Latter-day Saints tradition may hamper cremation scattering

OGDEN, Utah (AP) — Will it fly in Utah? 

 That's the big question facing Russell Whetton, an Ogden chiropractor/mortician/pilot who recently founded Four Winds Scattering Service at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport.

Whetton offers to fly cremated remains in his 1957 Piper Tri-Pacer aircraft, releasing them in midair to scatter them to the winds.

But that might not be an easy sale here in Utah. Traditionally, cremation has been frowned upon among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Whetton admits it's a practice the LDS Church used to discourage. But he believes, with the worldwide growth of the church, that attitude is changing.

"The Mormon church has changed its stance," he said. "It's becoming far more accepted in the ... church."

Barbara Kemmis doesn't know about that, but she does know cremation is on the rise throughout the United States.

In 1970, the cremation rate in this country was just 4.59 percent, said Kemmis, executive director of the Wheeling, Ill.-based Cremation Association of North America.

It was 9.72 percent by 1980, 17.13 percent by 1990, and 26.19 percent by the turn of the century. Last year, the national average had jumped to 43.2 percent.

Kemmis predicts that, as a country, we'll reach the 50 percent mark in cremations by 2017 or 2018.

But statistics vary greatly by state. In 2012, Mississippi had the lowest cremation rate, at 16.9 percent. Nevada, meanwhile, boasted the highest, at a whopping 74.2 percent cremations.

"Utah does lag behind the national average," Kemmis said.

What's more, while most states have seen growth in cremation rates, Utah's rate has remained relatively flat for the last five years.

In 2006 and 2007, Utah's cremation percentages were 22.7 and 23.8, respectively. In 2008, that jumped to 26 percent, but it has since remained in that neighborhood from year to year. Last year's cremation rate was 27.5 percent.

To cremate or not to cremate? Kemmis said tradition plays a primary role in that decision.

"Tradition is huge," she said.

Regarding cremation, the LDS Church, through spokeswoman Ruth Todd, issued this emailed statement:

"Issues of burial are left to individual families to decide. In some countries, cremation is required by law. The Church does not usually encourage cremation."

But Whetton, who is LDS, said he has already decided he's going to be cremated. After 30 years in the mortuary business, having disinterred countless bodies, Whetton said decomposition is not a pretty thing — whatever your religion.

"The garments go the same way as the body; they don't protect you from decomposition," Whetton said.

"I'm going to get barbecued, and I don't care what they do with me after that."

Original Article:   http://www.westport-news.com