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*A rash of suicides and suicide attempts has some Baptists in the Carolinas doing some soul searching.

Hickory Pastor David Treadway, 42, is the latest clergyman to kill himself in his parked car leaving his family and members of his church family at Sandy Ridge Baptist to ask why.

Although Treadway had told his congregation he was in treatment several months before his suicide, parishioners said it still came as a shock.

In addition to Treadway, two others in North Carolina attempted suicide, and three in South Carolina succeeded, all in the last four years.

A recent USA Today article said Christian culture, especially Southern evangelicalism, creates the perfect environment for depression. Counselors say pastors suffer in silence, unwilling or unable to seek help or even talk about it. Sometimes they leave the ministry. Occasionally they end it all. Being a pastor — a high-profile, high-stress job with nearly impossible expectations for success — can send one down the road to depression, according to pastoral counselors.

“We set the bar so high that most pastors can’t achieve that,” H.B. London told USA Today. London is vice president for pastoral ministries at Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. “And because most pastors are people-pleasers, they get frustrated and feel they can’t live up to that.”

Besides the recession’s strain on church budgets, depressed pastors increasingly report frustration over their congregations’ resistance to cultural change. Most depression does not lead to suicide, but almost all suicides begin with depression. Depression causes two-thirds of the 30,000 suicides reported each year, the AMA says. Nearly two out of three depressed people don’t seek treatment, according to studies by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.

Source:Eurweb.com

Commentary: We must as christians as well as pastors, stop putting on the mask. The scriptures say that we will go through trials, temptations and tests to try our faith and give us patience. We can’t continue to act as if we got it all together and never struggle with anything. We all sin… He who says he doesn’t is a liar. Now, we don’t practice sin, that is continually do the same thing over and over with no remorse but, we all have battles that we lose. When we do lose, we must not condemn each other but love each other and pray.

What are your thoughts?