Suicide

Self inflicted fatality.  So many nuances.

I was teaching a Sunday school class with junior high age kids.  One of them asked if people who commit suicide go to hell.

Kids ask tough questions.  And they should.  I thought a moment and said it would depend.  It was taught taking one's life was a sin.  I had no black and white answer.  Maybe that's wishy washy.  Maybe not.  I'll leave it up to God.

Perhaps I shouldn't delineate but say a Hitler kills himself.  Guilty of great evil, he eliminates capture but I believe plunged right into hell.

Pedro Armendariz killed himself.   Wracked with pain of terminal cancer, he finished his work on From Russia With Love and shot himself in the hospital.  His death would have been even more slow and painful.  He was spared more pain and his family spared the rest of his deterioration.  Tough call?

And as for current trends, I believe people are left without coping skills, along with little or no thinking skills.  Or no one stepped in to help for many reasons.

I've counseled potential suicides and also those left after an act.  I let them do most of the talking and listened.  Listened.  I guided them to think for themselves in order to get better.

Nations commit suicide.  They give slowly up.  Then they capitulate.  Look at Europe particularly.

Different kettle of fish.  Yes but they lose their way by subversion, giving up.

All I can say is listen and do what we can to save lives.