Last month, Churchill Park United Church of Winnipeg became the first church in Manitoba to host a “Crossing Over Ceremony” for Betty Sanguin. People came to honor the ailing 86-year-old woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and then a medical professional used intravenous drugs to end her life.
An hour later, the crowd lingered as a funeral home removed Sanguin's body.
According to The Christian Post, the church's leadership team had unanimously approved Sanguin’s request for the assisted suicide ceremony to be held in the sanctuary, as she had strong ties to the congregation.
"There's something about assisted suicide and euthanasia; they are just so, so tragic, so sad," responds Rita Marker of the Patients Rights Council. "The thing is that by doing it this way, it makes it seem as though it is not only acceptable, but that it is really something wonderful. And that sends a really horrendous message to everyone."
The website for Churchill Park confirms it is a liberal church, such as an "affirming" congregation that performs same-sex weddings. The church launched a solar panel project to address the "threat of global warming" and greenhouse gases.
Mark points out that in any other setting or arrangement, one person killing another is murder.
"I don't think there's anything good about someone ending the life of someone else, because we're not talking about the patient ending their life," Marker contends. "People can end their own lives; suicide is not illegal, but all of these bills have made it possible for someone else to end someone else's life either by prescribing a deadly overdose of drugs or giving them a lethal injection, and it's just beyond bazaar."
Marker adds that having a killing ceremony in a church shows that more people are buying into and even celebrating woke thinking.
