Death and Dying

Tell her you love her.  Recently, when my wife, Meg Korpi, was dying of cancer, a longtime friend offered some advice I’m really glad I heeded: I should write and read to her a tribute, expressing what she’s meant to me and how much I love her.  (Short op-ed)

One Minute After Death:  What will happen when you die? (Magazine article)  Spanish  Hungarian

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the End.   Some people have “died” and lived to tell about it.  What do their out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences mean?  This carefully documented summary of Rusty Wright’s book The Other Side of Life looks at physiological, pharmacological, psychological and spiritual explanations and seeks to answer the question “What will happen when you die?”.  (Magazine article)

‘Big George Foreman’ movie: Fame, tragedy, triumph, second chances.  George Foreman’s storied career has many facets: Olympic gold medalist, twice World Heavyweight Boxing champion, TV grill pitchman, philanthropist.  But a near-death experience forever altered his life’s trajectory.  Sony’s new biopic conveys his tragedies and triumphs, with inspiration for anyone who ever needed a second chance.  (Short op-ed)

Miracles from Heaven movie: Astonishing outcomes.  A nine-year-old girl falls thirty feet, lands headfirst, sustains only minor scrapes and bruises, and leaves the hospital the next day.  She says she visited heaven and sat in Jesus’ lap.  Eventually, her chronic, life-threatening illness is gone.  What happened?  (Short op-ed)

90 Minutes in Heaven movie: There and back again?  What’s it like to die and go to heaven?  Don Piper believes he knows.  A horrendous 1989 auto accident left him battered, bloody, and – according to four Emergency Medical Technicians – dead.  Yet 90 minutes later, he was alive.  He says he visited heaven’s gates, heard celestial music, met deceased friends and family, saw streets of gold, and sensed God’s presence.  Was his heavenly experience real?  (Short op-ed)

Heaven is for Real, movie claims.  Colton Burpo says that at age 3, he went to heaven, saw Jesus, heard angels sing, and met both his deceased great grandfather and his miscarried sister.  The best-selling book about him is now a major motion picture.  Is heaven for real?  (Short op-ed by Rusty Wright)

Kevorkian’s murder charge: Is assisted suicide ethical?  Is it ethical for a physician to assist a suffering patient’s suicide or to actively euthanize a patient?  (Short op-ed)

Faith of our Fathers movie: Vietnam War healing.  What was/is the Vietnam War for you?  Guided by wartime letters from their dads – combat companions who died in Vietnam – two men embark on an odd-couple odyssey to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, DC, to discover the fathers they never knew.  (Short op-ed)

Deepwater Horizon movie: horror, heroism, fear and faith.  The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion, oil spill, cleanup, and lawsuits against British Petroleum dominated the news back then.  But the saga of what happened on the rig that night – and the valor that saved many lives – is a lesser-known story.  (Short op-ed)

I’m Not Ashamed movie: Columbine victim’s inspiring story. The 1999 Columbine High School massacre became etched in a nation’s collective consciousness.  Shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered twelve fellow students and one teacher.  Rachel Joy Scott was their first victim.  This new film tells her inspiring story.  (Short op-ed)

New Life movie: Real love, real life.  As I watched this film, I often felt like the screenwriters had placed a hidden microphone in my home.  True love.  Romance.  Exciting, intimate, emotional connection.  Fulfilling, committed partnership.  Joys and sorrows.  Drama … tragedy … recovery … triumph.  This one’s got real love and real life, folks.  (Short op-ed)

Breakthrough movie: Miracle on Ice?  Ever meet someone who died…and lived to tell about it?  Breakthrough tells a startling, back-from-the-brink recovery story that’s sure to leave you scratching your head, even if you don’t share the grateful mom’s faith-miracle conclusions.  (Short op-ed)

Emanuel: Steph Curry movie documents Charleston church shooting forgiveness.  Some members of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shocked observers by appearing in court two days after Dylann Roof massacred their family members at a 2015 Bible study session, and telling him they forgave him.  Would I do that?  Would you?  (Short op-ed)

HBO’s Alternate Endings doc:  How do you want to die?  Got your burial plot picked out yet?  How ’bout your casket?  Planning on cremation?  So where will your ashes go?  A coral reef?  Outer space?  HBO’s insightful new documentary Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America looks at novel approaches to life’s end.  Is there anything after death?  (Short op-ed)

1917 movie: Risking all to save a life.  What risks would you take to save a life?  What risks would you want someone else to take to save your life?  This highly acclaimed, Oscar®-winning World War 1 drama vividly portrays the emotions, commitment and struggles facing one who chooses to value another’s life as greater than his/her own.  (Short op-ed)

‘Till’ movie: Racial murder helped spark civil rights movement.  White racists brutally murdered young Emmett Till in 1955 Mississippi.  His death, and his mother Mamie’s reaction to it, helped spark the civil rights movement.  MGM’s Till tells their compelling story.  What gave this grieving mother strength to pursue social change?  (Short op-ed)  Washington Examiner version