New Zealand society currently exists in a state of cognitive dissonance. According to Oxford languages, cognitive dissonance is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. Our society has embraced opposing and contradictory ideas: on the one hand, we have legal access to taxpayer-funded assisted suicide through euthanasia, but on the other hand, we also fight suicide as a serious public health issue! Many in our society have fought for assisting in the suicide of those who have mental health issues, who are disabled, and those who are dying. Yet, we still recognise and publicly reject the scourge of suicide among the rest of society. Is suicide a right or a wrong? Our society no longer really knows or understands how to answer this question! The best they can do is to say, “It depends on why someone wants to die…”! Evidently, if society agrees with your reasoning, they are willing to give you taxpayer-funded assistance to ensure your suicide is as comfortable as possible.
In this issue of Faith in Focus, we are looking at the rapid rise of suicide in our society. How did we get to this place? What is driving this contradictory approach to suicide? Most importantly, what can our churches do to reach out and minister to the lost and dying in our society? We need to understand the problem so that we can address it in a Biblical and relevant way. Christians must address this problem because we are the only ones who have true comfort in life and in death!
Now, as I raise this as an issue, some of you may disagree that suicide is increasing in New Zealand. No doubt, some of you will have read a recent article or two claiming that “New Zealand suicide statistics are at a fourteen year low!” In our official NZ statistical data, it does appear that suicide has been on the decline in recent years. However, this is not a fair reporting of the current situation. For example, in the financial year 2021/2022, the Office of the Chief Coroner of New Zealand reported 538 suicides – which is a rate of 10.2 suicides per 100,000 New Zealanders. That number was down from 607 suicides in 2020/2021 (11.6 per 100,000). The preliminary 2022/2023 numbers are a slight increase to 565 suicides (10.6 per 100,000). However, these numbers do not include the significant increase in legally assisted suicide! When you include the 257 assisted suicide deaths from 2021/2022 and the 328 assisted suicide deaths from 2022/2023 you see a much more significant leap in our suicide rate! The highest national suicide rate in the last eighty years was 16.7 per 100,000 in the years from 1996-1998. When we include the “assisted dying” suicide numbers in the national statistics from 2022/2023, we see that we had a total of 893 suicides that year, resulting in a rate of 16.75 suicides per 100,000! And this number appears to be on the rise based on the 2024 first quarter data released by Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora (the Assisted Dying Service Data and Reporting quarterly reports are available for free online). Based on these figures, we have the highest suicide rate New Zealand has seen for nearly 100 years! One of the most frightening developments in recent years is that New Zealand’s youth suicide rate was the highest of 41 OECD/EU countries (based on data from 2010).
Why are these numbers increasing? What has brought about this change? With an issue like suicide, it is never just one cause. I must also point out, that causation or reasoning is in no way recorded as part of Health NZ’s reporting or statistics. Therefore, we can’t know for certain what the specific causes are. However, we can make some observations about the changes in our society which do lead to hopelessness, depression and the desire to commit suicide.
New Zealand society has been more broadly Christian in the past. In recent decades, our politicians (and the NZ public) have increasingly jumped on every political and philosophical bandwagon that passes by! To a large degree, we have discarded Christianity and religious education from the public education system. We have discarded traditional Christian morality and family values and have sought to replace them with assisted suicide, abortion, and much of the LGBTQ+ agenda (which keeps adding letters to their name and colours to their flag!). New Zealand has sought to be a progressive liberal democracy without God. In these various campaigns, our society has suppressed the truth of God in unrighteousness, and we have begun to reap the horrible consequences. In Romans 1, Paul explains what happens when people replace truth with lies! Their thinking becomes futile, and their foolish hearts are darkened. The wisdom of this world leads to folly and degradation, and that is what we are seeing in New Zealand today.
The world teaches that humanity evolved from chance mutations. They claim that all of life is meaningless, unguided and without morality. To many non-Christians, morality is simply a social construct which can change to serve a changing world, without reference to God. But these approaches are hopeless and baseless and leave society ungrounded. The further we go from our Christian roots, the more likely we will see hopelessness and despair in society. For meaning and human value is found in our being made in the image of God. We have a God-given task on this earth, and apart from God’s Word and Spirit, humanity cannot find meaning or purpose.
However, that does not mean that Christians do not struggle with depression, despair and suicidal thoughts. We live in a sin-cursed world, and every Christian is a broken sinner. That brokenness affects our bodies and souls! Believers face struggles like the rest of society, but as Christians, we do have certain hopes and comforts which can sustain us in the darkest days. The hope of Christ’s forgiveness and grace and His imminent return to perfect us in glory can sustain us! It has been frequently noted that while Christianity does not protect us from facing depression, despair and the temptation to suicide, Christianity does appear to provide protection from suicide attempts. Believers are statistically less likely to act on suicidal thoughts. This could be because of the hope we have in Christ, the restrictions of God’s Law, or it could be a result of the greater support we have in the church (or a combination of all three). The point is that there is real hope and protection in Christ. But this then brings up a challenging question: How do we help change our society in relation to suicide? How should the Church respond to this current crisis and the growing culture of death in New Zealand?
1) We ought to pray! God alone can truly change hearts and minds and pull our society back from the brink of destruction.
2) We ought to love our neighbours! Much of the desire for suicide comes from isolation from others and an utter lack of love and support in society. Christians have something to offer their neighbours! We can love and care for them in the name of Christ! There is an interesting non-Christian movie called Otto. The story is of a man who wants to commit suicide after the death of his wife. However, he keeps being interrupted by various needs of his neighbours, and those neighbours express their love, support and need for Otto in various ways – which ultimately changes his mind regarding suicide. The point of the movie is the power of knowing and caring for our neighbours. The odd thing is that the movie really mentions nothing of religion. Yet, Christians are the people who are most likely to make this kind of difference in our society, for our Lord Jesus not only commanded this kind of love – He demonstrated it in His earthly ministry! We need to love our actual neighbours, co-workers and community!
3) Finally, we need to be willing to be “open and broken” with each other. Too often, believers don’t share their true struggles with each other because they are afraid of being judged and condemned. Sadly, there are too many sinful hypocrites in the church who will judge and condemn you when you are open and honest. But as Paul explains in Galatians 6, we ought to bear one another’s burdens! We need mutual care and support that we might find restoration and healing in the body of Christ!
However, when we don’t get the response that we should, we need to remember that we do not live for the approval of others. We have an audience of ONE – our Lord and our God! We can be open, vulnerable and broken without fear, for in Christ, there is no condemnation and no shame. God may be calling you to be the one to begin that culture change in your church or in your family through you sharing your struggles and asking for help! Our courage to be open about our needs and struggles will encourage others to share their struggles, and together we can find hope and encouragement and help in Christ!
When the Church is a place of healing and hope, then we will be a bright and shining light in the midst of a dark and dying world.
Mr Daniel Wilson is the minister of the North Shore Reformed Church.
Photo by Daniel Hu on Unsplash
