I somehow missed out on the details of this story earlier, despite the fact that I live around fifteen minutes away from State Rep. Kevin Calvey. Apparently he threw a bit of a fit on the House Floor, threatening to “walk across the street” (to the State Supreme Court) then “douse [himself] in gasoline and set [himself] on fire.” The only thing holding him back, evidently, is his Catholic faith coupled with that church’s historical prohibition on suicide. Not everyone is thrilled about this exercise of self-restraint, however.
https://twitter.com/JenaFriedman/status/593811274418548736
She has a decent point. Perhaps a far better point than Augustine did when he first attempted to derive a general moral prohibition on suicide from the Hebrew prohibition of murder. If indeed the Torah bars taking a suicidal stand against the powers that be, no one bothered to tell the heroes of Masada.
