A couple days ago in a nice neighborhood in midtown Manhattan, a man and his wife jumped to their deaths. The suicides are being blamed on financial problems that were 'spiraling' out of control. Both bodies carried ID and suicide notes in baggies in their pants pockets. The two were a mom and dad of a son and daughter, 19 and 20. By all means, pray for those kids. The news hit me especially hard because of my own familiarity with suicide.
When I left college in the early '70s I was momentarily involved with a really insidious, pseudo-Christian cult. I was no Bible scholar at that time. But when I discovered the group was demanding that its college-age followers become thieves and prostitutes in order to support the group's bigamist leader in his lavishly decadent lifestyle, I decided that wasn't for me. I told them I doubted that God was involved in any of that. At which point I was told I had irreversibly offended God in my so judging - and for that I was lost and guaranteed eternal hell..
