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Watchtower and Suicide

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The first number I want you to write is 1-800-273-8255.  It is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  I tend to focus on history and I’d like to look at suicide and the organization.

With that in mind, today, I want to focus on suicide. 

This is something that the society in its history has had interesting views.  To start, let’s go back to the days of Russell.  This is from the “Interesting Questions Answered” section which seems to be a prelude to the “Questions from Readers” section.  It has the following:

HOW SHALL WE VIEW SUICIDE?

Question.–How shall we view suicide? How serious is this matter? Should it be considered a crime?

Answer.–Suicide should be considered a very serious crime, unless it be the act of a deranged mind whose responsibility in the sight of God and men would, thereby, be considerably lessened.

Since the greatest gift of God is eternal life, through Christ, we may reason that life in any measure is an inestimable boon, privilege. For any sane mind, enlightened by present truth, to contemplate suicide would be unthinkable.

Zion’s Watchtower and Heard of Christ’s Presence.  April 1, 1903 Reprints p. 3176

Hence, aside from any future existence, we are to consider that his life was a useless, wasted one, and that its joys did not overbalance its sorrows and anguish when to the latter were added his despair and suicide. Judas’ end was a sad one. Every suicide, by his act, confesses his wish that he had never been born.

The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. November 1, 1911 Reprints p. 4906

Then would come suggestions of evil deeds or of suicide, the endeavor being made to drive the individual to a full surrender of his mind, his will, in order to full possession and mental unbalance.

The only remedy for persons in such a deplorable condition is that they exert their will power to oppose all such false suggestions.  Nothing is so helpful under such circumstances as correct knowledge of the Divine teaching respecting God’s Love and the abundance of His merciful provision in Christ.

The Watchtower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.  December 15, 1912 Reprints p. 5144

With those things in mind, let’s take a look at something said within the pages of the Golden Age on page 438 of the April 7, 1926 issue:

Tonsillectomy is called a minor operation.  Fi so, getting well is a double major.  If any overzealous doctor condemns your tonsils go and commit suicide with a case-knife.  It’s cheaper and far less painful.

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Contrasting this for a moment with one person who could have committed suicide but didn’t is the account of Job.  Without reading the verses:

Job 1:14-His oxen and donkeys were stolen.

1:15-servants are killed

1:16-Sheep and servants consumed in fire

1:17-Camels stolen

1:18, 19-Children died from house collapse

Later on, he is covered in painful boils.  His wife and friends abandon him.  He laments his very birth yet remains faithful.  He receives more at the end due to his faithfulness. 

With that in mind, the organization did the exact opposite with the following quote from The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, February 1, 1952 p. 95, 96:  We are not professionally trained doctors, and do not advise on health matters except as they may involve Scriptural issues, such as in the case of blood transfusions. 

From time to time we do publish articles on such subjects as surgery, chiropractic, zone therapy, etc.  Such articles constitute no endorsement of these practices by us.  They are offered in Awake! on the same basis that articles on other subjects are offered, namely, as general information and not as a recommendation. 

The August 1, 1983 Watchtower has an article devoted to suicide.  Sections include:

  • Deadly Emotions
  • Hopelessness, Guilt and Depression
  • Other Reasons for Suicide

The organization doesn’t print something unless there’s an agenda.  Was it possible that the organization was having an uptick in those taking their own life?

 

Since the internet has given a voice to those who once had none, I looked on Youtube with the following search, “Jehovah’s Witness suicide.”  Just one video is one too many.  However, there are a number of videos devoted to the subject. 

Just a few moments ago, I read a quote by the society that said in 1952 that they are NOT medical professionals.  I have a link to a leaked elder’s video as to how the Society trains elders to help those considering suicide.  Here’s the Youtube link and you’ll need to look in the description for the actual video that’s hosted outside of Youtube:

 

 

Ironically, the organization that doesn’t offer medical advice is training elders to give mental health advice using nothing but the bible in and of itself.  Although the bible is to be used, there are things that a trained professional would be best to assist when addressing the non biblical ramifications in a person’s life. 

Personally, I believe the organization is shifting this responsibility to elders since there is a need due to the pressures of being a Witness.  Counsel being provided by local kingdom hall elders may possibly shield the organization from any legal action.  If something happens, if this is a tactic, this may backfire.  This has been evidenced by the Candace Conti case regarding child sexual abuse. 

With this in mind, there is one man who has done a scientific study on those within the Watchtower pertaining to mental illness.  He is a former member and a trained professional.  Dr. Jerry Bergman concluded that those within the organization have higher incidents of mental illness when compared to the general population.  The video is dated but here:

 

Not to make light of anything, but if this was truly a spiritual paradise, would these incidents occur?  Here is a link for one tragic end for a devout Witness family: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/family-found-dead-apparent-murder-suicide-article-1.1582545

For what it’s worth, if you are contemplating any self harm, reach out to this number for immediate assistance: 1-800-273-8255.  It is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  Once you take care of yourself and receive assistance, leave this organization. 

To give the other side of the argument, I will link in a Watchtower apologist website that defends the organization regarding suicide and I’ll allow you to decide after you use this as a starting point for further research on suicide:

http://defendingjehovahswitnesses.blogspot.com/2013/06/do-jehovahs-witnesses-really-have.html

How to Use

Using this website is simple. If you are active Witness the quotes can be located within the Watchtower CD ROM. If you’re not a Jehovah’s Witness or do not have access to the Watchtower’s CD-ROM, you can look up some material on the organization’s official website. If you do this, you will notice that the organization does have some but not all material.  In particular, the Watchtower and Awake! magazines only go back to the year 2000 (as of August 1, 2014).  More material is reserved for those who are Witnesses.

Once you verify the accuracy of the quote you are encouraged to click on the hyperlinked PDF file. Go ahead and feel free to download the file to your computer or you simply view from within the website. Navigate to the place where the quote originates from.  Although this website focuses on material that contains ellipses, quotes that do not contain ellipses are contained as well.

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary

In its articles on Jehovah, The Imperial Bible-Dictionary nicely illustrates the difference between ʼElo·him′ (God) and Jehovah. Of the name Jehovah, it says: “It is everywhere a proper name, denoting the personal God and him only; whereas Elohim partakes more of the character of a common noun, denoting usually, indeed, but not necessarily nor uniformly, the Supreme. . . . The Hebrew may say the Elohim, the true God, in opposition to all false gods; but he never says the Jehovah, for Jehovah is the name of the true God only. He says again and again my God . . . ; but never my Jehovah, for when he says my God, he means Jehovah. He speaks of the God of Israel, but never of the Jehovah of Israel, for there is no other Jehovah. He speaks of the living God, but never of the living Jehovah, for he cannot conceive of Jehovah as other than living.”—Edited by P. Fairbairn, London, 1874, Vol. I, p. 856

Insight On the Scriptures-Volume II.  1988.  p.  8

 

Professor of Hebrew D. H. Weir therefore rightly says that those who claim Exodus 6:2, 3 marks the first time the name Jehovah was revealed, “have not studied [these verses] in the light of other scriptures; otherwise they would have perceived that by name must be meant here not the two syllables which make up the word Jehovah, but the idea which it expresses. When we read in Isaiah, ch. lii. 6, ‘Therefore my people shall know my name;’ or in Jeremiah, ch. xvi. 21, ‘They shall know that my name is Jehovah;’ or in the Psalms, Ps. ix. [10, 16], ‘They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee;’ we see at once that to know Jehovah’s name is something very different from knowing the four letters of which it is composed. It is to know by experience that Jehovah really is what his name declares him to be. (Compare also Is. xix. 20, 21; Eze. xx. 5, 9; xxxix. 6, 7; Ps. lxxxiii. [18]; lxxxix. [16]; 2 Ch. vi. 33.)”—The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, Vol. I, pp. 856, 857.

 

Insight On the Scriptures-Volume II.  1988.  p. 12-13

 

Concerning this The Imperial Bible-Dictionary (edited by P. Fairbairn, London, 1874, Vol. I, p. 664) observes: “It is interesting to know that this [the goat] was the recognized symbol of their nation by the Macedonians themselves. Monuments are still extant in which this symbol occurs, as one of the pilasters of Persepolis, where a goat is depicted with one immense horn on his forehead, and a Persian holding the horn, by which is intended the subjection of Macedon by Persia” (something accomplished by the Persians toward the close of the sixth century B.C.E.).

Insight On the Scriptures-Volume I.  1988. p. 966

 

“The later Hebrews looked on the celebration of birthdays as a part of idolatrous worship, a view which would be abundantly confirmed by what they saw of the common observances associated with these days.”—The Imperial Bible-Dictionary (London, 1874), edited by Patrick Fairbairn, Vol. I, p. 225.

Reasoning From the Scriptures.  1985, 1989 ed. p. 69

 

The Greek word rendered “cross” in many modern Bible versions (“torture stake” in NW) is stau·ros′. In classical Greek, this word meant merely an upright stake, or pale. Later it also came to be used for an execution stake having a crosspiece. The Imperial Bible-Dictionary acknowledges this, saying: “The Greek word for cross, [stau·ros′], properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground. . . . Even amongst the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole.”—Edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376.

Reasoning From the Scriptures.  1985, 1989 ed. p. 89

 

Of interest is a comment in The Imperial Bible-Dictionary of 1874: “[Jehovah] is everywhere a proper name, denoting the personal God and him only; whereas Elohim partakes more of the character of a common noun, denoting usually, indeed, but not necessarily nor uniformly, the Supreme. . . . The Hebrew may say the Elohim, the true God, in opposition to all false gods; but he never says the Jehovah, for Jehovah is the name of the true God only. He says again and again my God . . . ; but never my Jehovah, for when he says my God, he means Jehovah. He speaks of the God of Israel, but never of the Jehovah of Israel, for there is no other Jehovah. He speaks of the living God, but never of the living Jehovah, for he cannot conceive of Jehovah as other than living.”

Awake!  February 8, 1999 p. 8

 

The Imperial Bible Dictionary Volume I