And who says the British still prefer bland food…

You may have already seen this. But if not, let’s cut right to the chase and look just what, exactly, this woman plans on doing on Christmas Day:

Grieving Debra Parsons will have her mum Doreen for Christmas dinner this year – by scattering her ashes on the turkey then tucking in.

And for dessert she’ll enjoy Christmas Pud…with a dusting of her mum’s last remains too.

…

And as Christmas nears, she is planning to take her secret to the next level. She added: “I have been having a ­little taste most days – sometimes on my ­finger or on a little spoon.

Here’s the next big question: why is she doing this? The answer is simple: she’s overcome with grief at her sudden loss.

Debra, 41, has felt the urge to EAT Doreen’s ashes since she died in May and has had a small spoonful most days to feel “as close as possible” to her.

But as she faces Christmas without her, the craving has become even stronger.

“It is the only thing that will get me through my first Christmas without mum,” said Debra…“It will be my first Christmas without her and I want her to be involved and this is the only way that feels right to me.”

It’s not exactly cannibalism, but I think most people recognize that this is bizarre behavior. But there are theological reasons underpinning people’s desire to engage in behavior like this. This is a variation of occult sacrifice.

ORIGINS OF BARBARISM

Blood and sacrifice are basic to man’s existence. Human sacrifice goes back to antiquity, even to classical Greece and the Roman Empire. From a Christian perspective, this makes sense. Beginning in the garden, mankind learned that a blood sacrifice was required to cleanse them of their sins. But it couldn’t be their own blood.

Cain thought he could be cleansed by washing in the blood of his literal brother. He was wrong, but that sure hasn’t stopped the spiritual sons of Cain from trying all throughout history.

Mankind requires God’s blood, shed by Christ on the cross, to atone for his sins. Only Christ’s blood covers his shame. He is first washed clean in Christ’s blood through the sacrament of baptism (1 John 1:7), and then he symbolically ingests the life-giving body (bread) and blood (wine) of Christ during the sacrament of Communion (Luke 22:19-20). But these acts are covenantal, not literal. No one ever literally ate Christ’s flesh. The bread and wine represent the body and blood of Christ. The sacraments are mysteries that we don’t fully understand.

So, if a person rejects Christ, their guilt remains. They may seek this blood atonement elsewhere in counterfeit covenants.

LIFE IN THE BLOOD

It is common for pagans to literally eat the body and consume the blood of their human sacrifice, as in the ritualistic cannibalism of the Aztecs. Occult religion imagines that eating and drinking the literal body and blood grants life and infuses the eater with power.

Modern humanists, considering themselves beyond such primitive methods, may symbolically eat and drink the flesh-and-blood by visiting strip clubs (a “feast” for the eyes), watching pornographic films (“skin flicks”), or even by engaging in endless acts of sexual immorality (bodily “bonding”).

But we can’t deny the close link between Christ’s body and salvation. In the Gospel of John, he says “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day“ (John 6:54). Non-Christians can’t shake this truth, which their conscience remains vaguely aware of.

In the case of the woman in this article, she is ingesting the literal cremated remains of her mother’s body in an attempt, not to infuse herself with life, but to infuse her mother with life. The woman said “I see it as a positive thing – allowing her to be close to me and also involving her in the family day…I feel like she can live on by being inside of me because if she is part of me she can breathe through my body. My breath is her breath…My mum and I had a really strong bond and one which could never be broken, even by death.”

Christ died so that we can live. We renew our faith in his death and resurrection by consuming elements that represent his body and blood. No one can escape the need for blood atonement, and for continual renewal. The life is in the blood. Representatively, in Christianity. Literally, in paganism.

And in a bizarre combination of the literal and symbolic in the case of the woman in the article.