Where is there hope? It’s a question some of us probably ask ourselves more than we care to admit. Headlines about “self-immolation” don’t help. God rest the soul of Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old in the Air Force who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. His act has been described as a political protest. “Free Palestine,” he declared as he was dying. It was suicide. And it should not be celebrated. This is not the way.
A history professor told Time magazine that it was “an act of despair.” Clearly. The same article purported to explain the history of self-immolation protests and included: “Self-immolation was also seen as a sacrificial act committed by Christian devotees who chose to be burned alive when they were being persecuted for their religion by Roman emperor Diocletian around 300 a.d.”
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