JWin, I haven't seen it as orientation specific.. My brother is straight and he survived his suicide attempt (although the doctor told us to plan the funeral..it was touch and go), my sister (she's gay) thought of it often but never acted upon it and I thought about it for years but never attempted it (I'm gay as well)..We were all Witnesses. I've seen this in many groups where the faith has cultish aspects to it.
Suicides within Jehovah's Witnesses
by Leander 20 Replies latest jw friends
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Kep
I know of 2 that have done this.
One chap was Df and was shunned bigtime by his family.
Reflecting back his mother regrets shunning him.
As a result, my mother has a lot of contact with me and the rest of my evil slave siblings.
Another young fella who was a son of an elder had also taken his life.
So tragic. -
anewperson
A while back at the request of friends close to the family who told me some in the family wanted it known I posted the name of a young ministerial servant who suicided and got chewed on by Jan Haugland and Plum Crazy who pushed Simon the moderator into deleting his name. Well in the past couple weeks or so I read in the paper of a suicide and the name of the person was given. My belief is when you give the name it means far more than when you don't.
I believe this problem is epidemic and wish someone would put up a website dedicated to it giving, if not the name of the person their initials and the name of the congregation or kingdom hall. I have information on maybe 12 suicides with names supplied by family members and close friends if anyone wants to initiate a memorial website??? The website could also contain references to the professional studies that have been done on suicides among the JW community. What do you think?
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Smurfagain
Hi all
My eldest son hanged himself some years ago. He was young, just 17 years old. The same year, a 14 year old sister from our congregation did the same. Before that an older man, in his sixties, took the same method to leave. All of this is not natural, in a such small group of people, just 40 people, this can not be natural. Some years after, another young sister was hospitalized for a suicide attempt. She ended up as an apostate, but I hope with a new life. I have no idea of the reasons, but JW don’t like people with problems. Especially not people with personal problems related to their religion.
/Smurf -
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ianao
I remember when I was "studying" my study conductor had told me that one of his "friends" had wrapped a trash bag around his head and blown his brains out.
My conductor's brother, whom I knew from work, looked at my study conductor like he had committed a mortal sin when I expressed my condolances to my conductor's brother, who knew the dead JW also.
A red flag went off in my head when I saw that... I guess I should have broken off of the "studies" at that point.
I asked my conductor what the problem was. He danced all around the subject and asked me to drop it. He also never talked to me about things regarding the cong again.
Mind control works wonders I guess.
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joelbear
In my sociology class we studied about a guy named Emile Durkheim that showed white male protestants were the most likely people to commit suicide. He hypothesized that it was due to more pressure and a less supportive environment. Fits right in with witnesses.
Joel
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ChristFollower
joelbear
I wonder if the "study" included Jehovah's Witnesses as well, and what was the definition of "Protestant". There are liberals "Protestant" and "legalist" Protestants that I would guess bring similar pressures as the WT does. But as one who was once a JW and is now a Conservative Protestant, I can say there is no comparison to the WT style of guilt, shame, fear, and judgemental-style manipulation. I can walk away from my Church at any time. There is no teaching that membership is required for salvation, nor is there a teaching that leaving will assure your destruction in the big "A" as the WT does. And any "Protestant" religion that teaches membership is required, or else, is also wrong.
I knew of at least one JW that comitted suicide by laying down on railroad tracks. Others I knew mostly went the slow way through addiction to drugs. One JW that was an elder's son, an ex full-time pioneer, and a MS candidate. Wound up in prison for armed robbery while he was (finally) going to college. Something very wrong there.
The stats that I have seen show that JW's have a higher incident than the rest of the population for mental health issues and presumably, suicide as well.
See the chart here as an example:
http://www.carm.org/jw/mental.htm
I do think there should be a study for such things, if our individual experiences are correct, then a memorial website would be appropriate I believe. A memorial to the victims of the cult mind-control that was a new phenomenon of the 20th century, and sadly were the silent victims as society in general didn't even see it coming. And let's not forget the 1,000's that lost their lives through the blood transfusion travesty.
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morrisamb
Smurf, thanks for your sharing your story. Something you never get over...
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Beck_Melbourne
Hi Leander
There are a lot of sad stories out there...I know of 2, one was an elder's son only 16 yrs old...and the other was the son of a regular pioneer brother and sister, only 13 yrs old.
Smurfagain...sorry to hear of your loss and sadness...its not easy losing a child...and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
Beck