(ABC NEWS): Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren's Son Commits Homocide (=Suicide)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/pastor-rick-warrens-son-matthew-commits-suicide-lifelong/story?id=18897249#.UWCOJfKS-VI

 

Pastor Rick Warren's Son Matthew Commits Suicide After Lifelong Battle With Mental Illness

 

Pastor Rick Warren speaks at the Elton John AIDS Foundation and UNAIDS breakfast, July 24, 2012, in Washington. (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for The Elton John AIDS Foundation)

 

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB (@alyssanewcomb)

April 6, 2013

 

Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren said today that his 27-year-old son had commited suicide after a lifelong battle with mental illness.

Warren, in an emotional email to the congregation of his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., shared his son Matthew's struggles and asked for prayers.

"No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now," Warren wrote. "Our youngest son, Matthew, age 27, and a lifelong member of Saddleback, died today."

READ: Rick Warren: 'Coarsening of Our Culture' Concerns Me

 

Michael Kovac/Getty Images for The Elton John AIDS Foundation

Pastor Rick Warren speaks at the Elton John... View Full Siz

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Michael Kovac/Getty Images for The Elton John AIDS Foundation

 

Pastor Rick Warren speaks at the Elton John AIDS Foundation and UNAIDS breakfast, July 24, 2012, in Washington.

Warren, who gained international fame for his bestseller, "The Purpose Driven Life," remembered his son as "an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man."

"But only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America's best doctors, meds, counselors and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided," Warren wrote in the letter to the Saddleback congregation.

After a "fun evening" as a family, Warren said his son took his life "in a momentary wave of despair at his home."

Warren said he marveled at his son's courage to keep on living in his darkest moments despite his pain.

"I'll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said, 'Dad, I know I'm going to heaven. Why can't I just die and end this pain?'" Warren wrote. "But he kept going for another decade."