These People Truly Have No Limits

[Rev. Rye]

Westboro Baptist Church. No surprise. They think everyone is going to hell. Who cares.

Actually, the idea that people who kill themselves are automatically damned is a long-standing doctrine in Christianity. St. Augustine condemned the act in The City of God and about a century later, the doctrine became mainstream in Christianity. Dante (Inferno, Canto 13) put them in Hell, where they turned into oak trees and were the only souls exempt from bodily resurrection during the final judgment. It was only LAST JULY that the Church of England ended its ban on allowing a Christian burial for those who killed themselves.

To this day, the Catholic Church says of suicide:


2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2325 Suicide is seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity. It is forbidden by the fifth commandment.

It is considered a mortal sin, and due to the lack of an opportunity for Confession to absolve that sin, they are generally considered among the damned. To be fair, elsewhere, they point out that mental problems may diminish their culpability, but this does not invalidate the doctrines above. The Church has, since 1983, allowed suicides to be given a Catholic burial, largely to keep the families from further aggravation.

I've focused mostly on Catholicism, but many other denominations, especially conservative ones (including the Lutheran church I grew up in, though they seem to hedge their bets more than usual), tend to have similar views on suicide. This shit is actually far more mainstream than one might think.