civil disobedience

Nonviolence, or Ahimsa? Choosing Truth-Firmness

Nonviolence. Ahimsa, "not-hurting." Gandhi proposed another word, satyagraha, or "truth-force."

I have given nonviolence trainings where people believed that any form of property destruction, strong disagreement, or disobedience of authority was a form of violence. For them, nonviolence was ahimsa, or not-hurting. It is easy, using this negative concept, to negate any action at all, from the carnage wrought among ants by the walking person, to the car emissions fueling planetary climate change. In the face of such an full negation, Ahimsa leads to quietism, inaction, and support for the status quo.

Lying as truth-telling in the context of the Holocaust

Author: Peter Rollins
Book: How (not) To Speak of God, Page #61

"...let us imagine that we are hiding some Jews in our house in Germany during the Second World War. Early one morning some soldiers come to our door as part of a routine check and ask if we are housing any Jews. In response to this question we have three options:

  1. we regretfully say 'yes', acknowledging that we are held under a higher moral law which requires that we do not deceive
  2. we say 'no', judging that it is the lesser of two evils
  3. we say 'no' and feel happy we told the truth
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