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American Friends Service Committee — Part 1
Page 66
66 / 122
realize that in time of war Joyalty to God and loy- The Quakers, for example, in 1660 stat:
alty to the state scem to come into direct conflict. objections in the following words to Cha
However, the conscientious objectors are not op- King of Engiand:
posed to serving the state in its constructive proc-
esses. They are caper todo that. Their opposition
is to war and conscription; they believe that war
"We utterly deny al! outward wars ar
strife, and ightings and outward weapon
for any end, or under any pretence wha
itself is so great an evil that their loyalty to both ever; this is our testimony to the who
God and their country compels them to refrain world. The Spirit of Christ by which x
from participation in it. This they ook upon as ~ are guided, is not chanzeable, so as |
one of the preaicst services anYone can render to command us from a thing of evi] an
the state. again to move us into it; and we certain
. know, and testify to the world, that tl
The government must decide whether people who, Spirit of Christ, which leads us unto a
conscientiously follow their conception of Chris- truth, will never move us to fight and w:
tianity or other religious faiths are a detriment or against any man with outward weapon
an assef to the state. Will it profit the state to pun- neither for the Kingdom of Christ, ne
ish or kill those whose first loyalty is to a universal for the kingdom of this world . .. There
God and a brotherhood of all mankind, and who fore, we cannot learn war any more,
seck to serve the state by extending these ideals? Other religious faiths and organizatior
Will the physical, mental and spiritual fbre of the high mora! or spiritual purposes have reci
conscientious objector be broken or toughened by that war is not an acceptable methad by w
Persecution? Conscientious objectors are willing seck to obtain the high ideals of man, In pa
to serve their fellow men loyally in dificult tasks in which our country has been involved,
if they are permitted to do work which their con- known number of conscientious objector
science docs not forbid. The state could wisely use come from such faiths and organization:
t this willingness to serve in ways which wank) ad- ~pacifists of the world have long advocated .
vance the well-being of the state and at the same and program of international and interrac
time that of the religious pacifist. . operation in political, economic and other
which, had it been followed, would have pre
T ¢ early Christian church remained pacifist much of the strife now destroying mankind
for nearly 200 years. Members of the Socicty of
Friends or Quakers first testified to their refusal to Great Britain passed its conscription law
Tesort to the war method almost three centuries time it declared war. The law makes liber
ago. Declarations of the same nature were made at visions for conscientious objectors. Its pro
about that same time by two other groups, the are not limited to objection based on religiou:
Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren. ing or belicf. It provides for complete exe
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