Is it a sin?
Is it even recognized by the church, or is it considered superstition or even heresy?
Would Pat Robertson applaud you or denounce you for doing that?
As far as I know,and I welcome enlightenment, the term is credited to a dozen .or more, ancient Greek and/or Italian people of the philosophical bent.
It has never been deemed sinful-or held as a rule.
BUT—nothing will predict what P. Robinson will do!
As an old marine [lo-o-ong before his time] I thnk he took too many puge-sticks to the noggin!
Waitin’ t’ learn-!
EZ
Pat R will applaud you or denounce you for doing that based on his own agenda and no real factual reason. He is the ultimate Troll.
Jim
First of all, the Southern US rule is that you may speak ill of anyone if you include the phrase, “bless his soul/heart.”
Seriously, though, the rule against speaking ill of the dead is mostly confined to politeness at funerals, and limited to minor sins. If you are talking about executed killers or thoroughly corrupt public figures, the shackles are off. That’s my reading of the custom.
You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead because they are unable to respond.
Gol-l-l-l-ly!
What better time to do so?
It’s that people say this about a celebrity or political figure. It’s not like they were going to respond when they were alive.
It’s a matter of politeness, nothing more. I’m sure people spoke badly of Hitler or Stalin after they died. But the dead person’s family is having enough stress without adding to it by attacking him.
But the saying has a basis in that there’s no real point in saying bad things about someone dead, since you really can’t do anything to him (or nothing he’d notice).
It also tends to mean “don’t speak ill at the time of the funeral.” After time passes, people will look for dirt for a historical figure.
Interesting OP, but it belongs somewhere else rather than GQ.
Let’s try MPSIMS
samclem GQ moderator
In its most common form, it’s attributed to Diogenes Laertius, a third century scholar who, in Lives And Opinions Of The Eminent Philosophers wrote De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est {often shortened to De mortuis nil nisi bonum} which pretty much translates as “{Speak} nothing but good of the dead.” However Diogenes ascribed it to Chilo of Sparta, a semi-mythical sage of around 800 years earlier, so it probably doesn’t have a verifiable origin: just one of those aphorisms.
So death is like being banned. I knew it 
.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the superstition related to the fear of the dead coming back to haunt you if you’re not pleasent.
Beyond that, it makes sense. They’re not going to improve. They’re not going to make amends. They’re not going to do it again. Get over it. (Unless there’s some good reason to remember how evil they were, like if they’re Hitler.)
I don’t think it’s ever been an official Christian idea.
doesn it bother anyone that people may end up thinking more of them when they are dead than when they are alive? would it be legal to hire someone to hover at the back of your funeral making notes of who is being honest about what they thought and who is making stuff up just to make me sound good and accord my will to cut out the liars?
According to my grandmother the rule is absolute.
Which makes finding out much of her family’s past difficult because she’ll say things like “well after my mother died I was sent to the convent by my grandfather to become a nun. My grandfather sent me there because…no, one mustn’t speak ill of the dead.”
Seriously, whatever the BIG FAMILY SECRET is, it can’t be as bad as the things we’ve all speculated it might be.