Comments on: Suicide Tourism http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/ A New York state of mind Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:28:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Casca http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-147008 Casca Mon, 19 May 2008 14:09:07 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-147008 Thanks Bates, nicely said. Yes, it's the internal rebel who wants to take the wheel. Thanks Bates, nicely said. Yes, it’s the internal rebel who wants to take the wheel.

]]> By: Michael Bates http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146856 Michael Bates Sun, 18 May 2008 07:00:17 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146856 <em>But if they hadn'’t fulfilled their purpose already they wouldn’t be allowed to die…think of all those ppl who jump off bridges and live or who shoot themselves in the head and live. If they die, then they were done.</em> Since we're getting theological here, I may as well jump in with both feet... From God's perspective, the perspective of eternity, that's true. He knows the end from the beginning, and ultimately nothing happens apart from His will. Why He prevents some suicides from succeeding and not others belongs to some purpose far beyond my understanding. But it's not true from my perspective, as a finite human being in time and space. It's not for me to decide when I'm done. My job is to use the talents and resources God has given me to serve the people He brings into my life. It's for Him to decide when I'm done. If I were to decide to attempt to shuffle off this mortal coil, and God were to permit that attempt to succeed, for some inscrutable purpose, it wouldn't alter the fact that it was my disobedience, my decision to discard God's gift of life, that led to my death. About 360 years ago, some English clergymen tried to come to grips with mystery of how God's sovereignty and man's responsibility interact. They summarized their understanding in <a href="http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/index.html?body=/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ch_V.html" rel="nofollow">Chapter 5, "Providence," of their confession of faith</a>. I've found their explanation helpful. Here endeth the lesson. But if they hadn’’t fulfilled their purpose already they wouldn’t be allowed to die…think of all those ppl who jump off bridges and live or who shoot themselves in the head and live. If they die, then they were done.

Since we’re getting theological here, I may as well jump in with both feet…

From God’s perspective, the perspective of eternity, that’s true. He knows the end from the beginning, and ultimately nothing happens apart from His will. Why He prevents some suicides from succeeding and not others belongs to some purpose far beyond my understanding.

But it’s not true from my perspective, as a finite human being in time and space. It’s not for me to decide when I’m done. My job is to use the talents and resources God has given me to serve the people He brings into my life. It’s for Him to decide when I’m done.

If I were to decide to attempt to shuffle off this mortal coil, and God were to permit that attempt to succeed, for some inscrutable purpose, it wouldn’t alter the fact that it was my disobedience, my decision to discard God’s gift of life, that led to my death.

About 360 years ago, some English clergymen tried to come to grips with mystery of how God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility interact. They summarized their understanding in Chapter 5, “Providence,” of their confession of faith. I’ve found their explanation helpful.

Here endeth the lesson.

]]> By: Dawn Summers http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146523 Dawn Summers Fri, 16 May 2008 22:00:08 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146523 <i>Another way to look at it: You’re here for a purpose. Killing yourself amounts to going AWOL, abandoning your post.</i> But if they hadn''t fulfilled their purpose already they wouldn't be allowed to die...think of all those ppl who jump off bridges and live or who shoot themselves in the head and live. If they die, then they were done. Another way to look at it: You’re here for a purpose. Killing yourself amounts to going AWOL, abandoning your post.
But if they hadn”t fulfilled their purpose already they wouldn’t be allowed to die…think of all those ppl who jump off bridges and live or who shoot themselves in the head and live. If they die, then they were done.

]]> By: Ugarles http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146456 Ugarles Fri, 16 May 2008 17:05:59 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146456 If you don't take Poddy with you it will be thrown in after you. If you don’t take Poddy with you it will be thrown in after you.

]]> By: Michael Bates http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146449 Michael Bates Fri, 16 May 2008 16:39:52 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146449 "When there is enough shame or pain on the line, why isn’t death one of the options?" Because it only adds to the shame and pain for the survivors. Another way to look at it: You're here for a purpose. Killing yourself amounts to going AWOL, abandoning your post. “When there is enough shame or pain on the line, why isn’t death one of the options?”

Because it only adds to the shame and pain for the survivors.

Another way to look at it: You’re here for a purpose. Killing yourself amounts to going AWOL, abandoning your post.

]]> By: Karol http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146420 Karol Fri, 16 May 2008 14:49:06 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146420 Yeah, I found that "maddening, amoral, and disgusting" line annoying too. No matter what you do, if they want to go, they'll go. Yeah, I found that “maddening, amoral, and disgusting” line annoying too. No matter what you do, if they want to go, they’ll go.

]]> By: Casca http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146411 Casca Fri, 16 May 2008 14:14:20 +0000 http://www.clareified.com/2008/05/16/suicide-tourism-or-i-heart-ny-and-i-hate-my-lifegeronimo/#comment-146411 Drop the suicide note, add a bottle of single malt, a change of venue, and music by someone who doesn't have an asshole the size of a fifty cent piece, and I'm with you. Something like half of all auto fatalities are surmised to be suicides. Plausible deniability adds verisimilitude, plus one gets to drop in the harness, or as The Great Santini would say, "It beats dying of the piles!" Drop the suicide note, add a bottle of single malt, a change of venue, and music by someone who doesn’t have an asshole the size of a fifty cent piece, and I’m with you. Something like half of all auto fatalities are surmised to be suicides. Plausible deniability adds verisimilitude, plus one gets to drop in the harness, or as The Great Santini would say, “It beats dying of the piles!”

]]>