Reaction to 'When Pastors' Silent Suffering Turns Tragic'

Editor’s note: No story in recent memory has generated more reader response than a Religion News Service article we published Jan. 7 about depression in the ministry. (Sadly, at least four pastors in South Carolina have committed suicide in the last four years, according to Monty Hale, director of pastoral ministries for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.) The story asks if the pressures of evangelicalism, especially in the South, create “the perfect environment for depression” among pastors. The original article and subsequent readers' letters, plus an article on clergy stress, can be found below.

Article: When Pastors' Silent Suffering Turns Tragic

Sidebar: Churches can ease stigma of depression

Letter: Oppression from the pews

Letter: Depression results from sin

Letter: Don’t blame depression’s victim

Letter: Shooting our wounded

Letter: Show love, not condemnation

Letter: More complicated than we think

Letter: 'True understanding' of depression

Letter: Laypeople can lift up pastor

Online Exclusive: Clergy Stress: Hank's Struggle

Letter: Depressed need support

Letter: Depression: No one immune

Letter: Don’t ‘under-spiritualize’