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Politics : Politics for Conservatives -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sm1th who wrote (125584)	2/7/2026 9:49:39 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 125616

I understood we cannot judge a person only God will. we have no idea if the person was in their right mind when an action is taken ,that is usually not acceptable in our minds.

To: sm1th who wrote (125584)	2/7/2026 3:03:52 PM
From: Stan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 125616

Makes me think of Masada. For the Jews to take their lives rather than be slaughtered by the Romans, (ironically, given Augustine's example), was to knowingly commit self-murder. They had Saul and Ahithophel (Absalom's co-conspirator, and grandfather of Bathsheba, in the coup against David) whom they repudiated for the deed. Christians have Judas Iscariot as theirs. Josephus the Jewish historian who worked for Rome later in life cleverly got out of a bad situation during the Roman siege of Jerusalem near 70 AD. He convinced a band of about 40 fellow Jewish soldiers hiding in a cave not to commit suicide as they had intended but to take each other's lives through a lottery. This way they die by another's sword. (Which actually makes it the same act but by different means.) The first one was to be killed by the second, the second by the third and so on. The last one would take his own life. Josephus was at the end of the line with another soldier. When the grisly work got to his turn he convinced the other to go over with him to the Romans. Imagine that. (Book III of the War of the Jews, chapter 8). The most famous soliloquy in English literature - To be or not to be - is about suicide. I think a lot of people are suicidal but take their lives by slower means like self-destructive behavior. I was like that in my later teen life into my early twenties. I had persistent suicide ideation during that time. Don't know why I was like that but conversion put an immediate end to those thoughts. They never returned in these 50 years since then.