A Winsome Christian Approach to Assisted Suicide

Last updated on: May 2, 2022 at 8:33 am by Esther O’Reilly

A Winsome Christian Approach to Assisted Suicide 2022-05-02T08:32:51-04:00 Esther O’Reilly

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

See the source image

[Note: What follows is satire. Let the reader understand.]

Church, we have a problem. A unity problem. I mean, just look around you. We can’t seem to agree on anything, and it’s tearing us apart. This is not helpful or winsome. The world is watching, remember?

Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to gospel issues, a little division might be a good thing. Take the diagnosis and treatment of systemic racism. I mean, if you can’t even agree with my specific preferred policy on something that transparently uncomplicated, it’s probably worth a little ostracism and fellowship breaking. But debatable political questions where reasonable Christians can have the same morals while preferring different legal approaches? Whole different story.

Be honest, have you ever thought about why we codify things like murder and rape prohibitions into law while not making other sins illegal, like idolatry? Actually, don’t answer that question, I already know you haven’t. I mean, you’re a Protestant, right? And an evangelical Protestant at that. So yeah, these aren’t the kinds of penetrating original questions you guys have ever really thought about in your spare time, while you weren’t eating Chick-fil-A or boycotting Disney or whatever it is Protestants have historically spent all their time doing. Let me put it this way, have you heard of Bailie? Gillespie? Rutherford? Morons.

Where was I? Oh, right, talking exactly which bad things to codify into law. It’s a tricky one, this. Lots of sophisticated resources here. I could quote some of them for you, but like I said, it probably wouldn’t register. (I do have a reading list, come see me after class if interested.) For now, let’s just consider a couple of MORAL (notice how I put that in ALL CAPS, which means I want you to PAY ATTENTION, so I’m making this EASIER for you), to repeat, MORAL norms from the Ten Commandments: 1) do not covet, and 2) do not murder. Both sins, right? Now if you asked a typical evangelical whether coveting should be illegal, he would say no. But if you asked him whether, say, bumping off your sick suicidal mom in a mainline church building should be illegal, he would say yes. Now why would he say that? Why make the first thing legal and NEVER talk about it while insisting the second thing should be illegal and also just, I don’t know, kind of a big deal in general? The Bible says that coveting my neighbor’s Ferrari, bumping off my sick suicidal mom, and yelling at the schmuck who’s going slow in the fast lane are all sins. But it doesn’t tell us HOW we are to apply these norms to a pluralistic democracy. I know bumping off my mom is a sin, but the Bible doesn’t tell me the best policy to decrease or end assisted suicides in this country, nor which political or legal policies are most effective to that end. Each party has their arguments for why they’re more compassionate and humane and moral, but we are allowed to debate that and so our churches should not have disunity over debatable political differences!

Oh for crying out loud. Sigh. So apparently the sick suicidal mom triggered a bunch of evangelicals here on Twitter. People focusing on that one example and saying that because you would be physically harming your innocent sick mom, as in, like, dumping a lethal dose of poison into her body, that’s the kind of thing the government should be paying attention to, probably. Totally missing the point. I’m sorry I brought her up, okay? I left her out of it when I did this on Facebook and we had a much better conversation. Anyway, to reiterate, assisted suicide was just an example, and I’m talking about a principle here. Focus, people. Let’s go over the Big Principle again, more slowly: There are lots of bad things that you could do. Some of those bad things could be legal. Some of them could be not legal. Related, evangelicals are really dumb. Are you with me so far? Are we good?

As I said: There is so much room for reasonable variation of opinion among Christians on so many different things—taxes, immigration, gay marriage, the legality of bumping off your sick suicidal mom. Christians who agree on the MORAL principles (like yes, it is bad to kill your sick suicidal mom), can have healthy disagreement on the best POLITICAL application of those principles. Because, like, okay, if people’s sick moms are really seriously suicidal then they are going to find a way, so you COULD argue that refusing to make the whole process comfortable and legal for them isn’t going to help anything and would just punish desperate friends and family while increasing the number of back-alley suicides, not that that’s what I’M saying because as I already said this is JUST AN EXAMPLE, but I’m just saying, a good moral Christian COULD say that while not being a complete idiot, is all I’m saying. I mean Stephen Colbert would probably say something like that, right? Love that guy. Great witness. Faithful presence. Anyway, point is, folks, this is not something to divide over. No matter how much we yell at each other.

Yes, thank you, smart not-evangelical reply guy who actually read and understood my thread! I see you. You are seen. And you are absolutely right, my purpose with all this is twofold: to show that rational Christians can disagree over politics, and to show that evangelicals are not rational. 100%. Many don’t want to have this convo, it seems. Also, THANK YOU for noticing that I have NOT TAKEN A POSITION on whether it should be legal to bump off your sick suicidal mom. Exactly! Yes! Literally, that’s the whole point of this whole thing. The not taking a position in public, I mean. You really caught the vision here. Thanks so much for that. All those triggered evangelical replies though…big oof. I mean you don’t want to punch down, but, like, it’s hard to not. You know? You get me, don’t you, smart not-evangelical reply guy?

Anyway. People just proving my point at this point, so I guess my work here is done. The take-home: Church, don’t be divisive. Respect everyone. Except evangelical Protestants. Sorry, I meant everyone else. And remember: The world is watching.

Faith and Culture

Previous Post

March 17, 2022

From Christian Conservatives, Zero Cheers for Dave Rubin

Next Post

May 4, 2022 4 Predictions if Roe Falls

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 3 star 3.5 star 4 star 4.5 star Anatomy of a Song Behind the Songs Blog Stuff Book Reviews CCM CCM vs. SG CD Reviews Christians in Entertainment Christmas Essential 12 Christmas Favorites Christmas Top Fives Concert Reviews Concerts Culture Devotional Thoughts Faith and Culture From the Vault Fun Gospel Singers Gospel Songs Great Music Guest Posts Harmony Master Classes History Holidays Humor Hymns Interviews Marriage in the Movies Monday Morning Humor Movie Reviews Movies Music NQC Odds and Ends Old Movies, New Eyes Old Southern Gospel News Old Stuff Open Threads Other Genres Perfect Tenor Performances Polls Questions and Answers Recently Added SG vs. The Rest of the World Sing It Again Songs Songwriting Southern Gospel Surprise Sunday The Definitive Hymns Theology Toe-to-Toe Top 10 Lists Top 5 Top 5 Lists Two Sisters Review Uncategorized Video Posts Youtube Finds

Select a Month August 2026 February 2025 August 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 October 2023 March 2023 February 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 April 2018 September 2017 August 2017 May 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Revelation, what does John eat that is sweet in his mouth but sour in his stomach?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The word of God Honey A little scroll A sealed book