Obituaries Christians Like (and yes, I'm plagiarizing !)

I'll say right up front that I'm plagiarizing Jon Acuff's wonderful blog Stuff Christians Like, but it occurred to me this morning that whenever a famous person dies, the first thing a really serious Christian does is check to see if they ever, at any point in their lives, publicly expressed even a minimal amount of faith in Jesus Christ.

Then they breathe a sigh of relief: "whew, I don't have to worry that he/she might be in Hell!"

For example, in the latest round of celebrity, the late Art Linkletter was a "gimmee" - he has long been known as a professing Christian. So he can be presumed to be "safe".

Art Linkletter, well-known Christian: SAFE!

On the other hand, there's a long and, apparently, semi-serious debate at Yahoo! Answers about the eternal fate of poor Gary Coleman. He may, or may not, at some point in his life, been involved in some way with the Mormons. Whether that helps him or not is debatable (of course!).

Gary Coleman: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN(?)

As I get older, I tend to think God (aka Jesus Christ, late of Galilee and Nazareth) is a lot more patient with us than we think. And that there will be a lot of pleasant surprises in Heaven. Including, perhaps, Gary Coleman.

Q: "Whatchoo talkin' bout, Curvy Catholic?"
A: "Grace!"