Myths About Suicide and How to Prevent the Tragedy

 What is most important is for lay individuals to extend friendship to people with mental illness and suicidal thoughts and those who have survived suicide attempts. Dr. Thomas Joiner has developed the prevailing theory on why people become suicidal. He believes that suicidal people’s human needs to belong and to feel effective have been thwarted.

He believes that suicidal people feel isolated from others and feel like they are a burden. To help a person with suicidal thoughts or who has survived a suicide attempt, reach out to them in person, by phone, or even by sending a note. Help the person find a way to contribute to the faith community in a meaningful way. Another way is to help them get connected to mental-health treatment.

In the last year or so, some high-profile suicides have taken place in the evangelical church–Matthew, son of pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, probably most prominent among them. How, in your estimation, have Christians generally responded? What is good and what is bad? What needs to change, and how is that change achieved?

First I want to say that suicide is heart-breaking, and I grieve with all the survivors touched by these suicides. Second, God can redeem the evil of suicide, and one way may be that the church begins to engage the conversation about suicide. It is good when Christians can engage the issue of suicide directly—stigma-free—when people become suicidal, attempt it or die by suicide.

Paul addressed the suicidal Philippian jailer directly (Acts 16:28). I admire Rick and Kay Warren, who have spoken out on the issue of guns and suicide. The Warrens’ church also sponsored a large mental-health conference. One way to reduce the secrecy around suicide is to seek more information about how to prevent suicide by reading Preventing Suicide or looking at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center website (www.sprc.org) or other websites such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (www.afsp.org), or the American Association of Suicidology (www.suicidology.org).

Suicide is contagious. When a person dies by suicide, clusters sometimes arise with several other people subsequently taking their lives. How does this dynamic work itself out in the church and Christian communities?

Suicide contagion ought be a concern in a church following a suicide. How suicide is talked about at the funeral or in a youth group or how a person is memorialized matters to how much contagion occurs. Contagion also is most likely to occur with vulnerable people such as adolescents and young adults who are in small, intense social networks or among those who are already suicidal or suggestible.

It’s important to avoid talking in detail about the method or the location; to avoid romanticizing the person who died so that vulnerable others might view suicide as a way to garner recognition in death; and to avoid saying the person is now at peace such that vulnerable people might view suicide as a viable solution to their problems. Preventing Suicide provides many other suggestions for faith communities for avoiding contagion.

It is said that Protestant take their own lives more than Catholics do. How do denominational ties and different theologies affect suicide rates? What other factors play a part?

Emile Durkheim published Le Suicide in 1897 about his finding that more Protestants died by suicide than Catholics. His theory was that there was greater social regulation or integration among Catholics, a factor that he believed protected against suicide. What is currently clear is that religiosity protects against suicide. It’s less clear in the U.S. whether the suicide rate for Protestants is higher than the rate for Catholics because religious affiliation is not tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in looking at suicide rates across the countries of the world, there seems to be a relationship between disapproving of suicide and lower suicide rates.

Historically and still for many branches of Christianity, suicide has been seen as a mortal sin. What’s your take on that?