Religion as a Peace Movement

"True Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Kevin Alverson, 2005

In 1939 when World War II broke out most Americans wanted to remain isolationists, but they recognized the validity of the war.  When Japan attacked the United States, most people who opposed American involvement agreed that the U.S must join the war.  When we think of World War II we think of the “Good War.”  When we hear the term "Good War" we often think of the U.S.'s heroic stand against Hitler and Fascism, but we never think of the people who opposed the war. 

Religion fueled much of the anti-war sentiment in America during World War II.  Some of the religious groups opposing the war based their dissent upon their opposition to killing other humans, religious morals, and conscientious objection. There were three major anti-war groups--Conscientious Objectors, Church of the Brethren, and Jewish pacifists.  While these organizations did not disagree with the reasons we were at war, they disagreed with the very idea of war itself.  After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, World War II gained so much support that much of the opposition lost its voice; yet anti-war sentiment continued throughout the war.   

The first people who spoke out against the war were Conscientious Objectors (CO‘s).  CO's voiced their moral objections to any form of violent confrontation.  Conscientious Objectors had an option when it came to military service.  Upon being drafted they could choose non-combat roles such as ambulance drivers, non-armed field medics, or public service.  In order for a Conscientious Objector to receive a non-combat role they must first register as co.  Public service jobs were created through Civilian Public Service (CPS).  CPS was a unique government agency formed with the peace churches in reaction to the first peacetime draft in history.  The goal of the CPS was to keep CO's out of site to help wartime morale.  The people in the CPS were put into camps to do hard manual labor.  Many of the men arriving in the camps expected to stay only six months, but many of them stayed for up to seven years.  The CO's who served in the CPS were required to work nine-hour days, six days a week.  They were expected to pay the government 35 dollars a month for room and board; however, many churches paid this fee for the people who could not.  Many of their families lived in severe poverty because there was no government support for these people in the camps.  Many CO’s volunteered for experimental tests conducted by the government.  Some of the experiments involved semi-starvation of volunteers and injection of live viruses into human subjects.  They did these experiments to help with world hunger and to find cures for deadly diseases.  About 6,000 CO’s spent time in a federal prison because they refused to do any kind service for the war effort and were charged with being insincere.  They believed that in order to be a true Conscientious Objector they could have absolutely no involvement in the war effort.  Many of the 6,000 that spent time in prison did not get out until two years after the war ended.  

The Church of the Brethren was one of the least known groups who opposed World War II.  This church was widely known as a pacifist church.  The church of the Brethren protested the idea of unwillingly taking another mans life. The church did not sanction or approve of war, but they knew of all the benefits they received from the government so they were divided on whether they should be involved or not.  Many of the members of the Church of the Brethren were considered Conscientious Objectors.  The leaders of the Church focused much of their attention on teaching its youth about peace and faith.  After Pearl Harbor the church lost much of its voice, but it did not quit its efforts.  After the bombing The Church of the Brethren did not focus on peace during the war, but peace after so no disaster like this would ever happen again.  They sent as much aid as they could after the war to help with the rebuilding of the heavily destroyed Europe.    

Many Jewish Pacifists also considered themselves Conscientious Objectors because the only way they could avoid combat was to register as one.  The leaders of this group believed that the only way to peace was total resistance against Hitler and Fascism.  In the early part of the war The Central Conference of American Rabbis told the United States that they should arm themselves in case of attack, but still believed that peace should be found without U.S. involvement in the war.  A year later they voiced their complete support for the war effort.  The other Jewish people involved in this group believed that they could not kill to save themselves let alone to save someone else.  Jewish Pacifists received more scrutiny than any other organizations because people could not understand why they could allow thousands of their brothers and sisters to be slaughtered every day and do nothing.  Jewish Pacifists urged for the United Nations to open Palestine for free Jewish immigration.  This could be a large part of why there is now an ongoing war in Palestine because of the mass influx of Jews into Palestine after World War II.  They believed that no man had any right to take the life of another man and that in order for all men to be considered equal one could not be master over another.  Jewish Pacifists believed that the United States was hypocritical because they would fight for freedom in Europe and they would not allow Jewish refugees into their country.

When we are taught about World War II all we ever here about is the great deed that the United States did in Europe.  We learn about how bad Hitler and Japan were, but we never learn about those who unwillingly served the United States.  We never learn about the people who opposed the war and spoke out against it.  We also never learn about the people who risked their lives by volunteering themselves to inhumane experiments.  This war was not a good experience for any one even those who did not fight on the front lines.  I still find it hard to call any war good because of the complete destruction that war causes.  55 million people died in this war, that left over 200 million people who lost a loved one in the war.  This war hands down affected more people than any other war in history.  

Many of the students right now have never lived through a war or were to young to remember it, so Iraq is their first wartime experience.  Right now we here a lot about Iraq just reaching the 2,000 mark, which is still a lot of lives, but remember what the people during World War II went through.  The United States alone lost nearly 300,000 soldiers because they were trying to make the world a better place.  That left almost 300,000 women widowed and left alone to raise their children.  Burying their children is something that no parent should ever have to do, unfortunately approximately 300,000 mothers had to do so.  65 years ago war was a lot different than it is now, when soldiers were fighting they knew who their enemy was and now the soldiers have to make the decision on who their enemies are and aren't.  In Iraq the soldiers know who they are fighting as a whole, they know they are fighting followers of Sadam Hussein and Al Qaeda, but when they see a person on the streets they don't know if they are the enemy.  Sadam Hussein was a threat as was Hitler, but if we only took out Hitler in World War II the extermination of Jews would not have ended.  Now in Iraq if we left right now the terrorism and execution of innocent people would not end either.  We have to take out the enemy as a whole and the only way we did that in World War II was total war and it is also the only way we will see victory in Iraq.