A Bit About Conscientious Objectors

Last year I wrote an article about the soldiers in my Mennonite family. Today, on Remembrance Day in Canada, I find myself thinking about Conscientious Objectors.

I have known about it since my early teens, but more through reading than practical teaching in my Mennonite church and community. In doing a bit of research I see that there is a non-religious conscientious objector status too now. I wasn't fully aware of that.

First, a quick historical review. The Anabaptists since the days of their leader Menno Simons, have taught that the Bible says Christians should not kill or go to war. Besides baptism only as adults who are able to understand the step of faith they are choosing, this pacifist doctrine has been a main distinctive for Anabaptists in all of its flavours, from Mennonites to Hutterites, and others. Quakers also took this pacifist stand. Generally, however, people who took this stand were seen as cowards and had to face all kinds of persecution, imprisonment and torture.

The Mennonites who had immigrated to the Ukraine at the invitation of Catherine the Great had been promised exemption from military service. (Canada gave them such privileges too, when they started immigrating in the late 1800s). Later, when other rulers came into place, they ignored that. However, the Mennonites had talented men who went to the government and offered to do alternative service, such as working on the hospital trains that took care of the wounded soldiers or forestry work which would benefit the nation, but not involve killing anyone.

In the Colonial era of the United States, George Washington and other founders of the country expressed a strong belief that people should be able to worship and live freely according to their conscience. But during the American Civil War, anyone who claimed to be a conscientious objector to war was punished and some were killed by starvation and by hanging by their thumbs.

World War I brought the problem to public attention again, but most conscientious objectors were conscripted, and court-martialled and out of the 450 conscientious objectors found guilty at military hearings, 17 were sentenced to death, 142 received life sentences and 73 received 20-year prison terms. Only 15 were sentenced to three years or less.

As World War II was approaching, President Roosevelt instituted a different kind of draft, which allowed people to claim conscientious objector status on religious grounds. They had to prove in court that they were of a faith that taught this pacifist stand, and that they personally lived such a lifestyle. Whoa, 72,354 applied for this status! Of those, 25,000 were assigned to noncombatant roles, and 12,000 chose to do alternative service for their country.

The Mennonites and Quakers helped out with this alternative service plan. (They may have suggested it, as their forefathers did in Russia). They ran work camps for these men to build roads, improve soil conservation, and create or preserve state and national parks. Work projects to benefit the nation to show they were not enemies of their country. Canada caught on, and did this too. I know because my Dad's brother John Friesen ended up logging trees in the forests of B.C. during his conscientious objector camp time.

More recent wars, like the one in Vietnam, and Afghanistan, have uncovered another kind of conscientious objector. The one who signs up for military service, only to discover during the training that they cannot stomach killing other human beings after all. Apparently there has been a lot going into creating a special category or status for them, so that they can leave the military without harassment, and with a clean record.

Something I had not heard before is that there are some conscientious objectors in Israel, a very military country, which requires even young women to be drafted for war purposes. One young woman, Maayan Padan, has chosen to go to prison repeatedly for the "offence" of peace.

I see that there are a number of websites for special military lawyers who will go to bat for you, if you have a problem with a national military service. I don't know that all of them would be in favour of conscientious objection to war, but that is probably a good route to go if you need to sort out your legal standing in this regard.

There are some Mennonite sites too, which explain how to proceed. (Unfortunately, the link I had here no longer exists. It had easy to follow steps to conscientious objectors facing draft registration in the USA.

All of this does not touch yet on interpreting the Bible correctly on this issue. Taking into account that I have not done in-depth research and thinking on this, I will just say that yes, I believe the Bible teaches we should not kill one another. On the other hand, it does say too, that God has ordained governments, and their strong-armed police (armies) to protect their people and bring them to justice when they became a hazard to other individuals or nations. So I wonder if the guidance for us as individuals is not different than that for a national army.

At the same time, God will judge and destroy a nation that grows aggressive and cruel to others, and does not stick to just defending it's own, or the helpless.

I'm thankful I've not been forced to make a decision at the point of a sword or gun. May God help me and you if we ever have to do that!

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