In defence of Thomas Lynch
Judge for yourself. A while back Mr Slocum engaged in a spat with Tim Totten's engaging blog, Finalembrace. Take a ringside seat and follow it, round by round, here. Be sure to read the Newsweek article.
Slocum's mistake is to suppose that fervid indignation is persuasive. It is not. It is repulsive and it distracts from the admirable cause he represents (so badly).
Tim Totten is one of the industry’s nice guys. It matters not whether you like his cot covers. What’s clear to see is that he is honest, well-meaning and kind. To see him attacked is to leap reflexively to his defence no matter who the attacker, no matter what their cause. This is Mr Slocum’s strategic mistake and it is a grave one.
It matters not whether Tom will prevail in a court of law. What matters is that he is one of the great thinkers and writers about death and funerals. He is a man of integrity and intellectual rigour with a reverence for goodness and truth. He is wholly undeserving of this treatment. You do not have to agree with what he says to honour him.
posted by Charles Cowling at
09:43
9 Comments:
I agree with everything you say about Thomas Lynch, and will do all the supportive stuff that is in my power just as soon as I get time to work through your links. All a bit manic here at the mo!
Of all the funeral directors in the world....Thomas Lynch is the one that deserves criticism least...in fact, if only there were more like him, the world would be a better place.
You write that Lynch " is totally undeserving of this treatment." Really?
It is Mr. Lynch who has filed suit against three nonprofit organizations, two Funeral Consumer groups and the Funeral Ethics Organization, plus me personally. And yet I can document anything and everything I've ever written about Mr. Lynch. He wrote in his book that there was no need for people to donate bodies to a med school because the homeless supply enough. NOT so, especially in his home state where two of the three med schools have an urgent need of donors. Because I pointed that out in my book, he has now accused me of calling him a liar. Small distinction, but I never called him a liar. I did say that the homeless explaination was a lie, however, and some ten years later he's still fuming because I exposed such funeral industry mischief?
Mr. Lynch is a marvelous and gifted writer, on funeral issues in particular. If he'd only play by the rules (and set aside his paternalistic posturing), he'd be an icon worthy of respect.
Mr. Lynch is all about Mr. Lynch which, of course, is why he took offense at the FCA article. People today want a funeral that is about the person who died, not about Mr. Lynch and the Lynch way of doing funerals. Mr. Lynch is a wonderful writer but he is old-fashioned and out dated.
Interesting to hear the other side of the coin.....thank you for sharing with us. Who knows, we may be very mistaken in our reverence of the big man.......
Med schools and bodies I understand...good luck and I hope the outcome is not too acrimonious.
Mr. Cowling offered me space to comment on his blog, which I declined at first. I've reconsidered, but I'll keep this brief. Obviously, I'm surprised at the harsh words here, considering Mr. Cowling does not know me, or the Funeral Consumers Alliance, and no one here has any idea of the details of this situation.
I hope we can leave emotions and loyalties aside and look at this situation for what it is. You may not know this, but Funeral Consumers Alliance is a nonprofit charity that has worked for grieving consumers since 1963 around the country. We do good and necessary work educating the public about funeral choices, and yes, calling out harmful behavior in the funeral industry. There's a lot of it in American funeral service, which may not be your experience in the UK.
Part of our role is to examine, and when necessary, criticize industry figures when we believe their views are not the whole story, or that consumers need to hear a skeptical perspective. This is no different from what any consumer advocacy group does, whether it's the auto industry, the banking system, you name it. It's normal, it's legal, and it's healthy for public debate.
Mr. Lynch seems to believe he is above criticism, and that he's entitled to legal remedies. We believe he's not. Whether you agree with FCA's critique of Mr. Lynch (and please remember you have no direct experience of him, of FCA, or of what may have gone on in the US about this issue), ask yourself:
1. Is it ethical or fair for a prominent public figure to drag a nonprofit charity into court because he doesn't wish to be criticized?
2. Is it ethical or fair for someone in his position to try to extract money from a charity that uses the donations the public gives it to turn around and help grieving people?
If you're curious, you may read about the case, including a copy of the lawsuit, at our page:
http://www.funerals.org/newsandalerts/consumer-alerts/388-lynchlawsuitpr
You might have a different view of who the victims are in this situation. I hope you'll at least consider it. Thank you for your time reading this.
Josh Slocum
Executive Director
Funeral Consumers Alliance
Congrats, Mr. Cowling, on getting Josh Slocum to respond to your request. Once my own reporting questioned how much of the FCA's annual budget goes directly toward his salary, he refused to answer my questions.
I'm impressed with Mr. Slocum, if only for his skill with the written word. Had I only read the above comments from him, I'd think he was a reasoned and reasonable person whose organization does nothing more than help consumers.
Of course, I might form a different opinion if I had read their press release regarding the lawsuit, which is titled "CELEBRITY UNDERTAKER ASKS COURT TO MUZZLE FUNERAL CONSUMERS ALLIANCE". It's a skillful twisting of the words "Thomas Lynch Sues Funeral Consumers Alliance for Defamation" to sound as if some sniveling 'celebrity' (God knows, we hate their temper tantrums) wants to 'muzzle' (reminds us of slavery or, at the least, a prisoner or dog) a worthy organization, without acknowledging their own possible culpability.
But if I had sat through their Powerpoint presentation titled "Deconstructing Lynch: Why good guys sometimes go wrong", I would probably wonder how angry their language could get. Doesn't the title sound like they think Mr. Lynch has "gone wrong?"
Mr. Slocum regularly accuses me of misunderstanding or misreading his group's tax returns. It's quite possible that their documents are confusing or that I'm missing something, but the fact remains that their organization gathers membership dues for the primary purpose of employing three (or more) people.
Mr. Slocum claims, in the preceeding comment, that his charity uses donations from the public to help grieving people. How, then, does he defend why a very large percentage of those donations do nothing more than pay salary?
Good luck getting a response. I'm still waiting for an explanation that's more detailed than 'you don't know how to read a tax return'.
Final Embrace,
I held the job of Executive Director at Funeral Consumers Alliance for seven years before Mr. Slocum took over when I retired. When I started it was a one-and-a-half person office, and I worked 80 hours a week most weeks. When the "Dear Abby" newspaper column recommended people write us for information on lowering funeral costs, we would get 50,000 pieces of mail, mail which then needed to be sorted and sent on to affiliates where we had them or answered directly if we didn't. That kind of job is not done by machines. It's done by people on salary plus some volunteers.
If our 800 number was given out on Christian radio, as Larry Burkett often did, our phones rang for hours, and staff stayed over-time.
I was so exhausted, I begged for more staff. But I was also willing to help raise the funds to pay for them and did.
With only two-and-a-half people in the FCA office now, I'd bet that Mr. Slocum works many 80-hour weeks still. That's what it takes to spend time with phone and e-mail, giving out free information on funeral consumer rights. I'm not quite sure what your gripe is. Is it that Mr. Slocum gets paid at all?
Final Embrace,
Joshua Slocum and Lisa Carlson are honest folks, Thomas Lynch is a great poet but some of the Tactics used in his PBS special the Undertaking would not be approved by the FTC in the USA.
Final Embrace Your posting on using Car salesman techniques including a picture of a Car sales biz in a blog post in June 07 is less than professional. The point is we all have faults ad all parties need to come together make available all funeral options to everyone at a reasonable fee.
Your Funeral Guy
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