Singing in a Strange Land:
Dealing with Depression &
Suicide in the Black Church
Extend a Hand:
Preventing & Responding
to Suicide Conference
September 23, 2011
Sherry Davis Molock, Ph.D., M.Div.
George Washington University
Singing in a Strange Land
 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we
wept, when we remembered Zion.
 2We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof.
 3For there they that carried us away captive required of
us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth,
saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
 4How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
(Psalm. 137:1-4)
Introduction: Challenge
 Every 16 minutes, someone dies by
suicide
 In 2007, over 33,000 persons died by
suicide in US
 Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death
in the U.S.
 Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death
among 15-24 (CDC, 2007)
 What is the faith community going to do
about it?
Good News:
We Can Help Prevent Suicides By:
• Knowing the warning signs
• Linking people to treatment
• Giving people “permission” to seek help
• Serving as an important member of the
team that is needed to help people get
professional help
Overview
• Part 1:
– Characteristics of Depression
– Learn to Identify the Risk & Protective Factors
Associated with suicide
• Part 2:
– What does the Bible really say about suicide?
• Part 3:
– Linking People to Services
History of Depression
• Depression has been recorded since antiquity
• Examples from Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
• Moses (Numbers 11: 10-15)
• King Saul (I Samuel 16: 14-23)
• Elijah (I Kings 19: 1-4)
• Hippocrates uses the terms melancholia & mania
to describe mental disturbances
Characteristics of Depression
• Common disorder; will affect approximately
20% of people in their lifetime
• Disabling disorder: number one cause of
disability in the world
• More common in women than men;
– Women are twice as likely to be affected by mood
disorder
Depression is a Chronic Disorder :
• Depression is a recurrent illness
• Likelihood of having another episode of
depression increases with each subsequent
episode:
• 1 episode, likelihood of another– 50%
• 2 episodes, likelihood of another – 70%
• 3 episodes, likelihood of another – 90%
Normal Sadness vs. Clinical Depression
Normal Sadness
Feel sad but also have
periods of feeling
“normal”
Able to experience range
of emotions, including
joy, happiness
Have emotional reactivity
Sleeping, eating,
concentration rarely
affected for long periods
Clinical Depression
Sad, depressed mood most
of the time for at least 2
weeks
Anhedonia: difficult to
experience pleasure
Hopelessness
Loss of mood reactivity
Difficulty sleeping,
concentrating; change in
appetite, fatigue
Suicidal thoughts
What is suicide?
• Suicidal thoughts: thoughts & ideas about
taking one’s life.
– Can be vague to very specific plans
• Suicide attempts: person engages in
behavior that involves a deliberate attempt to
take one’s own life.
– Not same as self-mutilation (e.g., cutting) where
goal is NOT to end one’s life.
Cultural Differences in Expression of
Suicidal Behaviors
• Blacks may be less likely to use drugs during suicide crisis
• Asian Americans & Blacks may complain more about
physical symptoms
• Behavioral component of depression more pronounced in
Blacks
• Some Blacks express little suicide intent or depressive
symptoms during suicide crisis
• Victim-precipitated homicide
• Suicide may be more stigmatized in Black community
• Differences in classification by medical examiners
Risk Factors:
 Individual
◦ Previous
Attempt
◦ Depression
◦ Delinquent
behavior
◦ Substance
abuse
◦ Recent loss
◦ Physical illness
 Family
◦ Non
Supportive
◦ History of
physical or
sexual abuse
◦ History of
mental illness
in family
 Community
◦ Isolated from
others
◦ Stigma
◦ Access to
lethal
methods
◦ Barriers to
access to care
Protective Factors:
 Individual
◦ Good coping
skills
◦ Active use of
faith beliefs in
coping
◦ Good problem
solving skills
 Family
◦ Supportive
family
◦ Cohesive
family
◦ Parental
monitoring
 Community
◦ Belonging to
church
◦ Cultural
beliefs that
discourage
suicide
◦ Cultural and
religious
beliefs that
encourage
help-seeking
◦ Access to care
Take Home Message:
My people perish from a lack of
knowledge
Hosea 4: 6 (KJV)
Part II:
What Does the Bible Really Say
About Suicide?
Intro
• Early Church Fathers struggled with
understanding of voluntary death; what’s the
difference between
– Seeking to be killed
– Allowing yourself to be killed
– Killing oneself
• These same dilemmas are presented in the
Biblical text
Intro
• Difficult to study suicide in Bible bc
contemporary view of suicide ≠ views of
voluntary death at the time the Biblical Texts
were written
• Current views of suicide as sin are shaped by
Augustine in 4th century
– Viewed suicide as form of murder
– Viewed as unpardonable bc no time to repent
when take your own life
History of views about suicide
• Augustine’s views shaped by philosophers of
his time & by crisis in early Church
• Augustine upset with the Donatists who
encourage suicide as an act of piety
• Biblical influence:
– Exodus 20:13: “Thou shalt not kill”
History of views about suicide
• 3 Church Councils transform voluntary
death = unpardonable sin
– Council of Orleans: 533 AD
– Council of Braga: 563 AD
– Council of Auxerre: 578 AD
• Canon law eventually incorporated into
secular law; suicide becomes a crime of the
State
• Individuals who die by suicide not only
denied Christian burial but body was
dishonored as well
History of views about suicide
• Anyone who completes suicide denied
funeral rites of Eucharist & singing of Psalms
–
–
–
–
–
Bodies are hung in public places
Bodies buried with stake thru heart
Families are disgraced
Personal property forfeited to State
Penalty for attempted suicide = death
• Late 19th century, focus shifts from suicide as
a moral & religious issue to suicide seen as a
psychological & sociological issue
Biblical Accounts of Voluntary Deaths
• Judges 9:50-57: Abimelech
– Abimelech ashamed to be killed by a woman
so he asks his armor bearer to kill him
• Judges 16: 28-31: Samson
– Samson begs Yahweh to give him strength to
bring down pillars to avenge the Philistines
blinding him
• 1Samuel 31:1-13
– Saul asks his armor bearer to kill him so he
won’t be defiled by the Philistines
Biblical Accounts of Voluntary Deaths
• 2Sam. 17: 1-23: Ahithophel
– Ahithophel sides with Absalom when David &
Absalom fall out; Ahithophel is humiliated; goes
home and kills himself
• 1Kings 16:18-19: Zimri
– Dies in fire when defeated by enemy
– Condemned not bc completed suicide but bc
disobeyed God
Judas: Matthew 27:3-5
• After Judas realizes what he has done in
betraying Christ, he goes home and hangs
himself
• Some say that Judas’ punishment for
betraying God was his suicide
• Yet, Jesus knew Judas would betray him &
kissed him during the betrayal
• Perhaps Judas killed himself bc Judas didn’t
know that in spite of his betrayal, God was
not finished with Jesus or Judas yet, there
was something beyond the crucifixion
Common Themes in Biblical
Suicides
• Abimelech, Saul, Ahithophel, Zimri &
Samson are all trying to avoid humiliation
• Avoidance of shame very important in
Hebrew culture
Suicide as Unpardonable Sin
• In each of these passages, Bible doesn’t
comment one way or another on the
suicides
• There is no Hebrew word for “suicide” in
the Hebrew Bible – suggests idea of
suicide was a later development in
Hebrew culture
Early Rabbinic Writings
• In early rabbinic writings, under certain
circumstances, suicide was justifiable
– Someone tries to force person to commit idolatry
– Someone tries to force person to commit murder
– Someone tries to force person to engage in
forbidden sexual act
Condemnation of Suicide
• Life is a gift from God and only God has the
power to take life
– Genesis 1:1-2; 4a, 24b-25
– Genesis 9:5
• Since homicide is condemned, condemnation
should extend to suicide as well
• Yet the Bible is filled with examples where
the Israelites not only kill others, but they feel
that God is on their side in the killing
Condemnation Against Suicide
• Lot of Biblical characters who are full of
despair but don’t attempt suicide
–
–
–
–
–
Job: Job 2:9-10
Jonah: Jonah 3:1-8
Elijah: 1Kings 19
Moses: Numbers 11:10-15
David: Psalm 22
Compassion Toward Suicidal
• Emphasis placed on forgiving
• Not advocating suicide but focus on
pardoning or forgiving the person
– Psalm 139:8-10
– Daniel 3:16-18 (martyrdom)
– Romans 8:38 & 39
• Advocates that our worst mistakes don’t
negate God’s grace
• Greatest evidence for this: The Cross
Theology of Suffering
• Hollinger (1998) says our theology of suicide
is intimately connected with our theology of
suffering
• Two common views of suffering by the
world:
– Suffering is unqualified evil
– Suffering should be removed at all cost
• Christian theology = suffering is a challenge
to persevere and an opportunity to overcome
– James 1:3-4
– Romans 5: 3-5
Theology of Suffering
• Job becomes suicidal not bc he is suffering,
but bc he doesn’t understand the meaning of
his suffering
• Question for Job becomes a question of
theodicy: “How can a just God allow the
innocent to suffer?”
• Job questions God’s leadership in the world –
results in loss of meaning in life; he feels
hopeless
Theology of Suffering
• Job doesn’t attempt suicide bc in spite of his
suffering, Job continues to seek God
• Job has to answer a question we all have to
answer:
– What are you willing to do, what are you willing
to endure, to be in relationship with God?
Theology of Suffering
• For Christians, Christ is God’s answer to
what God is willing to endure to be in
relationship with us
– Are you willing to be in relationship with God,
regardless of the rewards and punishments
involved?
• Highest form of worship is being able to love
and be in relationship with a God who does
not guarantee that all your desires will be
granted
Theological & Psychological
Message of Job
• Job is strengthened by adversity
– Mental anguish --- mental fortitude
– Helplessness --- hopefulness
• What is your understanding of suffering?
• What do you convey to those to whom you
are called to minister?
Messages of Hope:
• I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh
my help. 2My help cometh from the LORD, which made
heaven and earth. (Psalm 121: 1-2, KJV)
• But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint (Isaiah 40:31)
• I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
(Philippians 4:13)
• For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Part III
Developing Partnerships
Introduction
• Important that faith & mental health
communities develop partnerships to promote
mentally & spiritually healthy families
• Mental illness often viewed as faith crisis
• Need permission to seek professional help
• Recognize pastor cannot be all things to all
people
Barriers to Help Seeking
• Stigma of mental illness
• Belief that suicide is a “white thing”
• Belief that suicide is not an option for “real
men”
• Belief that black women are “super women”
who don’t “crack” under pressure
Barriers to Help Seeking
• Pastors make jokes about mental illness from
pulpit
• Using negative view of mental illness or
seeking professional help in sermon or Bible
study
• Lack of communication and understanding
between faith & mental health community
– MHP’s are “heathens” who plan to take away my
Jesus
– Faith & prayer are passive responses to crises
What You Can Do to Help
• Listen: Don’t Judge
• Take Every Complaint Seriously
• Trust Your Own Judgment
• Ask Questions
• Don’t Act Shocked/Upset
• Don’t Be Misled
• Be Affirming & Supportive
What You Can Do to Help
• Give church members “permission” to seek
help thru
– Sermons
– Bible study
– Sunday school
• Stop encouraging “fake it till you make it”
theology
• Create support systems in church
Develop Partnerships
• Mental Health Professionals
– Invite them to come to health fairs, give
workshops
• Create Mental Health Resource Directory
• Create Programs to PREVENT suicide
– Strengthen families
– Strengthen young people’s sense of belonging
thru youth ministry
From the Pulpit
• Do Bible studies on emotional disorders or
mental health concerns in Bible
• Do special sermons on emotional disorders
– October – Depression Screening Month
– July – Black Mental Health Awareness Month
• Put concept of mental illness, emotional
problems, mental health & help seeking in
sermon or Bible study
From the Pulpit
• Several texts that are rich with symptoms of
depression that one can use for sermons or
Bible studies
–
–
–
–
–
1Samuel 16:14-23
Numbers 11:10-15
1Kings 19
Mark 5
John 5: 1-10
Take Home Message
And we know that in all things God
works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called
according to his purpose
(Romans 8:28, NIV)
We Can Do This Together!