Abstract
Conscientious Objectors (COs) oppose war or oppressive social conditions. They suffer for their ethical resistance to that which dehumanizes themselves and others. Their spiritual path is listening to conscience, and the spirit of a deeper, bigger humanity. This listening enables them to take a harder, often lonelier, road. Stories of COs are chosen in this chapter from World War I (WWI). WWI itself was the first mechanized, industrialized, chemicalized war, and the first global war in history. It is also the ‘founding catastrophe of the twentieth century’. It led to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the rise of Hitler and WWII 1939–45, the Cold War 1946–1989, and was the cause of many of the difficulties in the Middle East today, including the attacks on the World Trade Centre, Washington DC and Pennsylvania in September 2001. In a bigger picture of WWI opposition, including workers, women, and soldier poets, COs were at the forefront. Whether socialist or religious, COs have been called the shock troops of resistance in WWI, a war that ironically was promised to be ‘the war to end all wars’. Their stands against nationalism, and for commitment to a bigger humanity, is significant for us today. To echo Martin Luther King, their witness can also provoke us to be ‘creatively maladjusted’ to current nationalisms and social issues. We can be challenged by their example not only to be against war, but also against racism, sexism, poverty, climate change, and political corruption. Indeed, it includes a decision to stand against any violation of the worth of any person, and to champion the sacredness of creation in our troubled times.
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Notes
- 1.
All biblical references are from the New Revised Standard Version unless indicated otherwise.
- 2.
There is a consensus around 8.5 million military deaths. Civilian death estimates range from 6.6 million to 13 million depending on whether the Russian Civil War and the Armenian massacres (1915–1917) are included.
- 3.
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) were the ‘Prairie Saints’ who stayed in the Midwest of the USA after the assassination of Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844. They were anti-polygamy and eventually were led by Joseph Smith III, the son of the assassinated prophet. They embraced progressively a peace mission. The LDS were the ‘Mountain Saints’ led by Brigham Young to the Great Salt Basin that became Utah and are known today as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They practiced polygamy until 1890 and today are the largest group of Latter Day Saints and are often called Mormons. The RLDS changed their name on April 6, 2001 to Community of Christ.
- 4.
“King of kings and Lord of lords” is sung in the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah. In the Book of Revelation it is Jesus who is King of kings and Lord of lords. An early Christian creed was simply “Jesus is Lord” (I Corinthians 12:3, Romans 10:9).
- 5.
This may not include every CO sentenced to Fort Leavenworth; some are questionable. Names are still being added and corrections made to the data base. Ann Yoder also kindly provided the author with a table of all twenty-nine USA COs who died in WWI, with details.
- 6.
Another civil liberties organization also called the National Council for Civil Liberties was founded in 1934 and should not be confused with the organization that worked in WWI.
- 7.
The National Civil Liberties Bureau working for COs in WWI was the forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union after WWI.
- 8.
The suffering of Anabaptists from 1525 onwards is movingly told in Martyrs Mirror, already mentioned. Thomas Helwys, the first English Baptist leader was imprisoned by James II in the Tower in 1612 and argued for the separation of church and state. The Quakers from 1675 established “Meetings for Sufferings” to help Quakers suffering from persecution and to advocate for them. None of these groups was revolutionary—Anabaptists and Quakers were pacifists. The beginning of religious freedom in Britain was achieved by the 1689 Act of Toleration, and won by the suffering of religious ‘dissenters’ for more than a century.
- 9.
To quote Kierkegaard, considered by many as the first and greatest existentialist, “True individuality is measured by this: how long or how far one can endure being alone without the understanding of others. The person who can endure being alone is poles apart from the social mixer. This person is miles apart from the one who manages successfully with everyone—the one who possesses no sharp edges. God never uses such people. The true individual, anyone who is going to be directly involved with God, will not and cannot avoid the human bite. The true individual will be thoroughly misunderstood. God is no friend of cozy human gathering.”
- 10.
Brittain’s book, Testament of Youth, came out as a film in 2014. Alicia Vikander played Vera Brittain. The film director was James Kent.
- 11.
Grossman is heavily dependent on S. L. A. Marshall’s work. Marshall was a US field historian in WWII, who served as a soldier in WWI. He argued from his field work that the firing rate was perhaps only 25% of soldiers and as many as 75% of soldiers were not firing, or were firing to miss. See Chambers II and Engen for a critical review of Marshall’s work.
- 12.
See Luke 4:18-19 where Jesus reads at the beginning of his ministry his manifesto from Isaiah 61:1-2a, a passage that echoes the prophetic Exodus tradition.
- 13.
Perkins’ (2016) carefully researched and well written account of this group of COs is very moving.
- 14.
The Pelham samples is not representative of the 20,000 or so COs in WWI Britain, but gives an indication of the range of religious membership of COs. What brought them together was common suffering in a common cause.
- 15.
Remembering Muted Voices: Conscience, Dissent, Resistance and Civil Liberties in World War I Through Today, Oct. 19–22, 2017—A Symposium on Resistance and Conscientious Objection in WWI at the National World War I Museum and Memorial at Kansas City, MO, USA. https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/remembering-muted-voices. Accessed 1 November 2018. The Hutterite story not only gathered us, but also held us together as we joined with academic historians, atheist socialists, other denominations and other faiths.
- 16.
F. M. Smith was a strident nationalist in World War I like many other church leaders and members in other denominations in this period. At the outbreak of World War II Smith’s editorial “Our Attitude to War,” argues an ethic of obeying the law of land in terms of conscription. He also argues against conscientious objection in this editorial and other writings. Another summary of Smith’s convictions about war are given in a radio broadcast that he made in January 1940. He argues for peace but sees ‘ultra-pacifists’ and conscientious objectors as a problem in the cause of peace. Peter A. Judd in an unpublished essay describes well the change within the USA RLDS church from ‘a position of strict neutrality in 1914 to a position of unqualified support for the United States and allied nations by 1918’. For a good overview of F. M. Smith’s nationalist attitudes from WWI to WWII see Larry E. Hunt.
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Bolton, J. (2020). Conscientious Objection as a Spiritual Path. In: Babie, P., Sarre, R. (eds) Religion Matters. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2489-9_16
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