Demon-Possessed Pigs: 07 July 2004
There are all of these people who, when anyone talks to them about my uncle's suicide, they bring up demons and this story in the Bible where this kid was demon-possessed (seizures) and Jesus healed him by sending all the demons into this herd of pigs, who then stampeded over a cliff to their deaths, which I suppose set the demons free from the pigs? I don't know, demons are (and always have been) a very weird subject. Anyways, I have the following to say to people who bring this up:
WHAT?!
Hello, we are living in 2004 now and we know about depression, and we know about my uncle's depression specifically, and there are a billion factors and yes suicide is still unimaginable and a slap in the face and so utterly against whatever instincts humans still possess, but demons?! This makes my immediate family angry, it does not help us in our grief to think that these mysterious beings took over him, drove him to madness, and in effect murdered him and that the faith that allows you to believe in demons doesn't require you to believe that God would go to bat for my oh-so-Christian uncle and protect him from something like that. Of course, given Biblical books like Job, where God did anything BUT go to bat for his "most faithful servant" (let alone his kids and servants, who get killed all over the place, just over a stupid BET), maybe it makes sense that you wouldn't trust God to protect you from anything but hell (which, may I note, is his own wrath, so he's really only protecting you from himself).
This kind of shit is pissing me off and it's hurting my (Christian!) father and that really pisses me off. Maybe people are just trying to come up with an explanation and thinking that that sort of thing will help. Well, it doesn't. Saying "I don't know, I can't understand, but I will listen and I will grieve with you and let me know if there's anything you need"ÑTHAT would help.
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