suicide

In a typical year, 32,000 Americans commit suicide. That is about twice as many as are killed by others. A study by a California clinical psychiatrist has indicated that if a suicide can be avoided when the person seeks to carry it out only a small number will make another effort.

Kevin Hines was planning to kill himself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge like 2000 men and women before him. He jumped, but became one 29 people who jumped without dying. Later he said: “I’ll tell you what I can’t get out of my head. It’s watching my hands come off the railing and thinking to myself, ‘My God, what have I just done?’ Because I know that almost everyone else who’s gone off that bridge, they had the exact same thought at that moment.”

--World Magazine, September 20-27, 2008, p. 61. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Those thoughts help to explain why assisting people at their time of decision become so important. Suicide prevention increases in importance when we realize if we can deter the action the person will probably not try again. One advantage of living in community with a church family ought to be their participation in the lives of those who would contemplate suicide to be able to intervene.

Revelation 9:6 (NIV) “During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.”

About 37,000 Americans end their own lives each year. This is more than die each year in car crashes. Safety improvements have cut the death toll of car crashes by 25% but suicides have kept rising.

No government safety program can stop the devastation of a life hungry for meaning or lost in depression beyond control. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

The Week, October 5, 2012 p. 18

Micah 7:1-7 (HCSB) (1) How sad for me! For I am like one who— when the summer fruit has been gathered after the gleaning of the grape harvest— ?finds? no grape cluster to eat, no early fig, which I crave. (2) Godly people have vanished from the land; there is no one upright among the people. All of them wait in ambush to shed blood; they hunt each other with a net. (3) Both hands are good at accomplishing evil: the official and the judge demand a bribe; when the powerful man communicates his evil desire, they plot it together. (4) The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns. The day of your watchmen, ?the day of? your punishment, is coming; at this time their panic is here. (5) Do not rely on a friend; don’t trust in a close companion. Seal your mouth from the woman who lies in your arms. (6) Surely a son considers his father a fool, a daughter opposes her mother, and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own household. (7) But I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

Analysts say that the prolonged economic downturn is having a negative effect on the suicide rates in our country. The Centers for Disease Control announced that suicides among Americans 35 to 64 have jumped 30 percent since 1999. The biggest jump is 49 percent and affects men from 50 to 54. The figures show that more Americans are dying now by suicide than in vehicular accidents.

As we move further and further from hope, we can only expect these figures to increase. “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.” --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NKJV) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (17) If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

“In Europe, ‘going to Switzerland’ has become a euphemism for assisted suicide.” In Switzerland, visitors have access to medically assisted suicide with the only limit being that it cannot be carried out for self gain. Independent companies in and around Zurich provide death assistance for a membership fee of up to $5000. Studies show that 21 percent of the 1,000 plus customers of one such company did not have a terminal or progressive illness.

One of the arguments against assisted suicide has consistently been the possibility of abuse. Not only those suffering from terminal illness will be terminated, but others will choose to do so. The next step is when others, governments, doctors, younger family members, begin to make the decision about who should be euthanized. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CEV) You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. (20) God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.

Suicide

The California legislature has passed, and the governor has signed an “End of life Act” legalizing assisted suicide. On the same day it was signed the Southern Medical Journal published a study connecting physician-assisted suicide with an increase in overall suicide rates. Since assisted suicide became legal in Washington and Oregon there has been a 6 percent increase in overall suicides and a 14 percent increase for persons over 65.

This rate does not include nearly 900 physician-assisted suicides. Oregon’s suicide rate is 41 percent higher than the national average. Aaron Daniel Kheriaty, a medical ethicist with the University of California, Irvine explains, “Once you introduce suicide as a reasonable way out for some, that message is heard by everyone. … Restrictions become arbitrary and it becomes a slippery slope.”

The Christian message that the Lord is with us and will never leave us needs to be heard. Even in the midst of seemingly too great to be handled problems, the message shouts, “do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.” —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Deuteronomy 31:8 (HCSB) The Lord is the One who will go before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

In June 2018, Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef, committed suicide. With his death, many other celebrities expressed their sadness and the full-range of his influence. Although the cause for his suicide is not clear, Bourdain is known to have battle many addictions, and many believed that the world was never enough for him. The reality is that that money nor fame bring lasting satisfaction. –Jim L. Wilson & Daniel Yoo.

1 John 2:16–17 (CSB) “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.”

Noa Pothoven, a 17-year-old girl from the Netherlands, was sexually assaulted at a school party when she was 11 and raped by two men at age 14. She began to struggle with anorexia and depression and was placed in a group home for mentally ill children, where her condition worsened. She stopped eating and was placed in a medically induced coma and force-fed—a trauma she said she would never again experience. Shortly before she died she posted on Instagram, “After years of fighting and fighting, it is finished. After many conversations and assessments, it was decided that I will be released because my suffering is unbearable.” She died several days after she began refusing all food and drink. Her parents respected her wishes not to be force-fed or resuscitated, and she passed away at home.

Newspapers around the world reported that the Dutch had euthanized this girl. The Netherlands allows assisted suicide for troubled children as young as 12, “providing there is strong medical evidence that psychiatric conditions have made their lives ‘unbearable.’” A reporter in England reminded her readers that it is always too soon to give up on a child—and the fear now is that Noa will become a poster girl for other youngsters contemplating taking their own lives. “Every single suicide is one too many.” –Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

It seems that we drift further and further from the sanctity of life. When we start down the slippery slope of assisted suicide this is not where it ends, but it is where we come to on the slide. Our responsibility is to save the life of the children, not take it from them.

Matthew 19:14 (CSB) Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

In March of 2017 Netflix began a series named 13 Reasons Why. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health claim that it is a show that glorifies suicide. The researchers found a 28.9 percent increase in suicide deaths among Americans ages 10-17 in the month after the debut of the show and 195 more youth suicides than expected in the nine months after the debut. –Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

For believers who hold that life is precious this is a horrifying statistic. Why would a network sponsor a show that increased teen suicide? Parents need to be aware of the things that put their children in danger.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (CSB)Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.

Desmond Amofah, also known as Etika, was a star on YouTube. The subject of his final video was suicide. Talking about social media he said, “It can give you an image of what you want your life to be and get blown completely out of proportion. It consumed me.” Soon thereafter police found his body in the East River near lower Manhattan. –Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Social media is just another thief that Jesus told us about. The thieves come to steal, kill and destroy. The only true promise is Jesus Christ.

John 10:10 (CSB)“A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

A life wracked with teenage angst and the horrors that await many in the trials of the modern American High School is the setting for the book, Thirteen Reasons Why, which has been made into a Netflix Series by the same name. Hannah Baker has done the unthinkable; she has ended her own life, rather than face the reality of her teenage life. She decides, though, that she is not going to leave without getting the last word. So, she sends thirteen tapes to thirteen people. In her mind, each of these people played a vital role in the decision she made. What she does not seem to expect, although we cannot know for certain, is that she sends each of these people into a downward spiral that is quite likely to cause at least some of them to make very similar decisions.

Viewing and reading this led me to think, what if we did the opposite. I would wager that most of us have thought about ending our own lives at some point. At some point, we were brought back from the brink by people who, knowingly or unknowingly, spoke life into us. What if we told those who spoke life into us that they were our “Thirteen Reasons Why Not?” –Jim L. Wilson and Jeffrey Lemasters Tahir

Ephesians 4:29–32 (CSB) “No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”

Chris Arnade is a self proclaimed atheist. He quit his job as a Wall Street analyst to document the stories of people he met in his New York neighborhood. He authored a book about his conversations. Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America.(Sentinel 2019)

Back row is Arnade’s way of describing those left out of the American dream: the drug addicted, the homeless, the discouraged. He says, “It’s clear that something is very very wrong. Suicide is a stunning act. Addiction, to me is a form of suicide. It’s not about lacking iPhones or lacking cars. There’s a spiritual lacking there. And I say this as someone who is a self-described atheist.” When asked for his solution he admits the secular shift has not worked. What we need is a spiritual revival.

Suicide, along with many other current problems, is definitely a spiritual problem. Even the nonspiritual are beginning to see the problems caused by a lack of the spiritual. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

One out of four Americans between 18 and 24 said they had considered suicide during the pandemic, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among respondents of all ages, 40 percent reported suffering from mental or behavioral health issues related to the pandemic, including anxiety, depression, and stress disorders.

One of the findings in this year of pandemic is the problems associated not with the disease, but with fear of the disease and the social shutdowns put in place for our protection. People are stressed, depressed, lonely, and dis-spirited. —Jim Wilson and Rodger Russell

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.