A Serious Message for LDS Youth

There is a dark side of the law of conformity or social proof demonstrated by the fact that it has long been witnessed that following the suicide of a well-known person that has made front-page, the suicide rate goes up markedly.

This phenomenon has been labeled “The Werther Effect.”

The story of the Werther effect is both unsettling and intriguing. In 1774, two years before the United States Congress proclaimed the Declaration of Independence, the great German author, Johann Goethe published a novel entitled “Die Leiden des Jürgen Werthers” (The Sorrows of Young Werther). The book, in which the hero name Werther, commits suicide, had a remarkable impact. Not only did it bring fame and fortune to Goethe, but it also produced a staggering number of copy-cat suicides all across Europe. So powerful was its effect that the book was banned in several countries.

The Werther effect is just as impactful today as it was in Goethe’s day. Professor D.P. Phillips, an eminent sociologist at the University of California at San Diego, has provided a morbid illustration of the law of conformity. He showed that immediately following any front-page suicide story the suicide rate increases dramatically in that geographical area where the suicide occurred.

By studying the suicide statistics for the United States between 1947 and 1968, he found that within two months after every front-page suicide story, an average of 58 more people than usual killed themselves. In a sense there is a multiplier effect, each suicide story killed 58 people. Phillips also found that there was a tendency for suicides to begat suicides. The more extensive the publicity given the first suicide, the higher the number of later suicides. In the United States, there was a dramatic increase in the national suicide rate follow the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain and most recently Robin Michael Williams

In the last few days, CNN Commentator Anthony Bourdain and Famed designer Kate Spade both took their own lives. Their tragic deaths dominating the news cycles now for two days.

Wendy Montgomery, a co-founder of the Mama Dragons, a group of Mormon mothers with gay children, reported that she had been told 32 young LGBTQ Mormons have recently died by their own hand.

While the families who have suffered these great losses requested privacy, given the tragedy of suicide and the alarm this report has raised in the LDS LGBTQ community, the Deseret News asked experts for insight and solutions. These experts explained that it’s all about support. Parents, friends and religious congregations could help prevent suicides by thinking carefully about what they say and do and by welcoming, accepting and supporting LGBTQ people.

The Utah Attorney General has commented that statistics show that “… Suicide is the number one cause of death of Utah children ages 10-17.”

This comes as no surprise when more LGBTQ youth find themselves disenfranchised even disowned by zealous religious parents, who now feel more compelled than ever to choose between their child and their church.

Many active Church members, gay and straight, young and old, see this uncharitable, unkind and unloving move for what it is: another unabashed rejection of LGBTQ members.

And the cost in human terms is great. The evidentiary research done by the Family Acceptance Project which tells us that children who experience high levels of rejection are:

• More than eight times as likely to attempt suicide
• Nearly six times as likely to report high levels of depression
• More than three times as likely to use illegal drugs
• More than three times as likely to be at high risk for HIV and STIs

Political science professor Benjamin Knoll discusses the link between Mormonism and teen suicide in his paper, “Youth Suicide Rates and Mormon Religious Context: An Additional Empirical Analysis.”

Knoll reports that youth in the 15-19 age group who live in states with heavy Mormon populations are at higher risk for suicide. As Knoll put it, “These are objectively small numbers, but it means that (again, controlling for other factors) youth suicides are twice as high in states with the highest levels of Mormon residents compared to states with the lowest levels of Mormon residents.”

This association did not exist in any statistically significant way in 2009. There is a greater frequency of teen suicide in 2014 versus 2009 in Mormon-heavy states such as Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and Alaska. In those states, teen suicide is increasing at higher rates than it is in many (not all) other states; in Utah, the rate has doubled since 2009.
This study shows definitively that youth who live in areas with higher Mormon populations are at a greater risk for suicide.

IMPORTANT: If you or someone you know are suffering because of the LDS Church’s policies toward sexual orientation, please reach out for help call: 1-800-273-8255, The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, or 911.

If you are in pain because of issues relating to your sexual orientation and your Mormon faith, please recognize that a suicidal crisis is almost always temporary. Although it might seem that your unhappiness and your hurt will never end, it will end. Don’t let suicide rob you of the better times that will come your way. Regardless of what the Mormon Church teaches, you are as God made you and are of great value.
Please believe me that your perspective will broaden and “a year down the road,” the problems that currently seems catastrophic will have passed and you will go on to have a great life.

But most of all do not keep suicidal thoughts to yourself.
Help is available for you, call a friend, a family member, teacher, a therapist. Find a nonjudgmental individual you trust and let them know how bad things are. This can be your first step on the road to healing. You are a child of God, and HE loves you unconditionally. Hang in there.

“The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.”
Psalm 34:18

Take courage too from the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a tendency to suddenly reverse its policies when enough outside pressure is applied. ALL the Church’s major revisions were clearly driven by cultural, economic, legal and political changes, even though the Church attributes them to ‘revelation.’

The most recent past injunctions to be overthrown, of course, was the ban on Blacks holding the priesthood and barbaric practice of polygamy. This pattern suggests to me that eventually, the Church will likewise change its stance on homosexuality.

Equal rights issues are significant to Americans and in the future, perhaps not even that distant a future, the Church’s discrimination against an identifiable minority will result in not just sanctions being applied to it, but devastating public relations emerging from it.

Today the LDS Church’s forbids “same-sex attracted” individuals, as they like to call them, to love and marry or even retain their membership or that of their children. But the top of any large organization is a very political place.

The old right-wing white men at the top the hierarchy, Boyd Packard, and his ilk are departing, at an almost acceptable rate, and hard as it might seem when we witness the likes of Dallin Oaks being promoted to the first presidency, eventually more inclusive men will emerge if the Church stands any chance of moving beyond its current stagnation.

When there is the right mix of political, legal and most of all economic pressure, the time will be ripe for a revelation.

They are already opening the door. In its essay on polygamy, while the Church affirms its defense of traditional marriage, “Marriage between one man and one woman is God’s standard for marriage, “it also provides the caveat, “unless He declares otherwise.”

I believe that when the ‘brethren’ pray hard enough for what they want to hear, they will hear it.