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June 23rd - Retrospect on Adventism in Times of War

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Love your enemies. Matt. 5:44.

I personally find it impossible to love enemies and set out to take their lives at the same time.

Thus it was that in the summer of 1961, in the midst of the Berlin Wall crisis, I faced the threat of a court-martial.

The circumstance was that I was a trained infantry soldier who had up to that time been a confirmed agnostic. But throughout the first half of the year I had become interested in Adventism and had come to the conviction that I should no longer carry arms or drill on Sabbath. I had begun to appreciate the biblical logic understanding the denomination's position even though I had not yet become a church member.

But, we need to ask, how is it that a young person who had only a brief and tenous relationship with Adventism even knew about the church's position on military service? The answer is as simple as it is straighforward-the church had aggressively and consistently publicized its position and advised its pastors and young people on the topic.

Not only had the General Conference assigned special pastors to the local conferences to help drdftees attain non combatant rights, but the church made large numbers of publications on the topic available to its youth. And then there was the Medical Cadet Corps, sponsored by Adventist colleges and academies that specifically prepared Adventists to fill noncombatant roles when drafted.

In addition, there circulated stories of the many young Adventists around the world who had been imprisioned and even at times martyred for their refusal to bear arms or work on Sabbath. And it that wasn't enough there was the ubiquitous medic Desmond T. Doss who received the Medal of Honor for having saved the lives of at least 75 wounded men in one battle in Okinawa.

But then the draft ended, the publicity stopped, and Adventism neglected the topic and eventually forgot its history. As of 2007 the United States military had some 7,500 Adventist volunteers, virtually all of them (except chaplains) having enlisted as combatants.

Sometimes a church loses its history and needs to remember what it stands for. That also happens in our personal lives.

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May God grant us the willpower to do so honestly.
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