You probably heard the sad
news regarding Pastor Rick Warren’s adult son committing suicide this past
weekend. I’m sure many, if not all,
reading this have had their own experience was this kind of thing in one way or
another.
But how is a Christian to
respond? There have been many comments
and posts on the internet. Greg Laurie
(who lost an adult son) weighed in on his blog.
Our own (EFCA) Tim Addington shared from his heart on his blog. Many others have as well.
I saw one post on facebook in response to this from a high school classmate. He wrote:
"My evangelical uncle, and his evangelical son-in-law, ushered my brothers and I away from graveside to tell us something of extreme importance. We formed a circle in the shade of this lovely old oak tree, and my evangelical uncle said that because my father had committed suicide, he was going straight to Hell without passing "Go" and collecting two-hundred dollars. His evangelical son-in-law confirmed it in no-uncertain-terms and seemed ready to defend the belief, if necessary. I swear to Christ [sic] that it seemed as though his jaw was set and he was ready to fight. My brothers and I were in stunned disbelief. To this day, my disbelief is still stunning."
It’s obvious, from reading his
other posts on facebook, that he has had some unfortunate experiences with the
Christian faith.
Those who know me, are aware
that I listen to podcasts frequently – while I work out, while I commute and
even while I iron (yes, I’m secure enough in my manhood to do that!) A couple of years ago, I turned on this podcast heading to work. The pastor
pre-empted his sermon with about a 10 to 15 mini-sermon about suicide since one
of their support staff had done so. It
was the proverbial elephant-in-the-room that had to be dealt with. I thought the response was good. Honest.
Sometimes tough. But perhaps if my
high school friend would have heard something like this years ago, his attitude
towards God might be different.
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