If any man defile the
temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are.
1 Corinthians 3:17
Recently two of my colleagues wrote about how
suicide has impacted their lives. You can read Rob Greene’s story here and
Daren Rome Leo’s story here.
I always believed that suicide was a mortal sin. An
instant ticket to H-E-double hockey sticks. A story that had been passed down
to me from my elders was of the funeral of a Follower who had committed
suicide.
Follower funerals are a bit different than those of
outsiders, in my experience. Most church members make the trip to the funeral
home to view the corpse of the deceased either the day before on the morning of
the funeral.
All church members are invited and expected at
funerals. If a funeral falls on a weekday, a lot of the men will miss it because
they cannot get away from work. All the Follower families drive to the Carus Cemetery,
park their cars and gather around the designated gravesite. There are several
seats put out for immediate family members. Everyone else stands in a large, multi-layered
semi-circle and waits for the funeral procession. When the hearse arrives, the
noise and chatter quiets down. Once the coffin is in place, everyone crowds in
closer to hear what’s happening.
Church men sing a few hymns picked out by the family.
Every memorial flyer includes the twenty-third psalm, the names of the pall
bearers, and the names of the hymns. After the very short service, church
members drive to the church for a potluck.
The lore that followed the suicide was that during
the service people heard the sounds of burning, and crackling. The sounds of
Hell. I’m not sure who the funeral was for, it was before my time.
There were other folks who, sadly, took their own
lives in our church. They were still buried in our cemetery paid for by the
church, but everyone assumed they knew their destiny.
I’ve researched the sinfulness of suicide and haven’t
found anything definitive or explicit. I don’t say that to encourage anyone to
do it. It’s not a good risk. Many people say that suicide is selfish, and that
makes sense. The “victim” is stealing something from his/her loved ones.
Maybe suicide can be seen in another way: it is a
statistical death sentence for a certain percentage of mentally ill folks. Like
saying (and I’m making these stats up) that 15% of cancer sufferers will die of
cancer; 25% of clinically depressed people will die of depression. That’s not
exactly fair, since cancer deaths are not choices.
I don’t have an easy answer about this. But, if you
are considering taking your life, please don’t. Please talk to your family
about it. And if you can’t talk to them, call the suicide prevention hotline at
1-800-273-8255.
