Whenever I hear the current President talk about sending the military into American cities, I wonder what the men and women of our armed services think of that idea. It’s one thing to volunteer to fight in foreign wars to defend our nation; it’s quite another to be sent into the streets of America. And it makes me think about the Quaker Peace Testimony, and what Quakers can do to support American service men and women who may want to resist taking military action against our own citizens.
The Peace Testimony of the Religious Society of Friends is one of the important pillars that defines Quakerism. Quakers are one of the so-called “Peace Churches,” religious groups that believe peace and non-violence are the best (possibly only) way to resolve conflict. Many Quakers, historically, have resisted all forms of war and non-violence, including refusing to participate in military service. In some cases, Quakers have been jailed for these positions; in others, Quakers have won the right to be conscientious objectors to military service and have been assigned community service as an alternative.
As with our other Quaker testimonies, the Peace Testimony is not a rule to abide by as much as it is a challenge. Most Quakers support our troops, and many have members of the military in their families. But they believe that part of the challenge of the Peace Testimony is finding other ways, non-violent ways, to resolve conflicts before sending in troops.
Another part of the Peace Testimony is the idea of supporting those service men and women who may have doubts about their military service. I was talking with another Reno Friend about this recently, and he shared the story of what happened to him when he found himself as a young man suddenly serving in Vietnam.
It was the middle of the Vietnam War, and American men were being drafted, and this young man had received a very low draft number, which meant he would probably be called up soon. His father, out of love, counseled him to voluntarily join the Navy, figuring he would be safer on a ship than serving as a soldier in the Army.
But when the young man got to his post in Vietnam, he realized he had a problem: he was not going to be able – for moral reasons – to shoot the enemy if his unit was attacked, and his fellow soldiers and commanders needed to know they could not rely on him to provide cover. “I didn’t know about Quakerism back then, but I was already a Quaker,” he told me. He was just 20 years old when he declared himself a conscientious objector. It took some time, but the Navy allowed him to continue purifying water for small support bases as he was trained to do rather than moving him into a more active combat position. There were no desk jobs available, he said.
This story made me wonder about the service men and women of today, and what moral dilemmas they might face if they are sent into American cities. Fortunately, there are Quaker groups in the United States that provide counseling and legal advice for service members beginning to doubt their willingness or ability to serve. One such group is called Quaker House, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg (one of the largest military installations in the United States.) Quaker House bills itself as “a place of peace in a military city,” and a manifestation of Friends’ Peace Testimony.
According to their website, Quaker House “provides counseling and support to service members who are questioning their role in the military; educates them, their families, and the public about military issues; and advocates for a more peaceful world.” Reno Friends Meeting makes a charitable donation to Quaker House every year to support this important work.
Quaker House also operates the GI Rights Hotline, where service members can call at any time to ask questions about everything from reservist mobilization to conscientious objection to harassment or discrimination. The Hotline number is 1-877-447-4487, and you can find out more about Quaker House at quakerhouse.org.
I grew up in a military family – my father was a Naval officer who fought in the Pacific in WWII, and later in Vietnam. I have cousins who were career Navy, and one nephew who’s a Navy helicopter pilot and another training to disable explosives. I am immensely proud of all of them and the selfless service they have given to the country. But if they found they could not fight – or found they could not fight American citizens on American soil – I would hope they could find a way to change their service.
By Wendy Swallow, Blog Editor, Reno Friends Meeting
The opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of Reno Friends Meeting