What say they [the Iranian government] tried a different tack to eliminate Baha'is, making it a law that all Baha'is in the country have to kill themselves. Recanting would be allowed, but Baha'is can't do that. If recanting is the one thing we can't do, I'm understanding that Baha'is would have to kill themselves if required by government. Of course, I'm sure such a law will never be passed, but if it were, what should Baha'is do?
I don't know what we should do because it would depend on the full circumstances, but I would be surprised if under any less than fantastic circumstances the Baha'is in Iran should kill themselves. I suppose the point of such what-if questions is to get a better understanding of the Baha'i position on obedience to government. What I think, however, we would learn here if we went into it deeply is not something about this specific Baha'i position, but about positions in general. And what we would learn is that there is a presumption of reasonableness. That the Baha'is should kill themselves is a crazy conclusion (fantastic circumstances aside), so we would, and ought to,find ways to avoid it. We might first reread and see if there was not another way of understanding the words we had thought meant that recanting is the one thing we will not do if ordered to do so by the government. [In fact I seem to recall this is not quite what is said. Isn't there something about going to heart of our Faith?] Then we might see if the circumstances really amounted to the Baha'is being commanded by the Iranian government to kill ourselves. In the common law jurisprudence a question has been asked to probe the limits of the supremacy of Parliament to make law. People asked themselves, Is Parliament really able (is it within its powers) to make a law that all blue eyed babies be killed. The question is not that Parliament would be able to purportedly make that law, but whether or not what is purportedly law would be law. Some judges have said yes, or at any rate, some have said no. I think an analogous problems might come up trying to decide if the Iranian government really had made this law.
I put in the fantastic-circumstance proviso. E.g., Aliens make a credible threat to kill all life in the Galaxy if the Baha'is in Iran do not kill themselves.
Regards
William
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