..and I cry for Rick and his family.
During my post-fundamentalist Christianity and subsequent post-Christian life, I have been outspoken about Rick Warren's beliefs and message. Actually, due to my fundamentalism, I was even against Rick while still a devout inerrant Bible believing believer.
All of that is meaningless. Stupid life disagreements that have no place in this world when a son is lost to a father.
I have six children. Most days, I love them dearly. Losing one of them, especially to suicide, would devastate me to no end. Every day, after my son's death, I would question every second I spent (or didn't spend) with my son. I would go over every word I ever spoke (or didn't speak) to him. I would remember every after-school program, every sporting event, every conference, every concert, every ballgame, every lunch date I missed and twist them into a list of indictable offenses of the worst kind.
I would weep. And after the tears were gone, I would question everything of who I am as a father.
I ache for Rick Warren today. Today, he and I are simply fathers.
During my post-fundamentalist Christianity and subsequent post-Christian life, I have been outspoken about Rick Warren's beliefs and message. Actually, due to my fundamentalism, I was even against Rick while still a devout inerrant Bible believing believer.
All of that is meaningless. Stupid life disagreements that have no place in this world when a son is lost to a father.
I have six children. Most days, I love them dearly. Losing one of them, especially to suicide, would devastate me to no end. Every day, after my son's death, I would question every second I spent (or didn't spend) with my son. I would go over every word I ever spoke (or didn't speak) to him. I would remember every after-school program, every sporting event, every conference, every concert, every ballgame, every lunch date I missed and twist them into a list of indictable offenses of the worst kind.
I would weep. And after the tears were gone, I would question everything of who I am as a father.
I ache for Rick Warren today. Today, he and I are simply fathers.
Agreed. 100%.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDeleteI can't begin to imagine the heartbreak that the Warren family is experiencing. That poor young man must have been suffering deeply before he took his own life.
ReplyDeleteThe suicide seems to be opening up the public conversation about suicide, so people are talking, at least.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/suicide-of-megapastor-rick-warrens-son-sparks-debate-about-mental-illness/2013/04/10/322e4910-a148-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html
It's a tragedy, and it hits home for me, I've had depression for most of my life, and about 4 years ago, my family could have been in the same exact position.
ReplyDeleteIt's why it makes me so angry when I see fundamentalists attacking him now, and saying that his son's suicide was the result of a moral failure on his son's part, or blaming it on his father's teachings.
I've encountered a lot of ignorance, some from the outside world about mental illness, but that has been nothing compared to what I have seen and personally experienced in fundie circles:
http://ramblingsofsheldon.blogspot.com/2013/04/disgusting-attacks-upon-family-of-rick.html