohran Mamdani is peddling Marxism in his political run for mayor of New York. And it appears that there are a surprising amount of people who are ready to drink the Kool-Aid.
HELP ME REACH OTHERS. BE SURE TO LIKE AND SHARE.
A CELEBRATION OF LIFE WITHOUT JESUS IS SORROWFUL
By Gary Varvel
The older I get, the more funerals I attend.
Each one reminds me of Roz Chast’s New Yorker cartoon of a man reading the obituary page, the headlines saying: “Exactly your age, Two years younger than you, Three years your junior.”
It’s funny—because it’s true. As we age, funerals naturally make us ponder our own mortality. Yet, people rarely talk openly about their own inevitable appointment with the undertaker.
Over the years, I’ve become something of a connoisseur of funerals—also called memorial services, or the now popular phrase: *celebration of life.*
I’ve seen good ones and bad ones. And here’s what I’ve learned: a truly good funeral must have three things—
Love of Jesus Christ
Faith in Jesus Christ
Hope in Jesus Christ
My father’s funeral was 11 years ago and it was good one because the service was devoted to how my father loved Jesus, his wife and his family, in that order. My dad wrote songs and played guitar and he sang at his own funeral. We played a video of him singing his song, “Precious Jesus.”
I have sat through “Christian” funerals where the preacher spoke of love, faith, and hope—yet never once mentioned the name of Jesus Christ. That, in my book, is pastoral malpractice.
I recall one service where the pastor recalling a conversation with the deceased and said, “We talked about what happens after we die, and both of us decided we don’t know.”
Don’t know? Hasn’t this pastor ever read the Bible?
1 John 5:11–13 (NKJV) says:
“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life…”
The Bible is clear: Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Those who put their faith in Him HAVE eternal life.
Those who do not… are not going to a better place.
The saddest service I ever attended was entirely secular. People spoke warmly of the deceased—his accomplishments, his kindness, his laughter. But there was no mention of God, no hope of heaven. Only memories destined to fade with time.
No Jesus, no hope. Know Jesus, know hope.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that if there is no resurrection—if there is no life after death—then we are to be pitied more than anyone else (v. 19). And pity is exactly what I felt for those at that service.
But the fact is—Jesus DID rise from the dead. He holds the power to raise us to life again. A good funeral proclaims Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins and the promise of a reunion in eternity.
In John 11, Jesus attended the funeral of His friend Lazarus, who had been dead four days. He told Lazarus’ sister:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
And everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” (vv. 25–26)
Do you believe?
I do. And I hope you do too—because I’d like to see you in heaven.
RIGHT LINKS
The Federalist - Shawn Fleetwood: NFL Hall-Of-Famer Jared Allen reminds us that real victory is found in Christ.
Townhall - Katie Pavlich: A Grand Jury investigation into the Russia Hoax has been ordered by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Townhall - Jeff Charles: She blamed Trump for rising prices—His clapback was brutal.
Townhall - Matt Vespa: What a fired ABC News reporter just said about Anti-Trump media bias Is beyond comical.
The Federalist - Hans Mahncke: We don’t need the Durham Annex to know Hillary and the FBI set up Trump. We watched it happen.
Guy Benson: President Trump is passing a moral litmus test that many others are failing.
Indiana Policy Review - Craig Ladwig: The Somali divergence. Let’s “compare Ms. Abdi’s arrival in America with those of the typical 19th-century settlers in the Great Plains or Midwest.”
HUMOR ME
HUMOR ME: Fix my cartoon with a snarky remark. Email your entries to gary@garyvarvel.com. Winners announced in Friday’s newsletter for paid subscribers.
