The Life and Death of Cheslie Kryst

By now, we have probably all heard or read of the death of this talented woman. She was 30 years of age and a former Miss U.S.A., according to the record. According to what I’ve seen, she became “Queen” in 2019, “redefining beauty standards,” according to “The Guardian.”

From what we’ve learned online, Kryst, a black contestant, won over other young women. The reason for her death has been speculated for some days now. Some have wondered whether “Covid isolation” may have contributed to her problem and we have also read of “external and internal” experiences. Actually, no one knows at this point.

Cheslie was a North Carolina attorney for a while” and “fount for justice” and “criminal reform.” I realize that many may frown on this since so much sin would be involved in a woman’s public exposure and in this form of public involvement, but we simply report this without agreeing with it. Interestingly, all four contestants in 2019 were “women of color” which has become a way to describe blacks in public places.  (Of course, this term may also be applied to Asians and others.)

According to her mother, Cheslie suffered from depression and a father said that she was troubled by “family dysfunctions” and she was “sad” because of all of this. We won’t delve into this at this time other than to say that a “beauty contest” greatly involves favoritism and thus would be wrong.

As I looked at the websites dealing with this young and talented woman, I was shocked with the many pictures of her with nearly nothing on. She was nearly naked (from a Christian standpoint). There were many photos of her in a way that a child of God should never be found–but this is the way of the world.

Quite frankly, because of all of her troubles, we are filled with grief. We are sad because we just don’t know what was going on in Cheslie’s mind at the time that she took her life. Yet, we dare not overlook the sins involved. As a woman, her involvement in the public by way of her job as an attorney would have been sinful. When she jumped off a skyscraper and fell to her death as a means of suicide, this also would have been sinful and wrong. Her participation in a beauty pageant, of course, would have been sinful. On many counts, we know that Cheslie did wrong and was sinful in her activities, her demeanor, and her acting.

Let us not forget the picture of the godly woman found in 1 Timothy 2:9-10: “I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls and costly garments but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.” It takes little imagination for us to discover that Cheslie violated virtually all of these instructions from God (see also 1 Peter 3:3-4). Further, we know that a woman is not to take the lead or even speak in public but must remain silent (1 Timothy 2:11-12).

We must not forget also that this bright young woman whom the world admired, was guilty of so many wrongful attitudes and activities. We might also ask whether she sought her father’s counsel for what she was going through (we realize that patriarchy is a godly quality that many overlook in our day. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy#:~:text=Patriarchy%20is%20a%20social%20system,inherited%20by%20the%20male%20lineage.).

So whether we are speaking about her immodest clothing, her public appearances, her job, her many different acts, we must not in any way support her way of living. Further, of course, we know (that from a Christian standpoint), it is sinful for anyone to take her life. Some may wonder whether a person who takes his life (self-murder we may call it) is seriously wrong. Yes, she is. God says in Scripture that “no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).

Thus, even though we might mention all of the sins that she (and the other three contestants in the pageants) committed, we know that to take her life would have been sinful, wrong, and disastrous.

Friend, if you know of anyone who is tempted to take his or her life, do what you can to dissuade her/him of this while life is still available. Further, it will be good to try to understand what was involved in this situation. Was there pain, or disappointment, or hopelessness, or grief? It may be too late now to change the situation, but is there anything that you (and I) can learn from this event? Can we more understanding, more empathetic, more involved—all for the person’s sake?

Every year, there are some 48,344 suicides in the United States (this figure was for 2018, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics). Additionally, some 800,000 people commit suicide yearly in the world (Ibid.). What could we have done to avert this situation? When we think of people like Saul and Judas in the Bible, we are aware that there are many (nearly a million) people who take their lives for numerous reasons.

God loves people and we are to love people also. Let us love people by pointing them to Jesus and the only way that they can find life—life here and life in the future! May God help us with this holy quest.