Suicide woman banned from rivers

BBC NEWS ^ | 25 February, 2005 | A.N.Other

[CHARLITE]

I found the perfect monument for her, MoveOnMoron, and MeNoIndian.

[Gondring]

Killing yourself put your immortal soul in danger.

Well, someone should have told that to the early Christians who killed themselves in the belief that it demonstrated devotion to Christ, and not being tied to the temporal world, showing they desired to be in His presence as soon as possible. In fact, to this day in central Numidia, you can see the carvings of early Christians who recorded where and when others had jumped to be with their Saviour.

Unfortunately for them, these early Christians got into a political squabble with the Church, who didn't like them freeing slaves and saying that corrupt priests shouldn't hold office and deliver sacraments (specifically, they were upset at a bishop who had given scriptures to the inquisitors [to be burned]). Therefore Augustine of Hippo wrote against them...and wrote in favor of allowing Christians to be violent (not very Christ-like, but he had good business sense in doing so, and they made him a saint). They were declared heretics, and the African Christians were weakened to the point that Islam took over the continent.

But back to Augustine and his late 4th century/early 5th century writings...

In AD 562 or thereabouts, a Council at Brega decided to put an end to all this dying stuff, and banned suicide. OF course, this is the same council where they said that priests who take vows of vegetarianism must eat meat broth over their veggies or they are excommunicated. Is that still followed, I wonder?

Anyway, there are saints who have committed suicide... So I guess some get a pass, but the bottom line is that the whole idea of suicide putting your soul in danger is a Catholic idea, not a Christian one. (Not saying Catholicism isn't Christianity...)