The Role of Religious Leaders in Suicide Prevention

The purpose of this study is to examine American and Japaneseclergy’s perception of their role in the prevention of suicide. The research questionsare as follows: (a) How do clergy in the United States and Japan perceive suicide? (b)Do they see suicide differently? and (c) How do they envision the role of suicideprevention? The hypotheses are as follows: (a) Christian clergy think that suicide is anunacceptable “sin”; (b) Buddhist clergy are more accepting of suicide than Christianclergy; (c) there are role differences related to suicide prevention in the Japanese andAmerican religious communities; and (d) American and Japanese religious leaders have adifferent view of their obligations related to suicide prevention. The investigator sent400 anonymous mail surveys, respectively, to New York and Tokyo. The surveys asked aboutthe clergy’s personal beliefs and the Church’s role in suicide prevention. Theinvestigator analyzed the responses using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Themajor findings are that many American Christian clergy consider suicide to be a sin, butthat “God’s love is available for people who committed suicide.” Many Japanese Buddhistclergy think how one dies is not the most important issue