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Beliefs
The Bible says little about suicide.
The Bible however celebrates the value and importance of life.
Life is given by God – creation.
Life should begin and end with God. Job 1:21 the LORD gave, and the
LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
And 1 Corinthians 3:16 St Paul says If anyone destroys God’s
temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy,
and you are that temple.
The Church used to treat suicide as a sin.
It used to be the case that Christians who took their own lives could
not be buried in a churchyard.
This rather old fashioned approach is now generally seen as unhelpful.
People now understand much more about why people commit suicide and the
effect that their death can have upon others.
Attitude
Christians are rarely in favour of suicide. Some Christians would want
to say that suffering is there for a purpose.
They may feel that suicide is selfish, because it gives pain to others
and causes other people to feel guilty.
Some Christians think that suicide is an act of murder.
Action
Usually counselling in these cases needs to be left to specialised counsellors.
Many of the beliefs and attitudes above may be unhelpful if they are told
to the person who wants to commit suicide.
A doctor may well be involved where a person wants to commit suicide.
The Samaritans are trained specialists who were set up by Revd Chad Varah
in 1953 to help such people.
The average Christian who wants to help needs to show considerable amounts
of love and understanding towards the person. The person may need to be
given time to talk.
Prayer would be an important practice on behalf of the person who wants
to commit suicide.
Values
There is a great need for Christians who value life to value the individual
– to reassure them that they are an essential part of God’s
creation.
The person who wants to commit suicide has lost his or her feeling of
worth or value and this needs to be restored.
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