Right now, I’m trying to rewrite something I saw a few days ago, that kindof disturbed me. It’s a play called Judgment House, with walkthrough scenes depicting life choices post-mortem judgement. It astonishes me at its power every time I attend a local church’s version. It always brings out the power of their actors, and production team and astonishes me at the way people can be affected. It’s scary, too. Gets my blood pumping. But something was different this year. The plot is different every time, churches can pick which script they would like to act out every year, so it’s usually different. When I went to it this time, the production was excellent as usual. A little less frightening than normal, but still, the quiet, shy girl in my class didn’t go to hell into without a fight. (I’ll explain in a minute) So, the disturbing part. The plotline itself. The plot focused on teens, but as a teen in the middle of teenhood, I didn’t want to become a christian after watching it. I wanted to fight it. Lemme draw it out.
Scene 1: Some parents are in the office of the pastor of a local church. They are complaining about Rachel, a teen whose parents are in jail because of drug-related issues. They believe she is also a drug-user, and will be a bad influence to their children, and their children’s safety on a youth trip taking place that week. The pastor maintains that the church’s job is not to babysit children, but to reach out to those hurting and in need. He also points out that a longstanding member of the church, and overall good person has custody of Rachel. Her Grandmother. This makes the parents quite angry, and the meeting adjourns abruptly. That’s good. I like that. The church is focusing on what I think they should.
Scene 2: Rachel’s grandmother is talking to a photo of her deceased husband back at her house. Rachel comes in from the back and drops her packed bag on the ground. Her grandma kindly and warmly makes sure Rachel has everything and assures her she’ll have a great time. Rachel protests, pointing out that everyone on the trip hates her, and she can’t trust anyone after all she’s been through. And who can blame her? She storms out of the house still angry, and her grandmother prays for her
This is where the first thing happened that I have trouble with. The grandmother. She was a good person, she kept her cool, she prayed, she was honestly trying to help. But when Rachel got angry, her grandmother was clearly disheartened. But she was disheartened that Rachel was not accepting the help, making Rachel the antagonist, completely ignoring the so often stated fact that she’s had a hard life. Not really a big thing, but worth mentioning.
Scene 3: A bunch of students and parents are hanging around the church, preparing to leave. Pastor Mike stands up and prepares the group to go, also asking that the students befriend Rachel, and help her out, mentioning (again) her rough circumstances. After, the students whisper amongst themselves about Rachel. They all, well all but one guy who refused to take sides, were complaining and gossiping, and judging and just being all around jerks to her. Typical youth group these days. One parent walked up to their child and requested they completely avoid Rachel. At this point Rachel walked in. Obviously she had heard enough, but she was quiet about it, with a sulky look. The ladies at the registration table asked her to fill out a form. While she was doing so, they gossiped about her too. The group got together to pray before they left.
Scene 4: The group is at camp playing games. The students are still gossiping. Casting Crowns’ “Lifesong” is playing. Rachel is sitting in the corner. One girl comes up to talk to her, but Rachel pushes her away. She is hurt and joins the other kids. A youth leader steps up, quiets the music and gather the group to listen to the lesson for that day. It’s about loving people, and reaching out to the hurting. Exactly the opposite of those kids. Midway in, Pastor Mike walks in and pulls Rachel to the side. He tries to be gentle and helpful, but informs her that her grandmother has died, and she has to go home. Rachel appears unemotional, and goes to her room to pack up. The lesson ends, David Crowder’s cover of John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves” is playing.
Scene 5: Rachel sits in her room. She has clearly lost all control of her emotions, her present ones having lost the last person she felt she might could trust, and everything else bottled up, and all of the hateful words the kids said about her. She writes on some paper, then stands up, crying (great job on part of the actor). She rants about about all shes been through, and how she wants it to end. She just wants all the pain to stop. The words the kids were saying start playing from hidden speakers throughout the room. She reaches in her backpack and pulls out some drugs. She swallows them, killing herself. A voice behind a curtain starts laughing, shouting “You are mine!”
Scene 6: Judgement has come. As we walked into this scene, two actors were already in place behind the tape that us viewers were supposed to be behind. They stood among us. A man came up in front of a podium, and started reading from the book of life. He called Rachel’s grandmother. He told her she had done well, a good and faithful servant, and sent her to heaven, escorted by an angel. He called Rachel. He told her that she had not accepted Christ, and pushed away those (few) who had tried to help her. A demon came forth and dragged her, screaming, into a red door. Hell. He called the names of all of us. I was 4th. He told us it was not our time, and we could go back, but keep in mind what happened there.
From there we experienced a hell scene, and a heaven scene. Each one about as close as you can get in a play.
Okay. Now for what ticked me off. This girl, who has had an unbelievable hard life, and has shut out everyone as a result, is judged by many, and one point of the play was that words hurt. But after all this, this girl hits rock bottom, and thats it. That’s the end. Most tragedies have a bittersweet ending. This one was bitter. They repeated her circumstances too many times to count, encouraging people not to blame her for it. They repeated over and over that words hurt. But This girl, whom the audience has allied itself with, is made the bad guy. I’ll agree. What happens on earth doesn’t matter when you get to judgement. She made her choice. But people on earth still hurt her, and nothing happened. They didnt change. Nothing was learned. I mean, sure, it was real, but it didn’t feel right, as a teen in society, it would’ve made me resent christians.
Another thing though. If you read about suicide, you see alot about how people do it when the pain exceeds what they can handle. And the play followed that to the letter. I mean, I didn’t believe the writers knew anything about it but that. There’s so much more. Plus, this girl was stubborn, and resisted all help. That’s why she went to hell. She wasn’t at all someone whose first thought would be to kill herself. She was the type to explode in everyone else’s faces. Her character didn’t match her action. It didn’t make sense. If her character was believable as suicidal, the plot wouldn’t have made sense. So the whole thing fell apart. Atleast in my mind. I left that place angry at the way something as touchy as suicidal was portrayed. I don’t endorse anything to manipulate the public, please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying it should have been portrayed in a way that makes people feel more sorry for the person. I’m saying it should be portrayed as it is. And they didn’t do that.
But maybe I overrected. Suicide is a problem close to my heart. There are dozens of problems to fix in the world, I think the biggest being the human condition, the second being abortion. But suicide, abuse, depression, self-injury, eating disorders, loneliness, and those things associated with it… That’s my cause. My mission is not to change corrupt govt. That’s my friend Zach. My mission is not to fight terrorists. That’s my friend Jonathan. My mission is not to stop abortion, (though that’s pretty close too), That’s my prayer group. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ignoring those, those thing are all major, major problems as well. But I can only tackle one at a time. God’s got someone to get those too. If I have room for a second, I’ll take another. But those are mine. So maybe, I took the whole thing personally, and they should have done it the way they did. I’m rewriting it anyway, but maybe I’m wrong.
So I just stated something I believe to be a problem, now I should probably offer my opinion. I think… people should know about this. The deeper meaning. I once heard it explained by this. a weed in a field represent the problem. You see it, you see its’ a problem, so you cut it down. But its’ roots are still there. It’s gonna grow back. The roots represent the cause(s) of the problem. If you wanna fix it, you pull it out by the roots. The world should know what people feel, and think, truly think when they decide they wanna quit life.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each year approximately one million people die from suicide, which represents a global mortality rate of 16 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds. It is predicted that by 2020 the rate of death will increase to one every 20 seconds.
The WHO further reports that:
In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 (male and female). Suicide attempts are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicides.
Although suicide rates have traditionally been highest amongst elderly males, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of all countries.
Mental health disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide.
However, suicide results from many complex sociocultural factors and is more likely to occur during periods of socioeconomic, family and individual crisis (e.g. loss of a loved one, unemployment, sexual orientation, difficulties with developing one’s identity, disassociation from one’s community or other social/belief group, and honour).
The WHO also states that:
In Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, the highest suicide rates are reported for both men and women.
The Eastern Mediterranean Region and Central Asia republics have the lowest suicide rates.
Nearly 30% of all suicides worldwide occur in India and China.
Suicides globally by age are as follows: 55% are aged between 15 to 44 years and 45% are aged 45 years and over.
Youth suicide is increasing at the greatest rate.
In the US, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention reports that:
Overall, suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death for all US Americans, and is the third leading cause of death for young people 15-24 years.
Although suicide is a serious problem among the young and adults, death rates continue to be highest among older adults ages 65 years and over.
Males are four times more likely to die from suicide than are females. However, females are more likely to attempt suicide than are males.
Stats from TWLOHA.com
Suicide, and those things, those are symptoms of a greater disease. People need to know. Bring it on.
So that’s what I’m doing this week. Howabout you?
