A Christian response to Denver Broncos’ suicide
Denver Broncos wide receiver Kenny McKinley was found dead this afternoon in his Centennial apartment, in what the Arapahoe Country Sheriff’s Office is calling an “apparent suicide.” The investigation is still under way, but Sheriff Grayson Robinson confirmed that it appears this 23 year old man decided life was no longer worth living.
What is the Christian response to suicide?
The US. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports there are more than half a million people each year admitted to emergency rooms with self-inflicted injuries. Who knows how many more people are on the edge of trying and are stopped? According to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19.3 percent of high school students have seriously considered killing themselves, and 900,000 have gone as far as planning their suicides. Unfortunately, the National Institute of Mental Health indicates that in 2007 nearly 35,000 Americans succeeded in causing their own deaths. It’s the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 24.
No doubt there will be much speculation as to what drove this young man with his whole life in front of him to make such a decision. Most likely, we’ll never know. But the more important question is whether there is ever a set of circumstances in which suicide is the correct response.
A foundational tenet of Christianity is that God loves…me. Not just humanity, not just really good people; God loves you and me as individuals, despite our flaws. Now put that fact together with the Christian belief that God is the creator of the universe; a being whose power truly can’t be understood by the human mind. It’s hard to reconcile the belief that the God who can manipulate the cosmos actually loves me personally and wants the best for me, with the level of lack of hope for the future that would drive someone to suicide.
The Bible contains six specific descriptions of suicide: Abimelech (Judges 9:54), Saul (1 Samuel 31:4), Saul’s armor bearer (1 Samuel 31:4-6), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), Zimri (1 Kings 16:18), and Judas (Matthew 27:5). We know that five of them were evil people who had rejected God. We aren’t given enough information about Saul’s armor bearer to guess at more than his panic.
The point is, there isn’t a single example of a godly person taking his or her own life. On the other hand, we do find references to God deciding the time was appropriate for a person’s life to end. In Enoch’s case, there’s an implication that he might not have even died but was taken directly by God to heaven.
In other words, the biblical model is that it is up to God, not us, to decide when we are to die.
World-renowned Christian leader Chuck Swindoll has described suicide as the most selfish and cowardly act he can imagine. Those seem like harsh words, but when you consider the effect of this tragedy on McKinley’s infant son—not to mention all the others touched by this in our city…perhaps they are appropriate.
