Theos-Talk Archives (October 1994 Message tl00057)

On my way to our bus committee meeting - our in house bus & its
driver are overworked, & no one is getting to their MD
appointments on time - I thought of an exception to what you
wrote & I agree with "I think it is ethical to disobey an unjust
law whenever higher good is being served." I thought of a
possible exception, & need to play devil's advocate.  Does one go
so far as to sanction killing someone? We Theosophists don't
believe in killing anything.  I can think of an example where I
would, & one where I wouldn't.  I don't think that the pro-life
man was justified in killing the MD who performed abortions, on
the grounds that one killing doesn't justify another, if you
decide to classify abortion as killing.  But my husband, who's
dead now, before WWII, belonged to the moderate Jewish
Underground, the Haganah, in Palestine.  The fathers of the same
terrorists who are active now were active then.  They sneaked
into defenseless Jewish farm settlements during the night, &
killed people.  (Just as an aside, all the land the Jews owned &
cultivated at that time had been bought as real estate from
Arabs).  At the time, the British were in charge, but they did
nothing to stop this.  So the Jews formed a self defense force.
They worked at regular jobs during the day, & policed at risk
territories at night.  Fredi told me he'd never killed anyone,
but I didn't quite believed him.  I also think that killing in
self defense is justified as a last resort.  If I ever had to do
it, I would feel very guilty afterwards anyway, about having
taken another person's life.  But it's an iffy question.

Liesel