9.2.04

WELL: It does strike me that at least one more of these is not like the others, namely, being a conscientous objector. I'm not going to make the facile and easily rejectable claim that everyone who claims CO status actually deserves it--but it seems to me entirely possible (to couch my example in terms Joe is more likely to be sympathetic to) that a very serious, literal-minded Christian (read as 'fundamentalist,' but probably only in the way we're all fundamentalists) who argues that one of the more prominent aspects of Christ's teachings is the idea of non-resistence (e.g. Matthew 5:39*) towards evil, which seems to necessarily include unwillingness to fight in wars. I'm aware, too, that this person's ability to exercise their right is going to be largely influenced by the fact that they're surrounded by Christians who take their positive obligations towards others to be important as well, even in such cases as that means fighting and killing in war. But, I think, the two strands have to co-exist with one another.

*thank you, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible for saving me from an unspecificed amount of time trying to find the appropriate citation.

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