Question & Answer

 
Q: By Joyce

“I’m curious where the idea came from that if a person commits suicide that person does not go to heaven. I don’t recall anything in the Bible saying that.”

A: By Joran Slane Oppelt

Dear Joyce,

Thank you for your question.

You won’t find this idea anywhere in the Bible.

The earliest argument (using biblical justification) against suicide was in St. Augustine‘s fifth century book, The City of God. His reasoning came from the commandment, “thou shalt not kill.” Simply put, because this commandment didn’t mention the “neighbor“ he understood it to include the self.

He also referenced the arguments made by Plato in the Phaedo (On the Soul) regarding Socrates’ suicide while awaiting execution. While Socrates made explicit arguments for the idea of an afterlife and the soul’s immortality, he expressed that suicide should be forbidden except under extreme circumstances because the body does not belong to man, but to the gods. The act itself is still debated as one of either cowardice or self-determination.

Suicide is commonly seen as a result of disconnection, isolation and abandonment. It’s regarded as the last best option for those who feel they’ve run out of choices. It’s seen frequently in the hopeless and the outcast. It shocks families and communities because people rarely talk about having these thoughts. They carry them around, like burning embers, until a hole is created that cannot be filled.

Suicide then turns that aching hole into an all-consuming force. It tears into an unsuspecting family or community as if a bomb has gone off, leaving only a smoking crater. It is a black hole that suddenly opens in the midst of a small village, swallowing everything in its path, including the light. There is no escaping the feeling of anger or betrayal (at God or loved ones) or the “selfishness” of the act. Family and community are left to caress the raw, frayed edges of that gaping hole. And, over time, the hole eventually gets smaller. But it never closes completely.

The soul may live on after death, but a suicide will leave the surrounding souls darkened, colored and bruised (and a trail of generational pain in its wake).

First and foremost, don’t let any priest or philosopher (including myself) decide for you what suicide is or isn’t – or whether your soul will live on when your body has taken its last breath. That is for you to determine, through the formation of your faith.

And, Joyce, I say this last part as someone who every day gives thanks for the anonymous hotline staffer who somehow convinced my now teenage son to muster the courage to talk to his parents instead of ending his life at 11 years old. I am now blessed with a life where I can turn to see him, talk to him, and hold him (sometimes too tightly). That life was nearly a fantasy.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, talk to someone. Literally anyone. Your story isn’t over. You are not yet out of choices. You are not alone.

~ Joran Slane Oppelt

P.S. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 273-8255. They also provide free anonymous chat at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.
 
About the Author
Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner and founder of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay. Joran is the author of Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities, Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox) and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He currently serves on the board of Creation Spirituality Communities and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion.