Olivia Blair’s final wish was to be buried in the Houston church she had attended for 50 of her 93 years.
But her daughter said the church, Fourth Missionary Baptist, turned her away when she went there seeking a funeral service for her mom. She said the pastor told her “absolutely not.” The reason: her mom hadn’t tithed for the past two years.
“It was the last insult in the world,” Barbara Day told the Fox 26 TV station. Day said her mother had been a loyal dues-paying member who loved her home church. And Blair had a good excuse for her lack of tithes. “For the past two years, she was in a nursing home, in a hospital, and for the last few months, she was in a coma,” the daughter said.
Day said church officials knew her mother was ill. “They didn’t care. All they want was money, money, money,” a distraught Day told Fox 26.
Day said after the church turned her down, she was left ‘to peddle her mom’s body from church to church to finally funeralize her, because her home church absolutely would not.”
The church’s pastor, Walter F. Houston, did not respond to questions from Fox 26.
Read more of the story at myfoxhouston.com.
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