Correspondence to the Editor
A concern related to the editorial in our November issue on True Conscientious Objectors
was recently received through correspondence from the office of the MCC Peace Section. The following answer to this correspondence will give the reader the gist of the concern registered and further clarify our conviction on present "peace" trends and the influence some church men are having on these trends —Aaron M. Shank
Dear ____________
Thank you for your letter of December 23 sharing your concern about my editorial in the November issue of The Eastern Mennonite Testimony. I appreciate your interest in clarifying the relation of the law-makers for our Selective Service and the implementation of these laws through Selective Service. I am fully aware that the U. S. Congress is the law making branch of the government. However, in the editorial you refer to, this was not clear, and I thank you for calling it to my attention.
While a misrepresentation of this nature is regrettable, it does not involve any doctrinal error implications, and this was the basic concern of the article.
I would like to comment a bit on some of the explanations of your letter. It seems to me you are saying that the main function of the Peace Section of MCC is to give guidance to the C.O. who bases his claims on religious beliefs and "to guarantee the freedom of conscience to others" whose C.O. position is based only on "moral and philosophical" views after laws have been passed by the government giving recognition to these various groups. My reason for indicting MCC for trying to influence the government in some of these areas was based on the article I referred to in the Gospel Herald (March 14, 1967) which states that "At the annual meeting of the National Service Board for Religious Objectors on Nov. 19, 1965 a resolution was adopted calling on the United States Government to recognize objectors to particular wars. This action was taken at the instigation of MCC..." (Emphasis mine).
This action favoring objection to "particular wars" was the item that Selective Service Draft Director Curtis W. Tarr issued guidelines on in the news release I quoted in my editorial. It is my opinion that the guidelines he issued showed clearer thinking on the part of the government as to what a true C.O. is than the thinking of MCC does.
For a religious group with a historical background of Biblical nonresistance and separation of Church and State to feel responsible to call upon the U. S. Government to recognize "selective C.O.'s" seems to many in the Mennonite Church like a definite part of the incredible drift and apostate trends in the larger body of Mennonitism today. It is my belief that when you encourage and assist nontheistic and selective C.O.'s you are simply helping anarchists, humanists, socialists, atheists and all kinds of other reactionary-ists, whose purpose (on the part of some, at least) is to militate against the government of freedom that God in heaven has blessed us with in this country.
The business of the Church is to help people get saved through an experience of the new birth and in this way bring them under the heavenly jurisdiction of Christ's present Institution of peace which is the Church — and then to give them guidance as a part of this peaceable Institution. The non-theistic and selective C.O.'s by the very nature of their position cannot be said to be a part of a born-again New Testament Church body. They are a part of the world system and therefore it should be left to the State to take care of them as they deem best.
When a Church group attempts to expand the teachings of Christ, which are intended for the Church, into a world philosophy, and tries to adapt the heavenly ethic of nonresistance to a worldly state system which is not directed by the principles of the Prince of Peace, it is clearly in evidence that the Biblical concepts of the distinctiveness of the Church in the world and the separation of the Church and State are lost.
I appreciate your offer to send me copies of the current revision of SSS Form 150 and will look forward to receiving several copies as soon as they are available.
Very sincerely,
Aaron M. Shank, Editor
Eastern Mennonite Testimony