Two Saturdays ago, I read the eulogy for my batch mate, friend and colleague the Rev Henry 'Harry' Mignott, late pastor of the Oracabessa Circuit of Baptist churches, who died on June 2 at the age of 55. Harry was diagnosed with a terminal illness in March and during that three-month period he faced his imminent death with Christian courage and certainty.

The manner in which Harry faced death was a reflection of the relationship he had with God. He never asked God why he suffered or why he was the one who was afflicted with a fatal disease. He never questioned God's wisdom and prerogative in allowing him to experience this monster of a disease. Instead, he prayed, like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, "not my will but thine be done". He trusted God's eternal wisdom believing that God knows best and does best. He realised from early that the doctors could not help him and he said he was leaving his illness in the hands of God and the community of faith. Harry was comfortable naming his terminal illness and discussing his critical condition. With his public death Harry has taught us how once faces one's imminent death.

In the US, Robert Moll associate editor with Christianity Today, said Tammy Faye Messner faced her imminent death with Christian fortitude. Tammy Faye became famous through her marriage to Jim Bakker of the famed PTL network, then one of the largest Christian empires. Jim had a relationship with his secretary Jessica Hahn and when it was revealed he resigned and he was subsequently imprisoned for fraud, etc. Tammy eventually divorced Jim and re-married and had a fairly successful public career. According to Moll, she who lived in the public's eye had a public death. In 2007, he gave her close scrutiny the day before she died, when she appeared on Larry King Live. Her eyes, which formerly sparkled with an indomitable spirit, had faded. Tammy Faye's skin hung off her cheekbones.

Tammy Faye was not afraid to show us the ravages of cancer. She reminded us that dignity comes from the character we display in the circumstances God allows for us, whether in sickness or health.

In March, there was a similar public death in Britain. Jade Goody, a dental assistant turned reality-TV star whose whirlwind journey from poverty to celebrity to tragedy became a British soap opera, died at age 27-year-old from cancer. He public death has helped many people to deal better with cancer.

Music legend, Michael Jackson's death was a public death. His death was a sudden death but looking back, it was imminent. Icydore Murray, a member of a Boulevard Baptist Church and a registered nurse, said that sometimes when we claim a death occurred suddenly it was often that the person had been ignoring the signs of ill-health. Jackson's death seems to fall into that category. In any case, Hebrews 9: 27 states that it is appointed unto human beings once to die and then the judgment.

Horrified

Today, we have become horrified by terminal illness and death. Instead of allowing the dying to reside in the home, where the fact of dying could be openly acknowledged, death is transferred to the hospital, where only medical staff and close family members witness the ravages of a terminal disease.

Harry, Tammy Faye and Jade adapted that tradition of the public death for the edification of us all. It was a lesson for Michael Jackson and us all on how to face our own imminent death. May God grant us the courage to face our own imminent death with Christian certainty.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building.