Bishops Recognize Right to Conscientiously Object to War
Diocesan Press Service. October 24, 1968 [70-11]
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The Episcopal House of Bishops adopted this morning, after some thirty minutes of debate, a resolution stating "we Bishops recognize the right of a man to object, on grounds of conscience, " to participation in a particular war.
The text of the resolution itself duplicates, except for one new insertion, the Position Paper adopted by the House of Bishops at the 1967 General Convention in Seattle. The view then was not concurred with by the Convention's House of Deputies, the Church's other legislative House which consists of priests and laity in equal numbers.
Chief opponent of today's action was the Rt. Rev. George Murray, Bishop Coadjutor of Alabama, who stated his belief that "conscientious objection needs to be established on the basis of religious conviction" and that this action "might open the door to those who happen to object to a particular conflict which takes place at a time when they are of draft age."
He favored "all men of draft age being on an equal footing unless they have previously been conscientious objectors."
Bishop Murray questioned the wisdom of this unilateral action by the House of Bishops which may be interpreted as "speaking for the whole Church." He said that last fall the press reported one of the Bishops' Position Papers as an official view of the entire Church, and that "perhaps we should do away with the House of Deputies, if we are going to say how the Church is going to be run."
The Rt. Rev. Leland Stark, Bishop of Newark, N. J., responded that the Deputies have a like right to issue Position Papers differing from those of the House of Bishops. He pleaded for the resolution, asking the Bishops to consider whether, if they were of draft age, they themselves could drop napalm bombs "which know no distinction between combatants and non-combatants."
A clause referring to the Vietnam war was deleted on the grounds that the principle expressed would be stronger without reference to a particular contemporary conflict.
The full text of the resolution is attached.
RESOLUTION ON CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
Whereas, the Lambeth Conference by resolution held that "it is the concern of the Church to uphold and extend the right of conscientious objection," and the Lambeth Report on the Renewal of the Church in Faith recognized "anew the vital contribution to the Christian Church made by many of those who in conscience cannot participate in any war or in particular conflict;" and
Whereas, the General Convention of 1967, by resolution, called upon the Church "to provide counsel... to those members of our Church who have problems of conscience with regard to the prospect of the military draft... ," and
Whereas, other national and international Christian bodies have affirmed the right of selective conscientious objection,
Therefore be it resolved that we Bishops recognize the right of a man to object, on grounds of conscience, provided he has made every effort to know all of the relevant factors involved, to participation in a particular war, even though he may not embrace a position of pacifism in relation to all war, and urges our government to enshrine such a right in the laws pertaining to Selective Service.