Outline of Objections to SCO and Timeline of Religious Thought on Conscience and War

If there were objections to selective conscientious objection, where would they come from? And how would they be met?

• Military establishment — threatens order and protocol
• Current enlisted — threatens cohort
• Recruiters — disrupts recruitment
• Historic COs — threatens theological and ideological basis
• There is a historic bias against conscientious objection in the culture - unpatriotic
• There is therefore a self-righteousness among COS on the continuua of
• Purist vs. pragmatist
• Idealist vs. realist
• Absolutist vs. contingent
• Principled vs. tactical

The rule of progressive democratization or sociocultural evolution argues that rights expands overtime to increase suffrage and inclusion. As a part of this evolution, the access to conscientious objection expands as a categorical and an legal alternative.

A History from 2000 Years

• Pre-Constantinian — all early Christians are pacificsts and enemies of the state (Roman Empire)
• Constantinian — all soldiers are converted to Christianity to co-opt God to support the army
• Gives rise to the political status of conscription in support of Empire
• Gives rise to the religious status of conscription in support of a Crusade against the infidels
• See the withdrawal of the pacifist St. Francis
• See the rise of the Reformation but not necessarily a withdrawal of support for state power
• See the advance of Just War Theories
• Emergent of Anabaptist Traditions of pacifism
• Leads to migrations of populations in support of religious beliefs and in defiance of state power

A U.S. Overview & Just War Criteria Issues

• French & Indian War Mercenaries, professional armies, conscripted at sea, alliances
• Horse and gun-powder
• Revolutionary War Volunteers rise of the militia, exemption for conscience and convenience
• Cannon, and broken ranks fighting, irregulars,
• Civil War introduction of conscription, riots, civil resistance, class divisions purchased exemptions
• Gattling Gun and Submarine
• WWI Global conflagration still ties to Europe but identities in conflict
• Gas
• Tours of duty
• WWII Manufactured transition from isolation to engagement, alliances, politics
• Rockets
• Atomic Bomb
• Korea War still in process
• Seeds planted at beginning of century, white supremacy, racist
• Vietnam Expansion of access to CO beyond historic peace churches, rising resistence. End of Conscription
• Napalm and agent orange, defoliants and biological weapons
• Desert Storm
• Depleted uranium
• Iraq & Afghanistan
• Counter insurgency
• Non-state agents
• Borderless enemy
• Robotics drones

Just War

1. Legitimate authority: Manufactured engagement 1812, Maine, Pearl Harbor, Tonkin Bay
2. Just cause: Nationalist Socialism, Communism
3. Right intent: Holocaust
4. Last resort: Atomic Bomb end war or warn communists
5. Reasonable chance of success: Vietnam
6. Discrimination or noncombatant immunity: 20th Century progressively more collateral damage
7. Proportionality: Superpower

Policy migrations

• Historic Peace Churches and Peace Witness Quakers, Bretheren, Mennonite (Amish) Conscience
• Christian Formation Protestant and Catholic Sources of Formation
• Humanistic Political theory and debate
• Experiential/ physiological Crystallization of Conscience
• Universal compulsory national service State control, cooptation, alternatives
• AWOL Desertion Liberation Release Repentance Resistance

International

Colombia, Israel, Iran. Should we be engaged in the issue of conscience in other countries and cultures. Is this a universal right (yes, Declaration of Human Rights).