William
("Dr. Bill") Gaultiere, Ph.D.
Director of New Hope & Psychologist with ChristianSoulCare.com
(714) 971-4213, DrBill@CrystalCathedral.org
INTRODUCTION
Johnny Carl
was the much loved and brilliantly gifted Music Director of
the Crystal Cathedral. He wanted nothing more than to honor
Jesus and bless people with beautiful sacred music. He did this
for 30 years while suffering terribly from Bi-Polar Disorder
or Manic-Depression. Then on December 16, 2004 he killed himself
during a mixed manic and depressive episode. He was not in his
right mind. He had been recently hospitalized and put on a new
stabilizing medication that he may have reacted to. One in five
people with Bi-Polar Disorder die by suicide as Johnny did.
New Hope
has received many dozens of calls and chats and e-mails from
people since Johnny's suicide. Some are Bi-Polar or suffer from
another mental illness themselves. Others are suicidal. Many,
have loved one's who are mentally ill or suicidal that they're
concerned about. Still others have difficult and troubling questions
like, "Does mental illness cause a suicide or is it a choice?
Is suicide a sin and if it is can you still go to heaven?" How
do we respond to these types of calls?
Our New
Hope Continuing Education class today is "Living with Bi-Polar
Disorder." We're going to try to understand these issues and
consider how we might offer help. After my presentation on Bi-Polar
Disorder we're going to watch the 20 minute segment of Larry
King Live which featured Dr. Schuller and Linda Carl discussing
Johnnie's mental disorder and suicide. After that we'll discuss
your questions and concerns.
Let's remember
why we're here in this room. As New Hope Counselors we're offering
ourselves to God to use our ears and our hearts to care for
people who contact us with these issues. And that's not all.
Amongst us are people like myself who have been personally touched
by these painful issues. Either you or a family member or a
friend suffer from Bi-Polar Disorder.
So let's
begin with prayer. Let's all pray silently for the family and
friends of Johnnie, for anyone you know who has Bi-Polar Disorder,
and for the ministry of New Hope. Then I'll offer a prayer on
behalf of us all.
BEAUTY
FROM BI-POLAR DISORDER
Johnny Carl
has left a lasting legacy of beautiful musical compositions.
These will be played in churches around the world for many years
to come. His suicide does not diminish the reality that in life
he loved Jesus and led millions of people to worship and enjoy
the Lord. It's tragic that in life, and especially in the hours
leading up to his death, he had such tremendous difficulty experiencing
the joy of the Lord that he brought to others.
Johnnie's
story is actually quite familiar. There have been many others
like him who suffered from Bi-Polar Disorder and contributed
extraordinary artistic achievements. Kay Jamison wrote a book
on this, "Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and
the Artistic Temperament." I'd like to share with you some
of the stories.
Vincent
Van Gogh (1853-1890) was an incredible painter and he was
hospitalized for depression and eventually killed himself. His
"Starry Night" painting is stunning. And it tells a story.
It's a dark, foreboding city that he paints. Even the stars
overhead are darkened. And the doors to the church are all boarded
up. That's what it's like to be depressed.
Mark
Twain (Samuel Clemons, 1835-1910): As a boy his younger
sister died tragically. This led the family to move away and
begin a hard life. He observed slaves being abused. His younger
brother died and his father caught pneumonia and died when Mark
was a young man. Later he lost his own children to death and
this led to bouts with depression, as perhaps his earlier losses
were being stirred up. He offered a depressing, but wise analysis
of life:
· "The first
half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance;
the last half consists of the chance without the capacity."
You can
hear him trying to break out of his own depression in words
like these:
· "The best
way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up."
· "Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your
sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
T S Elliot's
depression helped him to write poetry like "The Waste Land"
and "Hollow Men" that expressed the disillusionment of entire
generation post World War I.
Kay Jamison
also identified the famous musical composers Handel, Tchaikovsky,
and Mahler as having been depressed. And poets Emily Dickinson,
Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe, who attempted suicide. Ernest
Hemmingway died by suicide. Michelangelo was depressed. Hans
Christian Anderson, who wrote two of my favorite stories, "The
Ugly Duckling" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," struggled with
recurring depression.
And current
musician Peter Gabriel apparently has had problems with
depression. He wrote a powerful song that speaks to the hope
that the depressed need, "In Your Eyes."
"In your
eyes I see the doorway to a thousand churches."
UNDERSTANDING
BI-POLAR DISORDER
We need
go over some definitions of terms related to depressive disorders:
Bi-Polar
Disorder is diagnosed when someone as one or more manic
episodes and one or more major depressive episodes.
Bi-Polar
II Disorder is diagnosed when someone has one or more depressive
episodes and at least one hypomanic episode. This is easily
misdiagnosed as Depression, which is a problem since anti-depressants
alone don't treat the mood cycling and instability.
Cyclothymic
Disorder is characterized by chronic mood fluctuations between
moderate depression and moderate mania. The depressive and manic
episodes are shorter and less severe and less regular than in
Bi-Polar Disorder.
Mania
is an intense burst of energy, creativity, and social ease.
In a manic episode the person is euphoric or irritable. In the
most severe cases they have hallucinations or delusions. They
have at least four of the following symptoms for at least
one week:
· Need little
sleep
· Talk extremely
fast
· Have racing
thoughts
· Easily
distracted so their attention keeps shifting from one topic
to the next
· Feel extremely
powerful, important, or great
· Engage
in reckless behavior with money, sex, or business deals
A big problem
here is that when someone is manic they typically deny that
they have a problem and get angry if you suggest that they do.
Hypomania
is a milder form of mania with less severe symptoms for
as short as four days.
Major
Depression is severe and intense depression that's present
for at least two weeks. On our public website, NewHopeNow.org,
we have a number of self-tests to help people assess their problems
including, "Are You D-E-P-R-E-S-S-E-D?" People with Major Depression
have most of the following nine symptoms from this test (and
they definitely have "Enjoyment gone" and "Sad"):
- D
ifficulty sleeping, eating, or sexually? Are you sleeping
too much or not enough? Are you overeating or have you lost
your appetite? Has your sex drive diminished significantly
or gone into overdrive?
- E
nergy-less? Do you feel tired most of the time? Are you
having trouble feeling motivated to do the things you need
to do?
- P
essimism about your future? Do you feel negative about
what's ahead for you? Do you feel hopeless?
- R
egrets about your past? Do you feel bad when you think
about things you've done in the past? Are you struggling with
guilt?
- E
njoyment gone? Have you lost a sense of pleasure in your
relationships, activities, and hobbies? Does life feel more
like a chore than a joy?
- S
ad? Are you experiencing unexpected tearfulness? Do you
feel unhappy much of the time?
- S
elf-critical? Are you quick to criticize your mistakes?
Are you often harsh with yourself?
- E
mpty? Do you feel a sense of emptiness? Does your life feel
mundane or lacking in meaning?
- D
ecisions difficult? Are you having trouble deciding what you
need to do in situations? Are you having problems concentrating?
Dysthymia
is a chronic and milder depression. It includes many of
the symptoms above, but is not as severe or debilitating as
Major Depression.
Mixed
State is a combination of manic and depressive symptoms
occurring simultaneously. An estimated 40% of people
who present with manic symptoms also have depression symptoms
at the same time. It is believed that Johnnie Carl was in a
mixed manic and depressive episode the night he killed himself.
GOD AND
DEPRESSION
The heart
of the gospel is that God enters our pain. He cares so much,
the prophet Isaiah tells us, that in his passion that culminated
in the cross he took on our sin and our diseases, to forgive
us and to heal us (Isaiah 53:4-5). Listen to how the Apostle
John describes the incarnation of God in Christ in his gospel:
"The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, NIV).
Because
God has entered into our pain and struggles to love us (in Jesus'
flesh and blood, in the Word, in the Spirit, in Christ's Ambassadors)
we can do the same for others. The Apostle John calls us to
join in receiving and giving Christ's incarnational love in
his first epistle:
"God is
love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another. We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:8b-9,
11, 19).
John also
gives us the shortest verse in the Bible that may be the most
profound of all: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Jesus wept with
Mary and Martha when they were sad and grieving after Lazarus
died. And he ministered to many other people who were also depressed,
like the woman with the blood disorder, the paralytic at the
Sheep Gate Pool, and the self-mutilator who lived in the tombs.
Many of
our Bible heroes went through depression: Abraham, Jonah, Job,
Elijah, Jeremiah, and David. The Bible is honest about this
and shows how they trusted God and found comfort. More than
that, the Bible shows how they worshiped God and cared for other
people - even while they were depressed. The beautiful message
of Scripture that we seek to live every day at New Hope is:
"The Lord
is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed
in spirit" (Psalm 34:18, NIV).
At one point
the great Apostle Paul and his fellow missionaries suffered
so much, were under such pressure, got so depressed that he
said:
"We were
under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that
we despaired even of life" (2 Corinthians 1:8b, NIV).
The great
lesson that Paul learned was that when he cried out to God in
his weakness God's grace - his kindness and his abundant life
- were sufficient for him and strengthened him to help him grow
spiritually (2 Corinthians 12:9). His growth in Christ-likeness
was evidenced by his compassion for others. Listen to his words
in the beginning of 2 Corinthians. This passage is
what New Hope is all about:
"Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in
all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just
as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also
through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed,
it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it
is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance
of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm,
because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so
also you share in our comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3-7, NIV).
We are New
Hope Counselors because we too have suffered in life, been comforted
by God, and now want to share God's comfort with others.
Our Lord
Jesus himself went through his own intense sadness, bordering
on despair, in the Garden of Gethsemane as he anticipated carrying
our sins and being tortured to death on the cross. He cried
out to his closest friends:
"My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here
and keep watch with me" (Matthew 26:38, NIV).
These words
have special meaning for us during Lent. I think Jesus might
say these same words to us today in response to Johnnie Carl's
suicide and in response to our suffering and the suffering of
those who contact New Hope:
"My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here
and keep watch with me" (Matthew 26:38, NIV).
As New Hope
Counselors we're among those who "keep watch" with Jesus. Jesus
urged us to offer welcoming care to strangers: "Whatever you
did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did
for me" (Matthew 25:40, NIV).
LISTEN
TO THEIR CRIES
Now if we
want to be Christ's Ambassadors then we need to get more tactile
with this. It's not enough for us to talk about Bi-Polar Disorder
and discuss what the Bible has to say about depression. We need
to feel the pain of Bi-Polar Disorder and relate to those who
suffer from it. If we want to help people suffering with Manic-Depression
then we've got to get inside their skin, to understand what
life is like for them. We've got to get incarnational like Jesus
did. This is what I've been saying New Hope is all about:
With
everyone who calls or chats with us, whatever their hurt or
struggle, we want to enter into it and bring the care and kindness
of Jesus.
So let's
listen to the cries of real people suffering from Bi-Polar Disorder,
as shared on http://www.dbsalliance.org/,
the website for the Depression and Bi-Polar Support Alliance.
Geena:
Taking the Meds and Keeping the Faith
"I was diagnosed
with bipolar disorder at age 29. Throughout my entire life I
have battled some form of mental illness. During my teen years
I wanted to sleep all the time and when I wasn't sleeping I
was up all night cleaning my room or reading or doing whatever
I could to keep moving, I always had to be moving. I could never
shake the feeling that I would be better off not around any
more.
I felt like
a burden to myself and family. I couldn't hold down a job and
my family relationship was the pits. My relationships with guys
were even worse. I know now that I was looking for something
they couldn't give me. I wanted them to help me be at peace
with myself and love myself. I learned a hard lesson that sex
does not equal love. Then when I was 28 I was diagnosed with
depression and anxiety disorder. The medications I was prescribed
for the depression had a bad effect on me. They sent me into
a severe manic phase. I had no clue what was happening to me.
I really thought I was losing my mind.
Some good
came out of a bad manic episode. After a lot of traumatic things
happened to me, I ended up in the hospital where I was immediately
admitted and diagnosed with bipolar II disorder.
That was
about a year and a half ago. I am taking it one day at a time
now and trying to keep my head above water. It's not easy some
days, but I just keep taking the meds and keeping the faith.
And for now that's about all I have the energy to do. I hope
to some day to feel 'normal,' whatever that is. Until then I
will keep on keeping on."
Linda:
"Human Yo-Yo."
"What does
it feel like to have this illness? Life feels meaningless. Every
night you pray that you will close your eyes and painlessly
drift away. Every morning you wake up to another day of silent
screaming. Your mind is begging for it to end, but you still
care about living.
Even worse,
some days you are so crazily happy that you don't know what's
happening. Your mind is racing with each uncontrollable thought
that enters it. Each new doctor claims that they can fix you.
They see your lows, and not your hidden highs. You're a danger
to yourself, or so they say. The medicines aren't enough to
stop this. They can't control my rapid highs and lows yet. I
feel like a yo-yo on God's sick string.
I tell him
this. And he hugs me until it hurts for me to breathe. He leaves
and I reach for my razor. Resting it in my palm, I feel the
cool blade press against my warm skin. Slowly, my fingers loosen
their ready position. I need to end this. With one quick motion,
I've thrown the razor away. Shaking, I pick up something even
more powerful. The phone."
Christina:
The First Step
"I believe
that I have had Bipolar Disorder since as far back as I can
remember. As a child I can remember feeling so angry I wanted
to hurt myself and others, I felt so depressed that I wanted
to die and believed life wasn't worth living. As I grew up,
I suffered psychoses; I would see demons in my room or smell
things that weren't there like smoke or flowers. I would have
panic attacks all the time and would find myself screaming inside,
afraid that people would think I was strange if I did it out
loud. I was afraid and sometimes I didn't know why.
I believe
that the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is the first step to
developing a plan that will save your life, uplift your soul
and rescue you from the confusion and despair of this debilitating
disorder. If you suspect you have the illness consult a therapist,
psychologist, or psychiatrist as soon as you can. If someone
you know is suffering from this disorder, please be patient
with them and help them find help."
Marilyn:
Faith Keeps Me Going
"I had years
of psychiatric treatment, and was given almost every diagnosis
imaginable. In the last nine or ten years, psychiatrists have
told me I have all the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder. I told
them I had always experienced more lows than highs. It has been
a debilitating disease, because one minute I would be on top
of the world, and the next minute, I would be crying and depressed,
not able to do anything for myself or anyone else. With every
failure or rejection in my life, I tried overdosing on prescription
or over-the-counter pills. Right after my father's death, I
cut myself all over my arms and legs. Once, I was on an experimental
medication and became so anxious I set myself on fire, suffering
third degree burns. I was in and out of psychiatric units and
hospitals, county and state hospitals and homes.
It is a
miracle that I was able to carry out a fairly normal career
as a Registered Nurse for 30 years, and that I am now a published
writer, never dreaming I could be a writer at all. It's only
by the grace of God that I'm here today and able to do any of
these things.
I have had
all of the symptoms: excessive irritability, aggressive behavior,
a temper that still gets me into trouble, racing speech, racing
thoughts, and flights of ideas that made me switch topics ten
or more times in one conversation. I have been impulsive and
had very poor judgment. I've had crying spells and prolonged
sadness. I eat more and sleep more. I still get angry very easily
and worry about things that I should leave up to God. I get
tired and exhausted. I have a hard time making decisions, and
sometimes I feel like I should just give up. Today my faith
in God keeps me going on a daily basis, and out of the hospital
the majority of the time. I know that God restores me - takes
my pain and sorrow and sickness and makes me stronger.
My psychiatrist
doesn't understand exactly what I am going through, that God
will make a way for me where man cannot. God knows exactly what
I am going through and will help me endure and overcome it."
Friends
and Family
As I said
at the outset, for many of us here in this room, myself included,
Mental Illness is personal because we have a loved one who is
suffering. More specifically, many of you have a family member
or friend with Bi-Polar Disorder. Or you may struggle with it
yourself. I want us now to take some time to reflect and pray
for these loved ones. The way we're going to do this is to imagine
that you are this loved one as you consider the statements on
the "Bi-Polar Screening Test." We'll take three or four minutes
to do this. I'll put on some background music for us. As you
read each statement that describes the experience of either
mania or depression think and pray for your loved one.
"Bi-Polar
Screening Test" from http://www.healthyplace.com/:
TREATMENT
FOR BI-POLAR DISORDER
Let's make
a few comments about the treatment for Bi-Polar Disorder, focusing
on the ways that New Hope Counselors can help people with Bi-Polar
Disorder and their loved ones.
- Diagnoses
to begin. Obviously, it's not our role to diagnose Bi-Polar
Disorder or any other psychological condition. But we can
recommend people get evaluated by a Psychiatrist. We can refer
people to organizations that provide information, like the
ones I'll mention in a minute.
- Medication
to stabilize. The key with any severe mental illness is
appropriate medications. There are medicines like Lithium,
Depakote, Zyprexa, and a number of anti-depressants that help
people with Bi-Polar Disorder to function more normally.
- Support
to heal. People with Bi-Polar Disorder can receive support
in psychotherapy, pastoral counseling, support groups, or
church groups. And we have referrals for all three on your
"New Hope Referrals" list. Being cared for makes a huge difference.
The mentally ill need friends more than anyone. We seek to
be a caring, friendly influence as we LISTEN.
- Skill
building to grow. These are gained in psychotherapy or
in educational groups led by trained teachers, which we can
refer people to. There are many, many skills that need to
be learned. Practical things like interviewing for a job,
finding housing, making friends. Psychological things like
receiving comfort in grief, assertiveness training, moderating
moods, using positive self-talk.
- Watch
to contain episodes. When someone starts to "fly" into
a manic episode or "slide" into a depressive episode or "break"
into a psychotic episode it needs to be nipped in the bud.
These episodes can be damaging to the person's psyche. The
quicker the treatment the better. As New Hope Counselors we
can urge people to seek help immediately!
- Pray
to entrust to God. What a privilege it is for us to offer
to pray for people, to put them into God's hands, to cry out
to God on their behalf, to believe in God's care and help
on their behalf. Prayer is powerful.
One of
our counselors Mary Lemke took a call from a woman with
Bi-Polar Disorder recently and was able to get through to her.
This woman was quite upset and lonely. She felt that nobody
liked her because she was so overweight. She kept saying that
she had no friends. She was even frustrated with her psychiatrist
because she felt he didn't listen to her. Mary listened to her
and cared for her. She befriended this mentally ill woman. But
when she went into brainstorming options for dealing with her
situation the woman got more and more upset.
So Mary
took a different tack into the cold head wind and put out her
sail to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit. She asked if the
woman believed in God and she said she did. Mary told her that
she did have a friend then - one who would never leave her and
never ignore her. It was Jesus. The woman became very calm and
peaceful. Mary shared some comforting Bible verses and then
asked the woman if she prayed and she said yes. So then they
talked about her prayer needs and Mary invited her to pray very
specifically about her needs in order to receive specific, concrete
answers from God. Then they prayed together.
This woman
with Bi-Polar Disorder felt cared for and encouraged by Mary
and by God. It helped her get through at least that day and
to realize that she wasn't all alone in the world.
REFERRALS
Often the
best thing we can do to help someone with Bi-Polar Disorder
or their concerned loved one is to offer a referral.
- "Bi-Polar
Disorder: Rebuilding Your Life," is a book by Jim
Stout, a pastor with Bi-Polar Disorder who has rebuilt his
life and ministers to others with God's help. He will also
be a speaker at the International Conference on Care and Kindness,
March 10-12.
- Depression
and Bipolar Support Alliance: Information and support
groups, 1-800-826-3632, http://www.dbsalliance.org/.
- Bipolar
Disorders Information Center: Information and support
groups for those with manic-depression, www.mhsource.com/bipolar.
- National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill: Meetings, information,
and resources to support the family of the mentally ill including
their 12-week course "Familiy-to-Family," 1-800-950-6264,
http://www.nami.org/.
- American
Association of Christian Counselors: Find a local AACC
registered counselor or pastor, 1-800-526-8673, http://www.aacc.net/.
- NewHopeNow.org
Articles: "How do I Stop Being so Depressed?" "Help for
Depression," "Embrace Your Pain and Be Blessed."
LARRY
KING INTERVIEW WITH DR. SCHULLER AND JOHNNIE CARL
Recently
Larry King interviewed Dr. Schuller and Linda Carl about Johnnie
Carl's Bi-Polar Disorder and his suicide. Some painful and contentious
questions were raised. I'm going to briefly identify three of
them and offer my view. Then we'll watch the video together
and discuss your comments and questions.
"Is Bi-Polar
Disorder completely biological?"
As you'll
see in the interview, Dr. Schuller refers to Johnny's Bi-Polar
Disorder as a "cancer of the emotional system" saying that it
was incurable. You get treatment and if you're fortunate it
might go into remission. But then it often comes back. This
is the way it was for Johnnie.
The truth
in this view is that there is a proven biological basis for
Bi-Polar Disorder (and other severe mental illnesses) in terms
of genetic predispositions and bio-chemical issues, and brain
abnormalities. But that does not mean that Bi-Polar Disorder
is 100% biological and that there are no environmental factors
involved like early child development or trauma.
Stressing
the biology of Bi-Polar Disorder is comforting to family members
who suffer from false guilt and do all they can to help their
mentally loved one. On the other hand, it may trouble those
with Bi-Polar Disorder or their children if it leaves them feeling
helpless.
"Is suicide
a sin?"
"When someone
with Bi-Polar Disorder suicides are they responsible for their
action? What if they were psychotic? Irrational? In terrible
pain?" In the interview Dr. Schuller stressed that Johnnie was
reacting irrationally out of a manic episode when he killed
himself. Dr. Schuller indicated that he believes that suicide
is "very sinful" because of the terrible pain it causes to other
people. However, he suggested that Johnnie's suicide was not
done from a rational mind and so it wasn't a sin.
The truth
here is that we have to distinguish between mental illness and
sin, between sickness and morality. They are not the same. But
that doesn't mean that there isn't overlap. We have to hold
people responsible for their behavior. With criminals who are
mental ill we battle back and forth legally in court over determining
responsibility. The Bible teaches that sin can be intentional
or unintentional (Leviticus 4 for instance). That's really what
we're talking about here. I would say that sin can be intended
or not, conscious or not, rational or not. The Greek New Testament
word for sin simply means "miss the mark." In other words, in
your attitude or action you were not holy or wholly; you damaged
God, others, or yourself.
We stress
over labeling suicide a "sin" because we don't understand sin
or forgiveness. So we try to take things out of the sin category
in order to assuage guilt or not offend people who don't believe
in God. Understanding someone's suicide as possibly being a
sin should not diminish our compassion for that person's suffering.
As Christians we want to comfort survivors of suicide AND stand
for life by stopping the tragic pain caused by suicide, honoring
God in both ways. To harp on it being a sin damages the first
objective. To whitewash undoes the second goal.
The other
problem we have here is trying to find one root cause. All human
behavior, and certainly suicide, is complicated and involves
more than one cause or motive! In one sense Johnnie was a victim
of an illness. In another sense he made a bad decision. In another
sense the suicide intervention with the SWAT team didn't work.
In still another sense the powers of darkness won a battle,
snuffing out a life and hurting many people.
"Can
suicide be forgiven? Can the person go to heaven?"
It all comes
down to this. Have I received God's grace and mercy? Is God's
life flowing through me? Dr. Schuller was unequivocal on the
point that Johnnie trusted in Christ and so he is in heaven
now. His suicide was not an unpardonable sin. Christ forgives
even our future sins when we trust him. This is a very important
point.
God alone
is the judge of sin and who has their name written in the book
of life. He is holy and loving, a righteous Judge and gracious
Savior. We need to trust him with this.
And we need
to be discerning to individual situations. It should be obvious
that when talking with a survivor of suicide that we'd stress
the message of God's forgiveness in order to help them with
their grief. And when talking with someone who is suicidal we'd
focus on the person's responsibility for their behavior. For
instance, we wouldn't reassure a despairing person that suicide
isn't a sin or God would forgive.
Here is a transcript of the interview: www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05010127.htm
