{"id":76098,"date":"2019-07-16T13:51:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T19:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=76098"},"modified":"2019-07-16T13:51:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T19:51:41","slug":"is-god-the-answer-to-the-suicide-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/07\/is-god-the-answer-to-the-suicide-epidemic.html","title":{"rendered":"“Is God the Answer to the Suicide Epidemic?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Near<\/a>
A strictly irrelevant but quite beautiful Virginia farm scene \u00a0(http:\/\/www.ForestWander.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA swan song for Mormons\u2019 Hill Cumorah Pageant\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry to say, on the basis of my one experience with the Hill Cumorah Pageant, that Jana Riess\u2019s verdict on the pageant was pretty much mine, as well. \u00a0I found it impressive and spectacular, but not at all moving. \u00a0So I\u2019m less sad than I\u2019m sure many are that the pageant\u2019s long run is coming to a close. \u00a0(I\u2019m sorry, though, for the revenue loss that the community of Palmyra, New York, will suffer.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My one visit to the Palmyra pageant came in 1994, while I was spending the summer at Princeton University. \u00a0At one point, my wife and I took our family to visit Niagara Falls and some of the Church historical sites, and to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we were walking to take our seats, though, I saw two young men \u2014 roughly eighteen years of age, I estimated, so probably on the threshhold of serving their missions \u2014 locked in earnest conversation with one of the Protestant anti-Mormons who typically show up at performances of the Pageant. \u00a0Or, rather, they were standing there being harangued by him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had known beforehand that critics of the Church would be out in force, and I had vowed to myself that I would not engage with them, that I would ignore them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But here were two young Latter-day Saint men being hammered by a fellow who, I knew because I recognized him (though I won\u2019t mention his name), made his living as a full-time, professional crusader against the claims of the Church and the Restoration. \u00a0He was bludgeoning them with an issue to which they clearly had no adequate response.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I<\/em> knew how to respond to him. \u00a0So wasn\u2019t it my moral obligation to step in and help?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to, I had resolved not to, but I did. \u00a0I told my wife and kids to go on ahead, that I would be with them shortly. \u00a0And, pretty soon, the two young men moved away, as well, leaving me alone with a really smug, dogmatic, and extraordinarily belligerent born-again Protestant anti-Mormon. \u00a0I finally got away from the guy just minutes before the show began, and I can\u2019t really say that he put me in a good mood to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Wall Street Journal:<\/em> \u00a0\u201cIs God the Answer to the Suicide Epidemic? \u00a0Someone who attends religious services is significantly less likely to kill himself.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are a quartet of related articles that I\u2019ve published in the Deseret News<\/em> over the years:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow religious faith benefits society\u201d<\/a> \u00a0(6 June 2013)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs religious faith a mental illness?\u201d<\/a> \u00a0(2 February 2017)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs religion good for your health?\u201d<\/a> \u00a0(8 June 2017)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMental health and the Latter-day Saints\u201d<\/a> \u00a0(21 March 2018)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I mean, shouldn\u2019t people have been suspicious from the very beginning about a book detailing the alleged personal experiences of somebody named \u201cMalarkey\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHeavenly visitations? Slate lifts the curtain on evangelical insider battles\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cA swan song for Mormons\u2019 Hill Cumorah Pageant\u201d \u00a0 I\u2019m sorry to say, on the basis of my one experience with the Hill Cumorah Pageant, that Jana Riess\u2019s verdict on the pageant was pretty much mine, as well. \u00a0I found it impressive and spectacular, but not at all moving. \u00a0So I\u2019m less sad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Is God the Answer to the Suicide Epidemic?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    "A swan song for Mormons\u2019 Hill Cumorah Pageant"   I'm sorry to say, on the basis of my one experience with the Hill Cumorah Pageant,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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