Peace churches face draft concerns

Mennonite Brethren representatives take part in a discussion at the Consultation on Alternative Service. From left are Chuck Buller, executive director of the U.S. Conference of MB Churches; Sheri Wiedenhoefer, peace and justice educator for West Coast MCC; and Larry Dunn, director of academic programs at the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno (Calif.) Pacific University. Photo: Paul Schrag

A military draft in the U.S. is either not going to happen, possible in some scenarios, or likely, depending on whom you ask.

But all who attended an Anabaptist Consultation on Alternative Service March 4–5, at the Church of the Brethren general offices in Elgin, Illinois, agreed the historic peace churches need to be ready.

The meeting brought together more than 90 people from several Mennonite denominations, the Church of the Brethren, the Brethren in Christ and Friends (Quakers) to address concerns their churches have not faced in such an urgent way since the Vietnam War.

Participants talked about how to improve their churches’ peace witness, promised to work together on behalf of conscientious objectors if a draft comes, and agreed on the importance of countering high-pressure military recruiting.

They said their churches need a stronger commitment to Christian service and to teaching Jesus’ way of peace, whether there is a draft or not.

A Selective Service System official told the group no draft is planned.

“The administration’s position on the draft is quite simple: There isn’t going to be any,” said Richard S. Flahavan, associate director of public and intergovernmental affairs for Selective Service.

Others were not so sure. J.E. McNeil, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, a conscientious objector advocacy group, urged participants to consider the draft a real possibility.

Recruitment shortfalls by the National Guard, Army and Marines indicate a draft can’t be ruled out, she said.

“I predict we’re going to have a draft,” McNeil said. “I hope I’m wrong.”

Others described the draft as possible if circumstances change.

“There’s a possibility that there could be a draft, especially if there were [a U.S.] invasion of Iran or if there were another attack on U.S. soil,” said J. Daryl Byler, director of the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office.

Of more immediate concern, many said, is what some called a “back-door draft”: increasingly intensive military recruitment that disproportionately targets youth from racial minority groups and poor communities.

Concerns of people of colour were prominent in discussions of how to nurture church members’ commitment to service at all times, regardless of a draft.

Participants also spoke of the challenge of maintaining the churches’ peace stance when a significant percentage of members do not agree with it. This percentage varies among the denominations, but it is a concern for all.

“A theology of war is emanating from the highest circles of American government and is seeping into our churches every day,” said Dick Davis, pastor of Peace Mennonite Church in Dallas and a former Southern Baptist Army chaplain.

American evangelicalism influences Anabaptist churches and draws them away from conscientious objection to war, participants said.

The Council of Moderators and Secretaries will carry forward the issues and concerns raised in the consultation.

—Paul Schrag, for Meetinghouse