Suicide is taking place across America at the rate of 60 deaths per day, with a toll of more than 20,000 last year alone. Attempted suicide, according to current estimates, is occurring every four minutes and possibly oftener. Another classification known as “hidden suicides” may reach the startling estimate of 100,000 this year. Obviously suicide is a mental health problem of the first magnitude, yet no concerted effort to reduce the mounting rate has ever been undertaken by any reputable agency.
The happiness and well being of the individual is evidently not determined by the superficial appearances of his life, but rather, as Beulah Bosselman has suggested, “by the struggles that go on deep within his mind, hidden from the world, hidden often from himself.” Hence, victims represent all social strata, and the I.Q. ranges from the lowest to the highest. Suicide occurs frequently among those who have everything to live with, but apparently little to live for. Even church affiliation seems to be no real deterrent.
CAUSES AND TECHNIQUES
Causes of self-destruction are usually bracketed as unhappy love affairs, emotional maladjustment, chronic illness, and economic problems. Norman L. Farberow, Ph.D., of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, says that “psychologists have long since learned to look beyond the superficial overt reasons given in newspapers.” The causes they finally select, he suggests, “will depend upon the theories entertained, ranging from intensive psychiatric theories (e.g., psychoanalytic) to sociological (e.g., Durkheim).”
The techniques of self-destruction are as labyrinthine as the human mind, yet they can be grouped into standard methods: firearms, poison (barbiturates), gas, drowning, hanging, and jumping. The ratio of attempts to successful suicides in Los Angeles County, Dr. Farberow reports, is eight to one. The reason for the high ratio is sardonically expressed in a well-known verse of Dorothy Parker:
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
(from The Portable Dorothy Parker, reprinted by permission of The Viking Press, Inc.)
Although the Bible covers thousands of years of history and records the lives and deaths of hundreds of descendants of Abraham, it tells of only five suicides. King Saul, after vainly trying to get his armor bearer to dispatch him in the midst of defeat, fell on his own sword. The armor bearer, sensing the tragedy of the occasion, destroyed himself in like manner. Ahithophel, whose speech had once had the authority of the divine oracle, turned against King David and when faced with a lost cause, hanged himself. Zimri, the fifth king of Israel, usurped the throne of Elah and reigned seven days. Fleeing into the palace from Omri, he set the building afire and perished in the ruins. Judas Iscariot, following the betrayal of Christ and his rejection by those who had bribed him, hanged himself.
Two others who might be included in the list are Samson and Abimelech. Samson dislodged the pillars of the Philistine palace at the climax of an adventurous, foolhardy, and sensual life, and destroyed himself and 3,000 Philistines. Abimelech, mortally wounded by a woman’s blow, ordered his armor bearer to draw his sword and finish him off, “that men say not of me. A woman slew him” (Judges 9:54).
Vernon Grounds writes in Baker’s Dictionary of Theology that “widely varying and sharply conflicting attitudes” have been entertained towards suicide in different times and cultures. The Stoics (Zeno, Cleanthes, Epictetus, Seneca) embraced it. Socrates and Cicero disapproved of it. While the Bible does not expressly prohibit it, prohibitory implications have been drawn from Romans 14:7–9; 1 Corinthians 6:19 and Ephesians 5:29. Both Judaism and Christianity have strongly opposed the practice; so likewise have other faiths, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and even the Dyak headhunters.
Many “hidden suicides” are never listed as such, although the motive can be clearly, if indirectly, traced. Psychologists speak of an “unconscious death wish” which, they say, accounts for many deaths, notably in wartime. According to Dr. Bosselman, self-destruction does not necessarily express itself in suicide. “Chronic physical illness and disability, neurosis in its manifold forms, drug and alcohol addictions, ‘martyrdom,’ life patterns of repetitious failure, accident proneness, are all to variable degrees motivated by the tendency of the human being to turn his aggressive drives upon himself, to act in more or less overt ways as his own executioner” (Self-Destruction, Chas. C. Thomas Publishers, Springfield, Ill.).
Those who wish to die but are unable to take the step themselves, trip and fall in front of trains, starve themselves, or like King Saul and Brutus, ask someone else to slay them. Dr. Karl A. Menninger in Man Against Himself points out that the components of suicide are (1) murder of self, (2) murder by self and (3) the wish to die. One could speculate that perhaps the reason for the popularity of death-defying acts of the Houdini type is that so many project their self-destructive views into the act. Even accident proneness can be a form of partial suicide.
Doctors Shneidman and Farberow of the Los Angeles General Hospital believe that only a small portion of the annual suicide toll is actually psychotic. They state further that depressed persons represent only 30 per cent of the self-destructions. A study of the family histories of a completed-suicide group showed that 33 per cent of the families had members who had been in mental hospitals at some time, compared with the average of about six per cent. Another study of potential suicides who had been adjudged by professional opinion to be on the way to recovery showed that 69 per cent of the discharged “well” or “recovering” people successfully destroyed themselves within one year.
The recent evidence of suicidal intent in airplane disasters heightens the seriousness of suicide as a social problem. Danger signals that pastors could well consider are, as Dr. Farberow suggests, the overt communication of intention; depression accompanied by restlessness or agitation; insomnia; marked changes in the habits of living; severe emotional trauma; feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and uselessness.
From the scriptural viewpoint suicide is seen as unwillingness to trust God to care for us and our needs. Jesus during his temptation was taken to the pinnacle of the temple and challenged by Satan to cast himself down and permit the angels to bear him up. His answer was, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Paul brought out the fact that deliberately to choose death is to ignore life and its opportunities to help our fellow man: “For me to live is Christ … to die is gain … nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (Phil. 1:21, 24). (Augustine also condemned suicide under any circumstances because it precluded the possibility of repentence and therefore became murder, violating the sixth commandment.)
The Bible is clear in its teaching of the sacredness of life and the meaning of stewardship. According to the commandment we have no right to take life, even our own, for to do so is to usurp the place of God. Suicide betrays an impatience with God and man, and hastens men unprepared into the Divine presence.
Perhaps our churches are to blame for the sense of futility that seems to possess some of our communicants. If our preaching is truly spiritual it will lift men to the maturity and strength of godly faith. However, if our preaching is on such a level that it causes men to regress to immature supports, we leave them in the posture of frustration, a sort of adolescence in which they waver between adulthood and infancy. The churches’ ministry needs to be positive and uplifting in establishing a mature faith, overcoming the futile and hopeless outlook of the potential suicide.
As pastors and religious leaders we face a responsibility to our people. Our ministry must direct men to the real source of hope, Jesus Christ. When men tell us, “I might as well be dead,” a way must be found to help them to talk out their problems, and then to look to God in prayer for the power that will make them “free indeed.” We can show them the social implications of every man’s life—and death. Each of us must be a guardian of those who are losing their grip on reality, whose hope and courage are being shattered in the experiences of life. Our own bright, hopeful faith will inspire others, as we point to him who as the fountain of our faith is also the foundation of our reason: Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
Creator of All Things
Now earth grows cramped, and restless man
Would venture high and far,
Would brave illimitable space
And board the nearest star.
Yet what though star and moon be gained
And distant planets trod,
Still would he merely glimpse a fringe
Of the magnitude of God.
LESLIE SAVAGE CLARK
Jacob J. Vellenga served on the National Board of Administration of the United Presbyterian Church from 1948–54. Since 1958 he has served the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. as Associate Executive. He holds the A.B. degree from Monmouth College, the B.D. from Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary, Th.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and D.D. from Monmouth College, Illinois.
