It’s probably akin to pissing on someone’s grave to say at their funeral anything other than the fact that they’re up in heaven, celebrating with God, instead of stuck here on earth with the rest of us. So it’s not surprising that though Michael Jackson’s family couldn’t decide on which religious tradition—Jehovah’s Witness or Islam—should guide his funeral today that the performers bidding him farewell are invoking God’s name.
What particularly jumped out at me were the words Stevie Wonder offered before honoring Jackson with a song:
“This is a moment that I wished that I didn’t live to see come. But as much that I can say that and mean it, I do know that God is good. And I do know that as much as we may feel—and we do—that we need Michael here with us, God must have needed him far more.”
