Pacifism and Jesus of Nazareth's Suicide
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I wrote much of my little brother's written request to become a conscientious objector with the U.S. Army. It was approved. So I have been actively thinking about the subject of pacifism for many years. I was reading about pacifism and came across a couple of interesting things. One was a discussion about Gandhi.
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Gandhi was asked towards the end of the war, "What about the Jews? Are you prepared to see them exterminated? -- If not, how do you propose to save them without reverting to war?"
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Gandhi's response was that German Jews ought to commit collective suicide, which "would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler's violence." -- After the war he justified himself: the Jews had been killed anyway, and might as well have died significantly.
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Good heavens. Cold and impractical. In fact although I hesitate to say that Gandhi was out in space, this quote sure leads one's thinking in that direction. There are many situations where violence is justified and in fact will avoid much greater bloodshed in the future. Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an example. The Americans belatedly joining the fight in WWII is another example.
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But there are far more examples where the opposite is true. Like the Vietnam war.
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The other interesting discussion I was reading concerned whether the carpenter from Nazareth actually committed suicide.
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John 10:17-18 has Jesus saying, "I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." In other words, it sounds as though Jesus, perhaps by some act of will, ended his own life; if not an act of suicide, an act of surrender. So, is suicide justified?
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If we believe the semi-historical accounts portrayed in the Bible, then Jesus knew quite well that by taking on the Roman power structure the Romans would decide to punish him by crucifixion. He made a calculated and conscious decision to take this path.
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In the twenty first century this sort of action is called Suicide By Police - get the power structure so pissed off at you that they have no choice but to kill you. All you have to do is to point a gun at a cop and yell threatening words. And 2,000 years ago there were similar actions you could take where for sure the powers that be would end up putting you to death.
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If one has terminal cancer and suicide is just an early end to the suffering, a conscious decision to avoid months of horrible pain, I would say that suicide is clearly justified. My paternal grandfather had terminal lung cancer, and he chose to go this route. I may eventually make the same decision; only time will tell.
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But if there is subtle pressure by the younger relatives to go in the direction of euthanasia just so that these healthy young people can avoid some unpleasantness or emotional discomfort, or so that they will inherit more money, then I would have to classify their actions as murder.
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