When Will Our Culture Become So Desperate That It Sees Only One Clear Choice? RONALD DEE MALLETTÂ for Charisma News
If you are in crisis, please call 1-800-273-8255 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You are not alone. If you want to talk about addiction / recovery reach out – Info@GospelNewsNetwork.org
Suicide remains at pandemic levels among all age groups in the U.S., but most grievously among teenagers. The Centers for Disease Control cataloged 45,979 such deaths in 2020. This is about one death every 11 minutes.
Also in 2020, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 24-34.
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Even more significantly, the CDC recorded 1.4 million suicide attempts during the same period. These numbers, grievous though they are, underreport the tragedy because the statistical tables are built upon shaky presumptions. How many thousands of deaths attributed to substance abuse, for example, are actually suicide-driven? How many family members hide or camouflage self-destructive acts in their midst?
We’re not alone. Suicide levels in South Korea, for example, recently hit historic highs. In a December 2020 article titled “Suicide is on the rise among South Korean Women,”” The Economist magazine reported on record levels of suicide among young women in that Asian province. While COVID-19 accounted for 564 deaths, suicides during the same period were more than double that number. (We used these countries as information sources because they are both heavily Christianized. As a comparative, think of what horrible numbers might issue from non-Christian societies if accurately counted.)
This isn’t just another ‘woe-r-us’ tale of misery. We’re all saturated with negative thinking, dreary headlines and endless reports of savagery. And it is far past time for Christians to jump in and help fix things.
But it also seems most of us are frozen in place. As a result, I may be the most confused man in the world! Why these horrible statistics?
More than 25% of all Coloradans “live with a mental illness or substance use disorder.” Where did this come from? A fourth of them?
