Youth suicide problem, Wesley? What youth suicide problem?
In Tennessee, the suicide promoting and assisting organization, Final Exit Network, is holding a suicide promoting event at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. (These kind of compasssssssionaatttte events are almost always held at Unitarian churches.)
Shamefully, it is open to 13 year olds and above. From the pulished notice for “Death With Dignity: The Human Right of the 21st Century:”
Ages: 13+
Here’s a tragic story of the recent suicide of a 13 year-old:
Sitting in the principal’s office, Hope Witsell signed the “no-harm” contract the school social worker had given her, agreeing not to commit suicide. The next day, Sept. 12, 2009, the 13-year-old hanged herself with a scarf in her Wimauma bedroom. A year and a half later, Charles and Donna Witsell are still asking questions. Why didn’t anyone from Beth Shields Middle School call them when their daughter was called in for counseling? And why did they only learn about the contract days after finding her body?
Children that age are very impressionable and won’t necessarily get the idea that suicide is good for some suffering people but not for them. That kind of mixed message doesn’t really work for mature audiences.
Shame on FEN. Shame on this TVUUC for allowing children to attend a suicide promoting presentation.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…