And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. <\/i><\/p>\n
\u2014Rev. 9:6<\/i><\/p>\n
6154<\/b> Suicidology<\/b><\/p>\n
In the past 20 years, something called suicidology has flourished in the U.S. Many good studies and much bad prose have resulted. Since 1957, for instance, more than 1500 books on suicide have appeared. Suicide seems about to join teenage druggery and air pollution as one of the glum preoccupations of the decade. <\/p>\n
6155<\/b> Suicide Rates<\/b><\/p>\n
The World Health Organization furnishes the figures of suicides around the world. A thousand people a day commit suicide, or about 500,000 people a year, with ten times that number attempting it. Hungary has the highest rate with 34.9 per 100,000 population. Czechoslovakia is next with 24.5; Austria follows with 22.2; Sweden with 22; Canada and the United States have 10.9 and 10.7 respectively. The Latin American countries have the lowest, Venezuela has 7.3 and Chile 3.1. <\/p>\n
Factors most commonly associated with suicide are bereavement, social isolation, chronic illness, psychotic disturbance, alcoholism and drug-addiction. <\/p>\n
\u2014Christian Victory<\/i><\/p>\n
6156<\/b> Suicide Rate Growing<\/b><\/p>\n
WASHINGTON\u2014Every day an average of 60 Americans choose to take their own lives. Today, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in this country. It ranks third among persons aged 15 to 19 and second among college students. More than 20,000 Americans take their own lives each year. The worldwide figure may exceed 500,000. <\/p>\n
6157<\/b> Between Sexes: More Attempts<\/b><\/p>\n
Is suicide attempted by more men than women? <\/p>\n
Women attempt suicide much more often than men, but they are less frequently successful. These failures may be largely the result of their choice of less violent and disfiguring methods, which are also less apt to prove fatal. It is an open question whether women choose less effective methods because they are not so determined to die, or because they are more accessible, or perhaps because they involve less violence. <\/p>\n
Also, many women who attempt suicide may not be entirely sincere in their purpose; very frequently their suicidal arrangements seemed so planned that rescue is not only possible but even probable. They often call for help in distress. <\/p>\n
6158<\/b> Between Sexes: Frequency Rates <\/b><\/p>\n
Is suicide more frequent among men than among women? <\/p>\n
Men are much more likely to kill themselves than are women. In the United States, male suicides have usually outnumbered female suicides by more than three to one. The excess of male suicides is found among both the white and colored races and prevails in most countries. At the advanced ages, the sex ratio often rises to about 10 to 1. <\/p>\n
6159<\/b> Suicides By Occupations<\/b><\/p>\n
Which occupations are most prone to suicide? <\/p>\n
High suicide mortality has been found to occur among physicians and dentists. Rates greatly above the average are also recorded for those engaged in the liquor trade. On the other hand, other professional workers, such as teachers and clergymen, have uniformly very low suicide rates. Skilled workers and agricultural laborers have the lowest rates. A high incidence also appears in the group of unskilled laborers. <\/p>\n
6160<\/b> Sweden And Suicide<\/b><\/p>\n
Sweden, like the U.S., has a high standard of living and a highly industrialized society. The small country already has what many American social planners say is their goal for the U.S. <\/p>\n
Poverty and unemployment are almost unknown. Medical care is free for all. Government pensions are given from the cradle to the grave. For each child, a Swedish mother is given a grant at birth plus an annual allowance. <\/p>\n
Sweden\u2019s \u201csex freedom\u201d is known the world over. A not-surprising eighty to ninety percent of youth are estimated to have had sex experience before marriage! <\/p>\n
Yet Sweden has one of the highest suicide rates in the world\u2014a larger percentage of Swedish women kill themselves than do U.S. women. <\/p>\n
Church attendance has dropped, however, to an all-time low. Some say fewer than 10 percent attend regularly. One survey showed only fifty percent of the population believing in God and only twenty-five percent affirming a life after death. <\/p>\n
6161<\/b> Analyzing The Professions<\/b><\/p>\n
Atlanta, Georgia (UPI)\u2014A University of Georgia sociologist thinks the depth of social contact on the job and not the work itself is the most important factor in suicides. <\/p>\n
Dr. Leonard Linden, project director for several suicide prevention studies at the school\u2019s institute for behavioral research, says, \u201cThe difference between various occupations is not as great as was once thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using national death statistics, Linden is testing a hypothesis that occupations can increase or negate opportunities for \u201cmeaningful social communication\u201d and that any opportunity that reduces social contacts greatly increases the chance of suicide. <\/p>\n
Curiously enough, Linden says, farmers, once considered as stable and having a rather tranquil life, have a suicide rate 50 percent above the norm. <\/p>\n
\u201cI suspect this had resulted from the rural-to-urban migration and disrupted social relationship,\u201d Linden said. <\/p>\n
Doctors and lawyers are less prone to suicide because of the constant contact they have with their peers, but the rate for dentists is 50 percent higher than that of physicians, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cDentists are usually loners and work by themselves,\u201d said Linden. \u201cThey are often considered as marginal health practitioners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linden said the depth of the friendship is the key. <\/p>\n
\u201cA bus driver may have constant contacts but not have any significant relationship,\u201d said Linden. <\/p>\n
Professions with substantially lower-than-normal suicide rates are the clergy (50 to 60 percent) and teachers (20 to 30 percent), he said. <\/p>\n
6162<\/b> An Alternative To Suicide? <\/b><\/p>\n
A healthy man who wants to kill himself and a sick one who wants to live but is doomed for lack of a vital organ appear to have little in common. But Psychiatrist Paul H. Blachly of the University of Oregon Medical School believes that they have something to offer each other. He advocates a \u201csymbiotic juxtaposition\u201d of the two\u2014bringing them together. <\/p>\n
Psychiatrist Blachly suggests that the suicidal person who wants to destroy his whole body may find an alternative in sacrificing just part of it. When Eisenhower was suffering repeated heart attacks, Blachly recalls, at least 20 people offered him their hearts; such offers frequently come from people who are looking for a way to die. But that death wish might be purged, he reasons, if the donor gives an organ that is not essential to his own life. People who donate a kidney, Blachly notes, often experience \u201ca sustained feeling of satisfaction and of being noble,\u201d and their personal relationships frequently become more satisfying. <\/p>\n
To put his theory into practice, Blachly proposes an alliance between organ transplant centers and some of the many suicide-prevention services that are now in existence. <\/p>\n
SUICIDE ACCOUNTS<\/p>\n
6163<\/b> Due To License Loss<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a driver\u2019s license I don\u2019t have my car, job, or social life. So I think that it is better to end it all right now.\u201d A seventeen-year-old boy from Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote the above note after losing his license; then he fired a bullet through his head. <\/p>\n
6164<\/b> No Encouragement In 30 Years<\/b><\/p>\n
One New Year\u2019s Day a millionaire of my acquaintance, whose pride it was never to offer a tip for any service, faced an unforgettable tragedy. His chief accountant committed suicide. The books were found to be in perfect order, the affairs of the dead man\u2014a modest bachelor\u2014were prosperous and calm. The only letter left by the accountant was a brief note to his millionaire employer. It read: \u201cIn 30 years I have never had one word of encouragement. I\u2019m fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Gospel Herald<\/i><\/p>\n
6165<\/b> Lonely Husband Killed By Parrot<\/b><\/p>\n
According to an inquest held in London, 65-year-old Stanley Riddell took his own life by a drug overdose because of the constant harping on the past by a small Australian parrot. <\/p>\n
Riddell was a lonely man following the death of his wife a year earlier, and the parrot\u2019s constant repetition of expressions she had taught it was too much for him to bear. <\/p>\n
6166<\/b> Not Enough Funerals<\/b><\/p>\n
In the old city of Arris in France, there were not enough funerals. So the undertaker committed suicide. He explained with that famous French logic: \u201cI cannot kill people to make funerals. So I will kill myself. There will be at least one funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n
6167<\/b> Her Age Discovered<\/b><\/p>\n
She was known as \u201cthe Great Anne in the fashion world.\u201d Yet she came to a tragic suicide. She was found with her wrists slashed in her Paris hotel, because the terrible truth came out. <\/p>\n
Ann-Lisa Cameron was a top Paris fashion model who barely looked the thirty years she claimed to be. But the frontier officials on her trip to Germany discovered her to be forty years. Two days later the divulged truth drove her to self-destruction. <\/p>\n
6168<\/b> He Preferred Own Timing<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot, because of disease, continue to hide from myself that I live on a day-to-day basis, waiting for death. I prefer to call on death myself at the right time.\u201d So wrote Jaime Torres Bodet in a suicide note. Bodet, diplomat and educationist, headed the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization from 1948 to 1952. He was the author of 33 books, including 15 collections of poetry, 6 novels, 7 collections of essays, and the first 5 volumes of his memoirs. <\/p>\n
6169<\/b> A Millionaire\u2019s End<\/b><\/p>\n
Robert Young, board chairman of the great New York Central Railroad and an important voice in several other roads, was considered the most powerful and most debated railroad tycoon of his day. Young drank deeply of the draughts of life under the sun. Time<\/i> says, \u201cBob Young had collected all the prizes of a champion battler\u2014wealth, power, glittering friends (the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, et al. ), palatial homes in Palm Beach and Newport.\u201d Yet this 60-year-old millionaire magnate, as he beheld his power on the decline, committed suicide. <\/p>\n
6170<\/b> Purposely Leaving No Notes<\/b><\/p>\n
After the death of Marilyn Monroe, Japan\u2019s Nobel-prize-winning novelist Kawabata said: \u201cIf it was a case of suicide, then it was better to see no notes left behind. A silent death is an endless word.\u201d When Kawabata, at 72, took his own life last month, that observation of decades ago became his own epitaph: he left no notes. <\/p>\n
6171<\/b> Diana Churchill\u2019s Suicide<\/b><\/p>\n
London (UPI)\u2014A coroner found that Mrs. Diana Churchill, eldest daughter of Sir Winston, who had devoted herself to helping persons with suicidal tendencies, killed herself by taking an overdose of barbiturates. <\/p>\n
The body of Mrs. Churchill, 54, who used her maiden name after her divorce from Commonwealth Relations Secretary Duncan Sandys in 1960, was found in her apartment in the Westminster district of London Sunday. <\/p>\n
Mrs. Churchill had been working with a group called the Samaritans which helps persons who have attempted suicide. <\/p>\n
6172<\/b> TV Viewers Were Startled<\/b><\/p>\n
Sarasota, Florida (AP)\u2014Television talk-show host Chris Chubbuck wrote her own death script and carried it out by putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger as viewers watched. The 29-year-old anchorwoman died in a hospital 14 hours later. <\/p>\n
Her handwritten, blood-spattered newscript read, \u201cToday Chris Chubbuck shot herself during a live broadcast.\u201d The story she had scrawled in longhand was found on the desk where she sat Monday and calmly announced to viewers what she said was a television first:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn keeping with Channel 40\u2019s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts and in living color you are going to see another first\u2014attempted suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, within seconds, she reached into a shopping bag behind her desk, pulled out a . 38 caliber revolver, fired a single shot and slumped forward. <\/p>\n
Following the incident, the Sarasota sheriff\u2019s office and station WXLT were swamped with calls from viewers who could not believe the shooting had been real and asked if it was some sort of prank. <\/p>\n
6173<\/b> Just Tired Of Living<\/b><\/p>\n
A New York newspaper gave this short story: \u201cThe body of a man about seventy-years old was recovered from the Spuyten Duyvil Creek yesterday. Police found this note: \u201cI\u2019m Joe Barnes. No record. No relatives. No friends. No permanent address. Just tired of living.\u201d\u201d It is the sad obituary of a man overcomed by boredom. <\/p>\n
\u2014Ray O. Jones<\/p>\n
6174<\/b> No Daughter, No Wife<\/b><\/p>\n
I read the account of a young man who had shot and killed himself in a phone booth. The police officers, seeking to establish his identity, found a worn-out but neatly-folded piece of paper in his pocket. It said, \u201cPlease leave on my person. I want it buried with me.\u201d When they opened it, they saw a crayon drawing made by a small child. Beneath it was printed the name SHIRLEY LEE. <\/p>\n
The authorities learned later that the dead man was James Lee, and that his little daughter had been fatally burned 5 months earlier in a fire. And the girl\u2019s mother had died just 2 years before that. Apparently this father was so lonely and brokenhearted that he decided to take his own life. <\/p>\n
\u2014Our Daily Bread<\/i><\/p>\n
6175<\/b> 10-Year-Old Twins Try Suicide<\/b><\/p>\n
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (UPI)\u2014\u201dWe committed suicide because we are no good and no longer a part of the family. So, so long from (US) \u2026 Sorry about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mother of those 10-year-old twins returned home from work to find this note and discover one of the boys had a knife protruding from his stomach. <\/p>\n
He and his brother also had eaten rat poison pellets and inhaled fumes from an aerosol can. <\/p>\n
That was last Friday. The boys are expected to return home from the hospital Wednesday. <\/p>\n
They said they tried to commit suicide because their father scolded them and told them to write 600 times, \u201cStealing and lying are two commandments that should not be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said no charges will be filed. <\/p>\n
Doctors were able to remove the poison from the boys\u2019 stomachs and the knife wound turned out to be only superficial. <\/p>\n
6176<\/b> Sad, Old Couple<\/b><\/p>\n
Monterey Park, California (UPI)\u2014For 20 years, Charles and Carolena Hovenden coped with poverty and pain. <\/p>\n
Mrs. Hovenden, 68, was bedridden with multiple sclerosis, paralyzed from the neck down. Her husband, 69, developed cancer and was confined to a wheelchair. They lived on social security and medicare payments and worried about their medical bills. <\/p>\n
Two nurses who visited them regularly found handwritten notes taped to the front and back doors Tuesday: \u201cDo not enter. Call police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside, police found Mrs. Flovenden dead, shot through the head. Slumped in his wheelchair beside her bed was the body of her husband, a bullet in his head and gun by his side. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a sad thing,\u201d an investigator said. \u201cThey suffered a lot through the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
6177<\/b> Theologians\u2019 Death Pact<\/b><\/p>\n
A suicide note and overdoses of sleeping pills preceded the deaths of the noted Protestant theologian Henry Pitney Van Dusen, 77, and his wife, 80. <\/p>\n
A New York Times<\/i> report said they were members of the Euthanasia Society and had talked of suicide with family and friends. Both were in failing health. Van Dusen, a Presbyterian, was president of Union Seminary in New York from 1944 until 1963. He took a leading role in ecumenical affairs and was one of the architects of the World Council of Churches. <\/p>\n
The Times<\/i> dispatch by religion writer Kenneth A. Briggs said the Van Dusens left behind a statement saying there were many old people who would die of natural causes if not kept alive medically and expressing the resolve not to \u201cdie in a nursing home.\u201d The statement ended with a prayer: \u201cO Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us \u2026 Grant us Thy peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Christianity Today<\/i><\/p>\n
6178<\/b> The $100,000 Suicide<\/b><\/p>\n
No suicide ever had more drama and suspense, was witnessed by more persons and created more commotion and inconvenience than that of John Warde who leaped from the 17th-story ledge of a Fifth Avenue hotel in New York on the night of July 26, 1938. During the 11 hours he stood there deciding whether to jump, relatives and others tried to entice the demented man back into his room and firemen attempted to trap him with a large net. Extra squads of police held back the vast crowd of spectators, while scores of press photographers, newsreel men and radio and television commentators covered the one-man show, all of which cost the city and these news service about $100,000. <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
6179<\/b> How About You? <\/b><\/p>\n
The newspaper told the story of a lovely, young secretary in London, England, who climbed out on a window ledge eighteen floors above the ground. Fear was written across her face as she threatened to jump to her death. A young minister was able to lean from the window and carry on a conversation with the secretary. She sobbed about her unhappy life and her feeling of despair. The minister spoke quitely to her as he tried to assure her that life is worth living. For one hour\u2014sixty golden minutes\u2014he sought to keep her from jumping. Then the young woman said, \u201cIt\u2019s no use. Life just isn\u2019t worth living.\u201d She jumped to her death. <\/p>\n
Suppose you had the opportunity to speak for one hour to a human being under those same circumstances. What could you say from your own heart and out of your own experience which could convince him that life is worth living? <\/p>\n
\u2014Gospel Herald<\/i><\/p>\n
6180<\/b> Japanese Kamikazes<\/b><\/p>\n
Sensing that Japanese planes and pilots were both inferior to the U.S. forces and that there was but one chance of success, Vice-Admiral Takijiro Ohnishi, commander of Japanese naval forces in the Philippines, concluded that his only method would be to crash-dive bomb-laden Zero fighters on the (U.S.) carrier decks. And so, some 4,000 aviators deliberately crash-dived their planes into American ships as the war in the Pacific closed in on their homeland. These suicide squads came to be called the \u201cKamikaze fliers.\u201d<\/p>\n
6181<\/b> To The Middle Of Bridge<\/b><\/p>\n
Dave Garroway, famous host of the NBC-TV show \u201cToday,\u201d told me this story:<\/p>\n
One day the show was scheduled to emanate from the center of the George Washington Bridge, astride the Hudson River. That morning the show\u2019s producer woke up late. Realizing that the TV mobile unit was already on the bridge, he hastily slipped a coat over his pajamas, ran to the street and hailed a cab. <\/p>\n
\u201cTake me to the George Washington Bridge,\u201d he said, hopping in. <\/p>\n
\u201cJersey side or New York side?\u201d asked the cabby. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no! I want the middle of the bridge!\u201d cried the producer. <\/p>\n
The cabby gave his wild-eyed fare a hard look, unlatched the door and said, \u201cNo you don\u2019t, mister. Not in my cab!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Frank P. Thomas<\/p>\n
See also:<\/b> Deaths ; Murder ; Violent Times ; Luke 23:30: Rev. 6:16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. \u2014Rev. 9:6 6154 Suicidology In the past 20 years, something called suicidology has flourished in the U.S. Many good studies and much bad prose have resulted. Since 1957, for instance, more … Continue reading “SUICIDES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}