Posted by:
Dallin Ox
(
)
Date: September 13, 2020 03:11PM
The church's stance on suicide has mellowed over time, which IMO is a good thing.
The original McConkie position in "Doctrine" was "Suicide is murder, pure and simple, and murderers are damned. There is no more justification for self-murder than for the willful destruction of another." Not a whole lot of room for forgiveness there.
The first time to my recollection that the doctrine was loosening was in 1987 when Russ Ballard published an op-ed in the Ensign called "Suicide: Some Things We Know, and Some We Do Not."
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1987/10/suicide-some-things-we-know-and-some-we-do-not?lang=engNow we have Renlund gaslighting in the Desperate News, calling McConkie's position "an old sectarian notion" as if TSCC had itself never taught it. "Yeah, it was only those other so-called Christians, not us!"
https://www.deseret.com/2018/7/2/20648210/lds-apostle-totally-false-that-suicide-leads-to-permanent-hellI think it's good that the church has lightened up on this subject. But it's a stretch to assert that it says suicide is "okay."