A sociological study of the influence of religion, education, and family in producing conscientious objection

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Content A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF
/I
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND FAMILY IN
PRODUCING CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
by
Valdemar Forrest Paradise
///
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(Sociology)
June 1969
UMl Number: EP65831
All rights reserved
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a note will indicate the deletion.
Dissertaion RubltsWing
UMl EP65831
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
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This thesis y written by
Valdemar Forrest Paradise
under the direction of hX3....Thesis Committee^
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements fo r the degree of
Master of ^
Dean
D a te.....June. 1969..........
HESIS COMMITTEE
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES.................................... iv
Chapter
I. PROBLEM, HYPOTHESES, DEFINITIONS ........... 1
The Problem
Hypotheses
Definitions of Variables
" Scope of the Thesis
Plan of the Thesis
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE........................ 12
Introduction
Behavioral Science Literature
Written Statements by Objectors
Summary
III. RESEARCH DESIGN ................... 35
World War II Data Used
Original Collection of the Data
Limitations of the Data
Indicants of the Variables
Summary
IV. THE FINDINGS................................. 45
Rate of Conscientious Objection and
Sectarianism of Religious Groups
Education
Family
ii
Chapter Page
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS................... 63
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 65
XXX
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Number of Conscientious Objectors in
Civilian Public Service and Membership
of Religious Groups ..................... 46
2. Membership and Rates of Conscientious Objec
tion of Religious Groups ................. 48
3. Rate of Conscientious Objection and Average
Salary of Clergy of Religious Groups . . . 51
4. Educational Levels of Conscientious Objec
tors in Civilian Public Service and
Enlisted Men, 1945 ............... 56
5. Conscientious Objection Rates (Number of
Objectors per 100,000 Classified Regis
trants) for White Fathers and Nonfathers,
by Age Groups, on Selected Dates......... 60
6. Conscientious Objection Rates (Number of
Objectors per 100,000 Classified Regis
trants) for Negro Fathers and Nonfathers,
by Age Groups, on Selected Dates......... 62
IV
CHAPTER I
PROBLEM, HYPOTHESES, DEFINITIONS
The Problem
Compulsory military service has been a source of
conflict for people who believe that war is a morally
unacceptable policy of governments. Such people, par
ticularly those who are asked to do the actual fighting,
find themselves in opposition to their government and to
the rest of the society which is represented by the gov
ernment. The United States has made provisions in its
compulsory military service laws to accommodate these men
by classifying tliem as conscientious objectors and
requiring them to perform other, nonmilitary services,
but the conflict has persisted.
The most striking fact about conscientious object
ors provided by a review of the literature and by inter
views is their thorough social and moral independence.
Conscientious objection involves an assertion of the
objectors * independence from deeply-held views of the
society in which they live.
The present study examines the influence of three
sociological variables in producing this independence of
the conscientious objector: religion, education, and
family. These variables are commonly used and are impor
tant in sociological analysis, as is evidenced by the fact
that there is an area of sociology devoted to each of
these aspects of group life. Most people in our society
have experience with a religion, school, and family.
Hypotheses
Hypotheses relating religion, education, and
family to conscientious objection may be stated here,
insofar as these variables influence people to become
conscientious objectors. These hypotheses are:
1. The rate of conscientious objection varies
directly with the sectarianism of religious
groups.
2. The rate of conscientious objection varies
directly with the educational level of
selective service registrants.
3. The rate of conscientious objection of
selective service registrants is higher for
nonfathers than for fathers.
It may be noted here that independent judgments
are characteristic of the sect-type religions. The sectar
ian does not refer the expediency of his act to his asso
ciates, to "the world," but rather to what he considers to
be a more universalistic criterion. He talks "only to
God." The educated man is also independent of the current
social solutions and vocabulary of motives. Education
gives him a basis for making decisions which are relative
ly independent of what society thinks. In the case of
family status, the father has to be less independent in
his decision making than does the nonfather. He has to
moderate his own opinions to the interests and judgments
of the family in which he is involved.
Definitions of Variables
Sectarianism of religious group
A sect is a type of religious group which empha
sizes individual independence of its members. Two oper
ational definitions of sectarianism are used in this
thesis. One of these is that the sectarianism of_.a
religious group is indicated by its relative size.
Sectarian religion is not monolithic but is divided into
many different viewpoints. A larger religious group
implies or requires a unanimity of opinion which is not
possible when each member acts and believes according to
his own perceptions. Sects are thus susceptible to schisms
and new sects are started by dissident members of larger
groups. The relative size of a religious group may,
therefore, be used to define its sectarianism.
A second indicant of the sectarianism of a par
ticular religious group is the amount of money it spends
on its clergy. The sect places minimal value on the role
of the clergy and asks its members to go directly to God
or the Bible for solutions to problems. Stroup observed
this devaluation of the clergy in his study of the
Jehovah's Witnesses.
No stronger hatred do the Witnesses feel
than that for the "clergy class," who, according
to the standard Witness interpretation, simply
use religion as a means of maintaining their
social position and of controlling the common
people for "the commercial and political inter
ests." Witnesses are united in their belief that
a religious movement which has a clergy is ruled
by the Devil.^
^Herbert Stroup, The Jehovah's Witnesses (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1945), p. 58.
The amount of money which the group spends on its
clergy may be used to indicate this devaluation if we
assume that the pastor will be paid, usually, in propor
tion to the value placed upon him.
Finally, Dynes used a 35-item Likert scale to
place groups on a church-sect continuum and found that
the most effective item in indicating sectarianism was
this: "I think a minister should preach without expect-
ing to get paid for it." The amount of money a religious
group spends on its clergy may thus be used as well as
its relative size to define operationally its sectarian
ism.
Religion is defined here as a set of beliefs and
practices relative to ultimate problems. A religious
group is one in which the members share this set of
beliefs and practices.
"Ultimate problems" is a phrase used by J. Milton
Yinger in his definition of religion. He defines religion
as a "system of beliefs and practices by means of which a
group of people struggle with ultimate problems of human
2
Russell Dynes, "Church-sect Typology and Socio
economic Status," American Sociological Review, XX (Octo
ber, 1955), 556.
6
life.Yinger gives some illustrations of ultimate prob
lems ;
While there are important disagreements con
cerning the "ultimate" problems for man, a great
many would accept the following as among the
fundamental concerns of human societies and
individuals: How shall we respond to the fact
of death? Does life have some central meaning
despite the suffering, the succession of frustra
tions and tragedies? How can we deal with the
forces that press in on us, endangering our live
lihood, our health, the survival and smooth oper
ation of the groups in which we live— forces
that our empirical knowledge is inadequate to
handle?^
These problems are important in people * s lives but they
are not easy for people to understand or to solve. It is
difficult to know how to respond properly to the fact of
death. A religion is one source of ways of responding to
such problems.
Going to war is one of these difficult problems.
It is difficult to know how to respond to war. War has
certain economic and social advantages which help to
solve career and livelihood problems. At the same time,
war is destructive of many things, possibly including
one’s own life. We can expect, then, that any set of
^J. Milton yinger. Religion, Society and the
Individual (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1957), p. 9.
^Ibid.
beliefs and practices relative to ultimate problems will
involve some reference to the problem of participating in
war.
The religious groups of this study are groups
which are listed as "religious bodies" by the 1936 report
of the Bureau of the Census on religion.^ There are two
reasons for using the groupings of the census report.
One is that the Selective Service System has provided
data on the religious affiliations of conscientious ob
jectors using these groupings. A second reason is that
it makes possible comparative use of other data in the
census report such as membership figures and expenses.
There is no reason to suppose that the census groupings
do not correspond to the religious groups of the society,
so that these advantages allow their use in this study.
Educational level
Educational level is operationally defined in
this thesis by the number of years of schooling a person
has completed. Education may be seen as a process of
U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census, Religious Bodies; 1936 (Washington, D. C.: Gov
ernment Printing Office, 1941) .
acquiring knowledge by receiving formal instruction in
schools. The number of years of schooling a person has
completed is thus commonly used to indicate educational
level.
Family status
A way of defining family status which allows con
venient use of available data, and the definition used in
this thesis, is to determine whether or not a man is a
father. Single and childless married men may be consid
ered nonfathers, while married men with one or more chil
dren may be considered fathers.
Families are groups in which people develop ways
of responding to basic problems and which thus serve as a
basis for sociological prediction. Ralph Turner writes;
The family is itself a social group of a
special sort within which theories concerning
the nature and processes of groups may be tested.
Conflict, accommodation and unequal dominance of
members are observed within the family and are
probably governed by the same principles which
apply to other small groups. The family is also
the fundamental unit in the socialization of the
child and continues to serve as a socializing
agency for the adult. If we want to explain
juvenile delinquency or exceptional humanitar-
ianism or deep-seated prejudice, we always
investigate the kind of family in which the
6
individual was reared.
War is a problem for families for it often removes
the men of the family, including the one who is earning
the income which supports it. It is likely, therefore,
that membership in a family will have some influence on a
man's decision about participation in war.
Scope of the Thesis
The scope of the thesis is limited to the effect
of these three variables. Study of other variables will
be possible when more comprehensive data becomes avail
able. No attempt is made here to assess the interrela
tions of religion, education, and family status in pro
ducing conscientious objection. A limitation of existing
data, described in Chapter III, on conscientious objection
is that they do not permit the determination of such in
terrelations. Thus, for example, educational level is
thought to be inversely related to sectness of religious
group,^ but the implications of this possibility are not
Ralph Turner, "The Family," in Sociology, ed
Leonard Broom and Philip Selznick (3rd ed.; New York:
Harper and Row, Publishers, 1963), p. 355.
7
Dynes, op. cit., p. 55 8.
10
examined in the present study.
The approach of the study is to examine samples
of conscientious objectors and nonobjectors and to deter
mine the rates of objection for different classes of the
three variables, controlling where possible for the ef
fects of such variables as age and race.
Plan of the Thesis
The plan of the thesis is first to establish
definitions of the variables and to hypothesize their
association with conscientious objection. This is accom
plished in the present chapter.
Chapter II, Review of Literature, locates the
present study in the context of previous attempts to ex
plain conscientious objection. The writings of some
representative objectors are also reviewed to clarify
understanding of the problem.
Chapter III, Research Design, presents the ration
ale behind the testing of the hypotheses. The nature of
the data, the available controls, and the limitations of
the data are examined in this chapter in order to provide
a basis for empirical test of the hypotheses.
Chapter IV, The Findings, presents data to test
11
the hypotheses and interpretive commentary.
Chapter V, Summary and Conclusions, is a summary
and discussion of the findings and their implications.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction
The present chapter is a review of the literature
which is relevant to the explanation of conscientious
objection. The literature may be divided into two parts:
behavioral science literature and written statements by
objectors. The hypotheses of the present study are given
context and the definitions of the variables clarified.
Behavioral Science Literature
There is little research on conscientious objec
tion which can be called scientific by contemporary
standards. The only published research on the causes of
conscientious objection tp be found in a review of the
professional journals is by two psychiatrists^ and by
^Mark A. May, "The Psychological Examination of
Conscientious Objectors," American Journal of Psychology,
12
13
2
two psychologists.
May studied conscientious objectors to World War
I. His article is a summary of his experience interview
ing conscientious objectors on behalf of the War Depart
ment and is not a report of controlled observations. He
observed that objectors were more intelligent than
draftees but that they were also more solitary and were
not socially inclined.
Speaking generally one might say that the
average conscientious objector is a non-voter,
belongs to no social organization, is not inter
ested in community enterprises.^
Gory and McClelland took polemical opposition to May’s
assertion that objectors are not interested in society.
Albert Rabin, a hospital psychiatrist, conducted
Rorschach tests on thirty-two conscientious objectors who
worked as attendants in his hospital during World War II.
Rabin was interested in these men for their abnormal
XXXI (April, 1920) , 152-165; Albert Rabin, "Rorschach
Test Findings in a Group of Conscientious Objectors,"
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, XV (July, 1945),
515-519.
2
Adrian Gory and Daniel McClelland, "Characteris
tics of Conscientious Objectors in World War II," Journal
of Consulting Psychology, XI (September-October, 1947) ,
245-257.
^May, "Conscientious Objectors," p. 153.
14
reaction to war.
The psychological and psychiatric literature
on "conscientious objectors" is very meagre.
There are practically no scientific, well-con-
trolled studies of the personality of the objec
tor, its structure and functioning. In the
sense of deviation from the standards and cur
rent views of society and the culture, these men
are abnormal.^ ^
He concluded from his findings that the personality
structure of the objector causes a "reduced ability to
conform to the world’s ways of thinking.
This group of conscientious objectors is
rather high intellectually, but tends to show a
preoccupation with abstract and philosophical
ideas, with a concomitant comparative neglect of
more concrete and practical data of everyday
experience.
The tendency toward opposition, stubborn
ness, and negativism is clearly indicated in
about 75 per cent of the entire group. It ap
pears to be a basic characteristic of the ^
personality structure in those cases. . . .
Gory and McClelland published a report on the
characteristics of objectors in World War II. Most of
the objectors studied were in Quaker-administered camps
which were operated during the war.
Gory and McClelland found that these objectors
4
Rabin, "Rorschach Test Findings," p. 514.
^Ibid., p. 519. ^Ibid., p. 518.
15
in the Quaker-administered camps had more education, were
more intelligent, were taller, heavier, and older than
men who enlisted in the armed forces. They also tenta
tively concluded from a study of the objectors' occupa
tional backgrounds that objectors were more interested in
artistic and social service occupations and less inter
ested in business than were non-objectors.
If there is any general conclusion to be
drawn . . ., it is that the conscientious objec
tor group as a whole tends to be more interested
in artistic and social service occupations
(involving people) and distinctly less inter
ested in business occupations than the non-con-
scientious objector group. They also score
higher in the skilled trades group except for
policemen, which is understandable in view of
their attitude toward violence and coercion.
They are not interested in the world of business,
the "practical" world, unless the occupation has
some artistic element in it (as in the case of
advertising men or author-journalist).
Nature, of religion related to
conscientious objection
Max Weber made a suggestion in his discussion of
g
"Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions"
^Gory and McClelland, "Characteristics of Con
scientious Objectors," pp. 252-253.
8
Max Weber, From Max Weber; Essays in Sociology,
trans. and ed. by Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New
York; Oxford University Press, Inc., 1946), chap. xiii.
16
which provides a starting point for the consideration of
the relations between types of religion and conscientious
objection. He suggested that objection was the result of
a religious rejection of the state.
The state is an association that claims the
monopoly of the legitimate use of violence and
cannot be defined in any other manner.
The Sermon on the Mount says "resist no
evil." In opposition the state asserts, "You
shall help right to triumph by the use of force,
otherwise you too may be responsible for an
injustice." Where this factor is absent, the
"state" is also absent: the "anarchism" of the
pacifist will then have come to life.^
"Every state is founded on force," said
Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk. That is indeed right.
If no social institutions existed which knew the
use of violence, then the concept of "state"
would be eliminated, and a condition would emerge
that could be designated as "anarchy," in the
specific sense of the word.
Weber did not propose testable hypotheses which
are implied by this view of a conflict between religion
and government, but he did make a suggestion which is
relevant here as to the nature of religions which reject
the state. This was the church-sect typology.
9Ibid., p. 334.
^°Ibid., p. 78.
17
Church and sect
The rejection of the state and its policies is
characteristic of the sect-type religious group. The
basic principle distinguishing churches from sects is the
attitude toward existing social arrangements. Benton
Johnson, after reviewing the existing formulations of
this principle, expressed it as follows:
A church is a religious group that accepts
the social environment in which it exists. A
sect is a religious group that rejects the social
environment in which it exists.
Illustration
Catholicism and Protestantism may be used as
illustrations of the two types of group. Neither fits
the type exactly, and there are many different tendencies
within these two general religious groups which give
specific branches some unrepresentative characteristics.
However, they effectively illustrate the principle behind
the classification.
Catholicism has the character of an established
^^Benton Johnson, "On Church and Sect," American
Sociological Review, XXVIII (August, 1963), 542.
18
church. It has an elaborate clergy, membership from birth
instead of voluntary membership, and does not ask the
individual member to deal with life alone. Protestantism,
on the contrary, in its radical forms has involved a
sect-type character. Its clergy is not extensive. Mem
bership is voluntary as indicated by adult baptism. It
is not monolithic but is divided into many different view
points. Salvation for the radical Protestant is a rela
tively lonely matter of himself and "Truth" without
intermediaries.
Douglass and Brunner wrote:
The divisions of American religious opinion
among the historic doctrines of the church were
intensely explored in the series of Institute
studies on church cooperation and unity. The
results showed the persistence and currency of
deep-rooted differences between Protestant and
Catholic viewpoints.
To the radical Protestant, religion consists
of-direct and unique personal relations between
God and the individual. The sum total of the
persons who have realized these relations con
stitutes the church, which is to be described as
an essentially spiritual entity, and only very
secondarily as a social institution.
In the characteristic Catholic viewpoint,
on the contrary, the essence of religion is found
in God's corporate relations to men effectuaitzed
through the church as an ordained channel of
life. The church is definitely a divinely-
constituted social institution. Its sacraments
convey grace, its priesthood is essential to the
19
valid performance of the church's saving func
tion.
Talcott Parsons has described the difference as
the result of progressive differentiation in which
autonomy is increased.Sect movements are seen, in
this view, as reform movements which incorporate changes
toward autonomy, the logical conclusion of which is the
"Last Puritan," who affiliates with no group. Parsons
wrote ;
The Reformation may be seen, from one point
of view, as a process of the extension of this
principle of autonomy (by autonomy I mean here
independence of direct authoritarian control
combined with responsibility defined in moral-
religious terms) to the internal structure of
religious organization itself, with profound
consequences both for the structure of churches
and for their relations to secular society. It
may be regarded as a further major step in the
same line as the original Christian break with
Judaism.
The essential point may be stated as the
religious "enfranchisement" of the individual.
Paul Douglass and Edmund D. S. Brunner, "The
Church as a Social Institution," in Religion, Culture and
Society; A Reader in the Sociology of Religion, ed. by
Louis Schneider (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964),
p. 13.
^^Talcott Parsons, "Christianity and Modern
Industrial Society," in Schneider, ibid., pp. 273-298.
20
often put as his coming to stand in a direct
relation to G o d . 14
Max Weber also saw the independence of the indi
vidual as the essence of the differences. The radically
Protestant group, the sect, was composed of individuals
who were quite alone contrasted with the members of the
established church. Weber noted this in his study of the
individualistic nature of capitalism and its relation to
the Puritan attitude. I use the word Puritan to mean a
purer, more radical, Protestant. The Puritan effort is,
then, an effort to refine the principle of autonomy. The
Puritan ethic, as described by Weber, reflected actual
beliefs and practices of people since the Reformation.
He wrote :
In its extreme inhumanity this doctrine must
above all have had one consequence for the life
of a generation which surrendered to its magnif
icent consistency. That was a feeling of un
precedented inner loneliness of the single
individual. In what was for the man of the age
of the Reformation the most important thing in
his life, his eternal salvation, he was forced
to follow his path alone to meet a destiny which
had been decreed for him from eternity. No one
could help him. No priest, for the chosen one
can understand the word of God only in his own
heart. No sacraments . . . No church . . .
Finally, even no God. For even Christ had died
^^Ibid., p. 285.
21
only for the elect, for whose benefit God had
decreed His martyrdom from eternity. This, the
complete elimination of salvation through the
Church and the Sacraments (which was in Luther
anism by no means developed to its final con
clusions) , was what formed the absolutely deci
sive difference from Catholicism.^^
It is because of this fundamental difference in
attitude toward the place of others in the matter of
salvation that Puritan declarations against the "papists,"
"popery," and "idolatry" are not insignificant matters of
unaccountable personal prejudice. Idolatry, says Par
sons, was a "fundamental Puritan concept.Rather,
these concepts are intimately related to the nature of
the religion. John Locke, whose empirical epistemology
earned him a label as the Father of Tolerance, would not
concede tolerance to one group, the "papists." Durkheim
noted that "Protestantism concedes a greater freedom to
individual thought than Catholicism" and that there is a
"spirit of free inquiry which animates this religion,
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism, trans. by Talcott Parsons (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), pp. 104-105,
^^Talcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 19 37), p. 526n.
17
Emile Durkheim, Suicide, trans. by John A.
Spaulding and George Simpson (New York : The Free Press,
1951), pp. 158-159.
22
and attributed it to the aloneness of the Protestant.
Merton has documented the importance of this in the rise
of science in his essay, "Puritanism, Pietism, and Sci
ence.
There have been many other observations of the
comparative solitude of the Puritan in poetry, plays, and
other literature as well as in social science. All of
these observations may be summarized in saying that, to
the Protestant as opposed to the Catholic, the individ
ual's salvation was a matter of himself and the "Truth"
alone.
The church-sect typology is an attempt to classify
religious groups according to this principle. The sect
is illustrated by radical Protestantism and the church is
illustrated by a well-established Catholicism.
We can expect that the members of a sect will be
less enthusiastic about wars, for they place less impor
tance on the social environment. Whether one state or
another wins a war is not important, since both are mat
ters of indifference or even of ridicule. Both sides are
18
Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social
Structure (rev. and enlarged ed.; New York: The Free
Press, 1957), pp. 574-606.
23
wrong from the sectarian point of view. A Jehovah's
Witness expressed it as follows:
Do Jehovah's Witnesses participate in wars
between nations of the world? How could one who
is wholly devoted to Almighty God, and to His
kingdom under Christ Jesus, take sides in a war
between nations, both of whom are against God
and his kingdom? Those persons who are wholly
devoted to God and His kingdom are separate and
distinct as a nation from other nations, and as
stated by the Scripture; their citizenship is in
the heavenly organization.^^
The attitude of the sect is that the established social
order is of no importance, and is perhaps evil, and thus
there is no reason to preserve it.
These sect members who refuse to go to war are
anarchists, from the established social order's point of
20
view. The Society of Friends, which has a relatively
high rate of conscientious objection, is thus seen as a
. . . cursed sect of heretics, lately risen up
in the world which are commonly called "Quakers,"
who would take upon them to be immediately sent of
God and infallibly assisted by the spirit to
speak and write blasphemous opinions, despising
Quoted by Nathan T. Elliff, in "The Prosecution
of Conscientious Objectors under the Selective Service
Act," The Federal Bar Journal, VI (October, 1944), 44n.
20
Cf. Weber, From Max Weber, supra, p. 16.
24
government and the order of God in church and
commonwealth.^^
Sects such as the Friends, Mennonites, Brethren, and
Jehovah's Witnesses have often had conflict with the
governments under which they have lived.,
Education related to conscien
tious objection
Going to war is a traditional, habitual solution
to the draft. Few people refuse to go and if they do
refuse they have to account for the refusal. No explana
tion is necessary when a man joins the army because it is
the traditional thing to do, whereas when one refuses,
he must go through an elaborate and difficult procedure
to explain himself. He has to make an effort which the
traditional response does not require. Tolstoy noted
this as follows:
If the majority of men prefer submission to
insubmission, this is not due to any sober
weighing of the advantages and disadvantages,
but because the men are attracted to submission
by means of the hypnotization to which they are
subjected in the matter. In submitting, men
only surrender themselves to those demands which
21
Quoted in U. S., Department of Commerce, Bureau
of the Census, Religious Bodies; 1936 (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1941), I, 706.
25
are made upon them, without reflection and with
out making any effort of the will; for insub
mission there is need of independent reflection
and effort.
Education provides alternative solutions to prob
lems other than the traditional solution, and we can
therefore expect to find conscientious objection more
)
often among educated people than among people who know
only the traditional response.
Family status related to
conscientious objection
A starting point for considering the relation
between conscientious objection and family status is the
fact that the family man does not make the decision to go
to war, or not to go to war, by himself. The presence of
a wife and children involves them in his decision making.
The man who does not have a wife and children is
more alone in his decision making than is the family man.
The family man responds to the draft taking his family's
viewpoint rather than his own individual viewpoint.
There is also an element of martyrdom in
22
Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You
(New York ; The Noonday Press, 1961), p. 188.
26
conscientious objection, as implied in the previous dis
cussion of radical Protestantism. That is, the objector
has to be willing to sacrifice everything for his stand,
including his family. The examination procedure through
which he goes requires that he believe strongly that he
will not participate in war under any conditions. The
presence of a family gives him a tie to the "world" as
opposed to his principle. If a man has a family which
thus gives him a tie to the world, he would be less
likely to take the independent stand which objection
requires.
Durkheim showed that one effect of family is to
give a man a tie to the world. Men with family are more
immune to suicide than unmarried or childless married men.
The immunity of married persons in general
is thus due, wholly for one sex and largely for
the other, to the influence not of conjugal
society but of the family society. However, we
have seen that even if there are no children,
men at least are protected in the proportion of
1 to 1.5.23
Suicide may be compared to conscientious objection in that
both acts require that men be willing to sacrifice every
thing else, including family.
^^Durkheim, Suicide, p. 189.
27
It is to be noted in this connection that the
Puritans who reject the "world" and the existing social
order, object to sex as well as war. Marriage, to them,
is a possible distraction from the "Godly, righteous and
sober life." Some, such as the Shakers, have refused sex
altogether. Max Weber noted the relative "coldness" of
Puritan family life.
To see the specific results of this peculiar
atmosphere, it is only necessary to read Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, by far the most widely read
book of the whole Puritan literature. In the
description of Christian's attitude after he had
realized that he was living in the City of
Destruction and he had received the call to take
up his pilgrimage to the celestial city, wife
and children cling to him, but stopping his ears
with his fingers and crying, "life, eternal life,"
he staggers across the f i e l d s . ^4
In summary, participation in family life is a
source of attitudes toward participation in war. A man
who does not participate in family life will be more inde
pendent and thus more likely to become an objector than a
man who does participate in family life.
Written Statements by Objectors
Conscientious objection has received a great deal
24
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, p. 107.
28
of attention outside of professional circles. There is
an extensive literature on the subject which provides an
image of the objector which is not as systematic as the
images provided by more scientific methods, but which has
more detail.
Probably the most familiar of this literature has
been the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament. Leo
Tolstoy, an eloquent pacifist in his later years, titled
his major work on pacifism. The Kingdom of God Is Within
You. He took this title from a New Testament passage in
which Jesus answers a question by the Pharisees, repre
sentatives of the orthodox religion, which is familiar to
conscientious objectors. His answer reflects the inde
pendency and individualism which is common in pacifist
literature.
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees
when the kingdom of God should come, he answered
them and said. The kingdom of God cometh not
with observation:
Neither shall they say. Lb here! or, lo
there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within
you.^^
That is an apolitical, independent attitude.
Peter Mayer has suggested that Henry David
25
Luke 17:20-21.
29
Thoreau's essay. Civil Disobedience,^^ "is today in all
likelihood the most influential text for the pacifist
27
conscience after the Sermon on the Mount." Tolstoy,
Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., famous paci
fists, have acknowledged their indebtedness to Thoreau.
Thoreau was an independent individual. He con
ceived Civil Disobedience while imprisoned for refusing
to pay a tax in defiance of the American government which
was at war in Mexico. His writings and personal life
reflect his independent, ascetic Puritanism. Thoreau
defended John Brown, who tried to seize the arsenal at
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and to set up a new king
dom in the hills which would be without slavery. Thoreau
described Brown as a Puritan.
He was one of that class of whom we hear a
great deal, but, for the most part, see nothing
at all— the Puritans. It would be in vain to
kill him. He died lately in the time of Cromwell,
but he reappeared here.
^^Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobe
dience, ed. by Sherman Paul (Riverside Editions; Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1960). Civil Disobedience was first
published in 1849.
Peter Mayer, The Pacifist Conscience (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966), p.21.
^%enry David Thoreau, "A Plea for Captain John
Brown," in Conscience in America: A Documentary History
30
The following passage from Civil Disobedience is
typical of Thoreau*s references to participation in war:
A common and natural result of an undue
respect for law is, that you may see a file of
soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, private,
powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable
order over hill and dale to the wars, against
their wills, ay, against their common sense and
consciences, which makes it very steep marching
indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.
They have no doubt that it is a damnable business
in which they are concerned: they are all peace
ably inclined. Now what are they? Men at all?
or some small movable forts and magazines, at
the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
. . . The mass of men serve the state thus, not
as men mainly, but as machines, with their
bodies. They are the standing army, the militia,
the jailers, constables, posse comitas, etc. In
most cases there is no free exercise whatever of
the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put
themselves on a level with wood and earth and
stones: and wooden men can perhaps be manufac
tured that will serve the purpose as well. Such
command no more respect than men of straw or a
lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth
only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even
are commonly esteemed good citizens
Leo Tolstoy's writings on pacifism also ask for
individual independence in decision making. The following
passages are typical of Tolstoy's writings:
of Conscientious Objection in America, ed. by Lillian
Schlissel (New York : E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1968),
p. 81.
29
Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobedience, pp.
236-237.
31
In order that. people who dor not want war
should not fight, it is not necessary to have
either international law, arbitration, interna
tional tribunals, or solutions of problems; but
it is necessary merely that those who are sub
jected to the deceit should awake and free
themselves from the spell of enchantment under
which they find themselves. The way to do away
with war is, for those who do not want war, who
regard participation in it as a sin, to refrain
from fighting.^®
The people of our time, especially the
scholars, have become so gross, that they, do not
understand, and in their grossness cannot even
understand, the significance and the influence
of spiritual forces. A charge of ten thousand
pounds of dynamite sent into a crowd of living
men— that they understand, and in that they see
strength; but an idea, truth, which has become
realized, has been introduced into life to the
point of martyrdom, has become accessible to
millions— that is according to their conception
not force, because it does not boom, and you do
not see broken bones and puddles of blood.
Scholars (it is true, bad scholars) use all the
power of their erudition to prove that humanity
lives like a herd, which is only guided by
economic conditions, and that reason is given
to it only for amusement; but the governments
know what it is that moves the world, and so
unerringly, from a sense of self-preservation,
look zealously upon the manifestation of spirit
ual forces, on which depend their existence or
their ruin.^^
Quoted by Arlo Tatum in Tatum, Handbook for
Conscientious Objectors (Philadelphia: The Larchwood
Press, 1965), p. 93.
3^Leo Tolstoy, "Leo Tolstoy Pleads for Each Man
to Follow His Own Reason and Conscience," in Instead of
Violence; Writings by the Great Advocates of Peace and
32
A. J. Muste is the best-known contemporary spokes
man of pacifism. I. F. Stone wrote at the time of Muste's
death, recently, that he was "a wanderer upon the face of
the earth." This expresses the independent, nationless
character of the pacifist which is common to these writ
ings. Muste wrote the following passage, which is repre
sentative of contemporary pacifism.
The human being, the child of God, must as
sert his humanity and his sonship again. He
must exercise the choice which he no longer has
as something accorded him by society, which he
"naked, weaponless, armourless, without shield
or spear, but only with naked hands and open
eyes" must create again. He must understand
that the naked human being is the one real thing
in the face of the mechanics and mechanized in-
32
stitutions of our age.
The pacifist writings reviewed here are repre
sentative of the pacifist literature in general in pre
senting an image of the objector as one who is independent
in his attitudes toward society. These writings may give
a biased picture, for it is clear that the authors admire
the objector. The image need not always be favorable.
Nonviolence through History, ed. by Arthur and Lila
Weinberg (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), p. 328.
^^A. J. Muste, "The Individual Conscience," in
The Pacifist Conscience, ed. by Peter Mayer (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966), p. 351.
33
Sibley and Jacob wrote the following passage in their
study of conscientious objectors to World War IX.
A third underlying characteristic was the
tendency for emphasis on individual conscience
to create a kind of self-centeredness which
frequently affected profoundly the perspective
from which the objector viewed the world. The
psychological pattern inherent in this egotism
is relatively clear: that is, when emphasis was
placed on individual conscience and upon its
rights against the practices of a warmaking and
corrupting society, the individual objector
sometimes tended to build a wall about himself
and to view all problems solely from the per
spective of his individual salvation. . . . This
is not to say, of course, that the emphasis on
conscience always, or even in most cases, degen
erated into intolerable egotism. But it was a
sufficiently common thread in the whole pattern
to deserve comment.
Summary
This review of the literature indicates that there
are few professional research efforts to determine the
causes of conscientious objection. Literature which
clarifies the concepts of religion and family status used
in this thesis is also examined. The existing literature
supports a view of the objector as a person who is likely
33
Mulford Q. Sibley and Philip E. Jacob, Con
scription of Conscience: The American State and the
Conscientious Objector (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1952), pp. 464-465.
34
to be generally independent of other peoples' opinions
in his decision making. Writings of representative paci
fists are also seen to be compatible with this image.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH DESIGN
World War II Data Used
Data on conscientious objection to World War II
are used to test the hypotheses of this study because they
are more comprehensive and readily available than data on
objection to other wars.
The Selective Service System printed a series of
monographs on its operations during that war which con
tained detailed information on selected characteristics
of its registrants.^ Data on conscientious objectors can
be selected from the monographs* tables despite the limi
tations caused by the Selective Service System's secrecy
2
policies. Also, Gory and McClelland's study contains
^U. S., Selective Service System, Special Mono
graph Series (Washington: Government Printing Office,
1945-1956), 18 nos.
^Adrian Gory and Daniel McClelland, "Character
istics of Conscientious Objectors in World War II,"
35
36
data which are relevant to the hypothesis concerning
education. These data, together with those from the
System's monographs, are more adequate data for the pur
poses of this study than are data from other wars but
will limit the generalizations to objectors in World War
II.
The Selective Service System distinguishes two
classes of conscientious objector. One class, called
I-A-0, includes men who are opposed to war but who are
willing to participate in it in a noncombatant capacity.
Objectors in this class are sometimes called "conditional
objectors" or "conscientious cooperators" and serve as
chaplain's helpers, medics, and in similar roles which do
not require doing the actual killing. The second class,
called IV-E during World War II and I-O today, includes
men who will not participate in war under any conditions.
Such men were sent during World War II to work camps
within the United States for the duration of the war and,
in special cases, were given work assignments outside the
camps. These camps were called Civilian Public Service
Journal of Consulting Psychology, XI (September-October,
1947), 245-257.
37
Camps but served a detention function as well as the
service function implied by their name. Today, complete
objectors are given two years of civilian work which is
considered by the Selective Service System to be in the
national interest.
The data of the present study refer to men who
were complete objectors, men of the IV-E class. This is
because the System has never revealed information on men
of the I-A-0 class, conditional objectors. It is esti
mated that there were 25,000 men in this class during
World War II and 12,000 in IV-E.^
There were thus approximately twice as many condi
tional objectors as there were complete objectors. It
may be argued that limiting the present study to the
12,000 complete objectors is justified by the fact that
the conditional objector is not as pure a specimen of
conscientious objector as is the complete objector and
that it is therefore more effective to study the latter.
U. S. Selective Service System, Conscientious
Objection, Special Monograph Series, No. 11 (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1950), I, 105; and Mulford Q.
Sibley and Philip E. Jacob, Conscription of Conscience :
The American State and the Conscientious Objector (Ithaca
Cornell University Press, 1952), pp. 83-84.
38
Original Collection of the Data
The data compiled in the Selective Service System
monographs were originally collected from application
forms filled out by each objector in the classification
process. It was necessary to fill out these forms in
order to be classified as an objector.
The data on education were originally collected
from several sources. The educational levels of enlisted
men were obtained from War Department and Navy Department
records of military personnel. The data on educational
levels of objectors were taken from records made by reli
gious agencies which administered the service camps on
the admittance of objectors to those camps.
The data on membership and expenses of religious
groups were collected by the Bureau of the Census from
questionnaires filled out by the leaders of the groups
concerned.
Religion as a criterion for
selecting the sample
A relevant question is whether or not religion
was used as a criterion for selecting the sample. That
is, if men were classified as conscientious objectors by
39
the Selective Service System because these men belonged
to certain religious groups, it is evident that there will
be a strong relationship between religious affiliation and
conscientious objection in any sample of conscientious
objectors. Is religion used as a criterion by the System
for classifying men as conscientious objectors?
Religious affiliation may have been used as an
indication of the sincerity of the applicant but there is
no evidence that it was necessary or sufficient for class
ifying him as an objector. There is some evidence to the
contrary. The Selective Service System reports that 776
of the 12,000 men who were complete objectors claimed no
4
religious affiliation. An additional 69 objectors cited
the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the War Registers'
League as their religious affiliation,^ groups which are
not usually considered to be religious and are not so
listed by the 1936 census report. Elliff found that
there were few cases in which an applicant was denied
objector's status because of a lack of religious affilia
tion and attributed this fact to government policy.
4
U. S., Selective Service System, Conscientious
Objection, I, 320.
5,
Ibid., p. 318.
40
As early as February 11, 1941, the Attorney
General instructed those designated . . . that
the statute exempted not only those whose objec
tions were based on a particular church but
also those whose conscientious objections were
based on their own religious scruples, regardless
of church membership of doctrines.^
Religious affiliation was thus not a necessary condition
for conscientious objection classification.
Finally, it is noted in Table II of Chapter IV
that conscientious objectors are minorities within their
own groups. With the exceptions of the Christadelphians
and Mennonites, the objectors constitute less than one
per cent of the members of their own groups. It is
assumed that one-sixth, or seventeen per cent, of the
members of any group could have become objectors, for
that is the percentage of the total American population
who were registrants in the Selective Service System.
(Total number of registrants, 18-37 years of age on Febru
ary 1, 19 45, was 22,0 37,400.^ Estimated total United
Nathan T. Elliff, "The Prosecution of Conscien
tious Objectors under the Selective Service Act," Federal
Bar Journal, VI (October, 1944), 48.
7
U.S., Selective Service System, The Classifica
tion Process, Special Monograph No. 5 (Washington; Gov
ernment Printing Office, 1951), III, 325.
41
States population in 1945 was 131,976,000.^) Since most
members of religious groups were not objectors, it may be
assumed that religion was not sufficient for classifica
tion as an objector. It was also difficult to receive
conscientious objector status so that any man who did
receive the classification may be assumed to have pre
sented other evidence of his objection than his religious
affiliation.
Family status as a criterion
for selection of the sample
A second relevant question concerning the selec
tion of the sample is whether or not family status was
used as a criterion for classifying men into other
classes than conscientious objector. Particularly, there
is a question whether fathers who might have been classi
fied as conscientious objectors were given other defer
ments so that they could support their children. If this
were so, we could account for an observed lower rate
among fathers by the fact that fathers were deferred for
o
U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States; 1946
(Washington; Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 9.
42
other reasons. Selective Service System policy was that
applicants for conscientious objection status should be
deferred for any other possible reason first, which would
make this possibility plausible.
Dependency deferments were granted at the begin
ning of the war, but during 1943 it was decided that the
dependency deferment should be eliminated. Accordingly,
men were classified out of this category and the deferment
nearly eliminated by 1945. Selective Service System data
indicate that by April 1, 1945, only approximately 0.3
per cent of all classified registrants were left in this
classification.^ The same report summarized:
As can be seen from the foregoing chronology
of events, which gradually changed dependency
deferment policies, the problem of dependency
was being solved by its elimination as a deter
mining factor in the classification.^®
It is not likely, then, that local boards would grant
fathers who were applicants for conscientious objection
status dependency deferments after 1943, and the data
used to test the hypothesis can be taken from 1945.
U. S. Selective Service System, Dependency
Deferment, Special Monograph Series, No. 8 (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 194.
^®Tbid., p. 51.
43
Limitations of the Data
The principal limitation of the data is that
they do not permit thorough controls for the effects of
many variables on the relationships under study. This
limitation is particularly important in that it does not
permit analyzing of the interrelations of religious affil
iation, education, and family status, the principal vari
ables of this study. A survey which provides data on
each objector on all the variables concerned is necessary
in order to be able to examine these relationships. Com
prehensive data presently exist in the files of the Local
Boards of the Selective Service System but are not avail
able to investigators.
Indicants of the Variables
Operational indicants of sectarianism of religious
groups, educational level, and family status were pre
sented in Chapter I.
The selection of these indicants was determined
by their reference to sociological phenomena and the fact
that they make possible the use of available data, an
important consideration in view of the scarcity of con
scientious objectors and data on them.
44
Thus, the relative size of the religious group
and the clergy's salary are closely related to the nature
of religion, while allowing the use of the best available
data. Years of schooling completed is a common measure of
educational level and can be applied to available data.
Finally, whether or not a man has children is a justifiable
indicant of family status which also allows use of the
only systematic data available on this aspect of consci
entious objectors' backgrounds.
Summary
The present chapter has considered questions rele
vant to the design of the test of the hypotheses. The
nature and limitations of data on objectors to World War
II are presented. Possible biases in the selection of
the sample are examined and the original sources of the
data cited. Finally, the selection of indicants of the
variables was noted to depend on the availability of appro
priate data as well as on reference to the phenomenon
involved.
CHAPTER IV
THE FINDINGS
Table 1 presents data on religious groups which
produced twenty or more objectors during World War II.
The membership figures are taken from the 1936 census
report on religious bodies and the number of objectors is
taken from the Selective Service System monograph on
conscientious objection.
One group which had more than twenty objectors,
the Jehovah's Witnesses, does not appear in the census
report. It is included here, however, because of the
relatively large number of objectors who called themselves
Jehovah's Witnesses. The membership figure of 75,000 is
an estimate used by the Selective Service System.^
There were smaller groups which produced fewer
U.S., Selective Service System, Conscientious
objection. Special Monograph Series, No. 11 (Washington
Government Printing Office, 1950), I, 320.
45
46
TABLE 1
NIMBER OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS IN CIVILIAN
PUBLIC SERVICE AND MEMBERSHIP OF
RELIGIOUS GROUPS
Religious
Group
Membership
Number of
Objectors
ChristadeIphian 2,755 136
Pentecostal 57,652 67
Unitarian 59,228 49
Jehovah's Witnesses 75,000 532
Friends 93,679 902
Mennonite 114,337 4,610
Church of God .123,503 154
Nazarene 136,227 24
Assembly of God 148,043 21
Adventist Church 165,815 23
Brethren 188,290 1,468
Reformed 299,694 28
Church of Christ 309,551 220
United Brethren 392,897 23
Evangelical and Reformed 723,877 79
Congregational-Christian 976,388 204
Episcopal 1,735,335 33
Presbyterian 2,513,653 235
Lutheran 4,244,890 124
Jewish 4,641,184 50
Methodist 7,001,637 845
Baptist 10,044,890 243
Catholic 19,914,937 162
Sources: Membership figures from U.S., Department
of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Religious Bodies: 1936,
Vol. I. Number of objectors taken from U.S., Selective
Service System, Conscientious Objection, Special Monograph
Series, No. 11, (Washington: Government Printing Office,
1950), I, 318-319.
47
than twenty objectors per group. Many of these smaller
groups do not appear in the census report and are thus
not used in the present study.
Rate of Conscientious Objection and
Sectarianism of Religious Group
Sectarianism of religious
group; size
Table 2 presents rates of conscientious objection
for the various religious groups listed in Table 1 and
the size of their membership. The rate of objection for
a group is calculated by finding the number of objectors
for every 100,000 members of the group. This is done by
using the data of Table 1.
There is a wide range in the rates of objection
between these groups. The group with the highest rate,
the ChristadeIphian, has over 4,936 objectors per 100,000
members, while the Catholic Church has less than one
objector per 100,000 members. The large base of 100,000
members used to calculate the rate is thus necessary
since the groups with low rates would not show up on a
scale calculated on a smaller base.
The rate of objection is a projection for five
groups, since these groups did not have as many as 100,000
48
TABLE 2
MEMBERSHIP AND RATES OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS
Religious
Group
Membership
Objectors
per 100,000
Membership
ChristadeIphian 2,755 4936.5
Pentecostal 57,652 116.2
Unitarian 59,228 82.7
Jehovah's Witnesses 75,000 709.3
Friends 93,679 962.7
Mennonite 114,337 4032.0
Church of God 123,503 124.7
Nazarene 136,227 17.6
Assembly of God 148,043 14.2
Adventist Church 165,815 13.9
Brethren 188,290 779.7
Reformed 299,694 9.3
Church of Christ 309,551 71.1
United Brethren 392,897 5.9
Evangelical and Reformed 723,877 10.9
Congregational-Christian 976,388 20.9
Episcopal 1,735,335 1.9
Presbyterian 2,513,653 9.3
Lutheran 4,244,890 2.9
Jewish 4,641,184 1.1
Methodist 7,001,637 12.1
Baptist 10 ,044,890 2.4
Catholic 19,914,937 0.8
Sources: Membership from U.S., Department of Com
merce, Bureau of the Census, Religious Bodies; 19 36, Vol.
I. Number of objectors from U.S., Selective Service Sys
tem, Conscientious Objection, Special Monograph Series, No.
11 (Washington; Government Printing Office, 1950),I,318-9.
49
members at the time. These groups are the ChristadeIphian,
the Friends, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Pentecostals,
and the Unitarians. Projecting their membership to
100,000 allows their rates of objection to be compared
with the rates of the larger groups.
It is evident from Table 2 that the groups with
the higher rates of objection are the smaller groups.
This supports the hypothesis that the rate of objection
varies directly with the sectarianism of religious groups
as indicated by size.
The association between rate of objection and
sectarianism as indicated by size can be measured by a
2
rank correlation coefficient, Kendall's tau. Kendall's
tau in Table 2 is -0.66, significant at the 0.001 level,
when the Adventist Church is omitted. This indicates
that there is a definite direct relationship between rate
of objection and sectarianism, but that size alone can not
predict relative rank of objection rate accurately.
The Adventist Church is not included in this cal
culation of tau because the group has a special policy
which makes its rate of objection not comparable to the
2
Maurice G. Kendall, Rank Correlation Methods
(3rd ed.; New York: Hafner Publishing Co., Inc., 1962).
50
rates of other groups. The Adventists train their young
men in medical techniques and prepare them to join the
armed forces as limited objectors who perform medical
duties. Adventists therefore usually become objectors of
the I-A-0 class rather than complete objectors. This
special preparation policy is not followed by the other
groups and therefore the rate of Adventist objection in
Table 2 is not comparable to the rates of the other
groups.
Sectarianism of religious
group; salary paid to clergy
Table 3 presents data on the sectarianism of
religious groups as indicated by the average yearly salary
paid to their clergy. Some groups, such as the Christa
de Iphian and certain subgroups of Mennonites, do not have
official clergy, but have "serving brethren" or lay lead
ers. The salary in such cases represents money spent on
the leaders* expenses. No data on Jehovah's Witnesses'
expenses are available.
The rates of objection again are calculated by
finding the number of objectors per 100,000 members.
These data support the hypothesis that rates of
51
TABLE 3
RATE OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION AND AVERAGE SALARY
OF CLERGY OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS
Religious Clergy's Salary
Group per Year
Objectors
per 100,000
Members
Christadelphian 14 4936.5
Adventist Church 83 13.9
Mennonite 243 4032.0
Church of Christ 296 71.1
Pentecostal 333 116.2
Church of God. 349 124.7
Society of Friends 369 962.7
Brethren 398 779.7
Baptist 431 2.4
Assembly of God 510 14.2
United Brethren 596 5.9
Methodist 659 12.1
Nazarene 680 17.6
Catholic 752 0.8
Lutheran 905 2.9
Evangelical and Reformed 917 10.9
Congregational-Christian 1079 20.9
Presbyterian 1165 9.3
Jewish 1186 1.1
Episcopal 1283 1.9
Reformed 1685 9.3
Unitarian 2332 82.7
Sources; Clergy's salary from U.S., Department of
Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Religious Bodies: 19 36,
Vol. I. Rates of objection from Table 2.
52
conscientious objection vary directly with the sectarian
ism of religious groups as indicated by the salary paid to
clergy. The more sectarian groups again have the higher
rates of objection. Kendall's tau in this case, excluding
the Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Unitarians, is
-0.54, significant at the 0.001 level. The two groups
which are most noticeably out of rank are the Unitarians
and the Adventists.
The Unitarian ministers have the highest average
salary, thus indicating that the group has a low degree
of sectarianism. We should thus expect the group to have
a much lower rate of objection.
One reason for the discrepancy may be that the
Unitarians have a very individualistic religion in which
the members are expected to make decisions on their own.
No formal creed is offered by their clergy and an individ
ual is without official guidance on ciny problem. The
religion has the effect of placing great reliance on the
individual's own perceptions, which is a characteristic
of the sects.
The Adventist clergy have very low salaries, which
indicates a high degree of sectarianism for that group.
The lower rate of objection than expected by the hypothesis
53
may again be explained by the Adventist preparation
policy. Sibley and Jacob report correspondence with the
Adventists that indicates that approximately 12,000
Adventists entered the armed forces as noncombatant con-
3
scientious objectors. If one-third of these 12,000
objectors may be assumed to have become complete objec
tors had not the Adventist preparation program inter
fered, the objection rate of the Adventists would have
been higher.^ It would then have been closely in line
with the expectations of the hypothesis.
Sectarianism of religious
group; general observations
It is noted that the groups with the highest
rates of objection are sects, as indicated by their size
and the average salary paid to their clergy. Also, these
groups with the highest rates of objection are less well
known than are the other groups, which is another indica
tion of their sectarian character. The church-type
3
Mulford Q. Sibley and Philip E. Jacob, Conscrip
tion of Conscience; The American State and the Conscien
tious Objector (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1952),
p. 86.
4
It is estimated, supra p. 37, that there were
two conditional objectors for each complete objector.
54
religious group is better integrated with society and
society's purposes and is thus better known than are the
ChristadeIphians, Mennonites, and Brethren.
It is also noted that the names of the groups
with the highest rates have the word "Brethren" in their
names or some approximation to it. The Mennonites were
originally called "Swiss Brethren," or simply "Brethren."
Christadelphian means "brothers of Christ." The "Society
of Friends" and "Church of the Brethren" also have this
character. This is an additional indication of the sec
tarian nature of these groups, for it emphasizes their
antiauthoritarian noninstitutional character.
It is noted that the Catholics and Jews have the
lowest rates of objection. These groups involve their
members in strong social ties, so that the individual is
not alone when making his decisions.
Gordon Zahn has observed that those Catholics who
did become conscientious objectors were individualistic
in their stand, "in direct opposition to the overwhelming
majority of their friends, neighbors, relatives, fellow
5
communicants, and countrymen."
^Gordon C. Zahn, War, Conscience and Dissent (New
York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1967), p. 161.
55
The three principal groups in the Associa
tion of Catholic Conscientious Objectors are
those basing their stand on the "counsels of
perfection" (principally consisting of members
of the Catholic Worker movement), those basing
their stand on Thomistic definitions of "just or
unjust" war, and lastly, those adhering to the
position that no modern war can meet the requi
sites of justice (usually designated as the
"pacifist" group) . . . Our opinions or positions
are almost on an individual basis, backed, of
course, by our interpretations of traditional
Catholic theology.^
Education
The data in Table 4 are taken from the study of
the characteristics of World War II objectors by Gory and
McClelland. The objectors in the sample were 6,200 men
in IV-E who entered Civilian Public Service camps operated
by the Mennonites, Brethren, and Friends. They thus
represent slightly more than half of all complete objec
tors .
The proportions of objectors having reached each
educational level was calculated by finding the total
number of objectors at that level of the three camp sys
tems and finding the proportion that sum was of the total
^Gordon C. Zahn, quoted in The Compass, Summer-
Fall, 1944, p. 34. Dr. Zahn observed this while serving
as a conscientious objector.
56
TABLE 4
EDUCATIONAL LEVELS OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS
IN CIVILIAN PUBLIC SERVICE AND
ENLISTED MEN, 1945
Educational Level
Objectors
Per Cent
Enlisted
Men
Per Cent
Pos tgraduate 9.5 )
)
2.8
College graduate 10.1 )
1-3 years of college 20.2 7.2
High school graduate 25.2 27.8
1-3 years of high school 12.1 34.4
Grammar school 22.9 27.9
Total 100.0 100.1
Average years of education 12.7 9.4
Source: adapted from Adrian Gory and David
McClelland, "Characteristics of Conscientious Objectors
in World War II," Journal of Consulting Psychology, XI
(September-October, 1947), 248. Number of cases reported
6,200 objectors, 10,162,172 enlisted men.
57
of objectors at all levels. The proportion of enlisted
men at each level was calculated similarly.
The proportion of conscientious objectors who
have attended college or have reached a higher level than
college is seen in Table 4 to be greater than the corres
ponding proportion of enlisted men having reached those
levels. Data in Table 4 also indicate that the average
level of the conscientious objectors* education was higher
than that of the enlisted men.
These data indicate that educational level varies
directly with conscientious objection status. Since it
may be assumed that objection is an effect of educational
level and not a cause of it, this finding is interpreted
to mean that the rate of conscientious objection varies
directly with educational level.
It was mentioned previously that a limitation of
the scope of the present study is that it does not explore
the relations of the three variables to each other in the
production of conscientious objection. The relation
between educational level and sectarianism of religion is
one such relation which should be studied in order to
qualify the findings of the present study. Dynes found
that sects have lower educational levels than do
58
7
churches, which would indicate that objectors represent
an educational elite of the sects. However, Dynes con
clusions are open to qualification also, for Protestants
are generally more highly educated than are Catholics.
It should be noted that the present study does
not distinguish types of education. Liberal arts educa
tion may have more effect on conscientious objection
rates than business or technical education, for the latter
type does not involve contemplation on ultimate problems
such as whether or not war is justifiable. Gerth and
Mills suggest that the technological students* training
tends to incapacitate them for making decisions like this
one:
Precisely because of their specialization
and knowledge, the scientists and technicians
are among the most easily used and coordinated
of groups in modern society . . . The very rigor
of their training typically makes them the easy
dupes of men wise in political ways.^
^Russell Dynes, "Church-sect Typology and Socio
economic Status," American Sociological Review, XX
(October, 1955), 558.
o
Quoted by Ralph E. Lapp, The Weapons Culture
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1968), p. 177.
59
Family
The rates of conscientious objection among white
fathers and nonfathers for different age groups on se
lected dates near the end of the war are shown in Table 5
The rates are calculated by finding the number of
conscientious objectors in each group for every 100,000
classified registrants in that age and family status.
There were over 100,000 registrants in each age and
family status so that none of the rates are projections.
The rates are higher among nonfathers, as
expected. The proportion of nonfathers who are objectors
is more than twice the proportion of fathers who are
objectrs, in every case.
It is also noted that the rates of objection are
higher among younger men as opposed to older men. This
is true for both fathers and nonfathers, but especially
for fathers. That is, the differences between the pro
portions of fathers and nonfathers are greatest in the
oldest age group. One reason for this may be that an
older person has more investment in society than does a
younger person, and is therefore less likely to take a
position in opposition to that society in which he lives.
60
TABLE 5
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION RATES (NUMBER OF OBJECTORS
PER 100,000 CLASSIFIED REGISTRANTS) FOR
WHITE FATHERS AND NONFATHERS,
BY AGE GROUPS, ON SELECTED DATES
Objectors
Ages
19-25 26-29 30-33 34-37
April 1, 1945
Nonfathers 78.9 93.0 50.9 33.5
Fathers 36.6 28.7 11.8 9.5
Ratio (nonfathers
father)
per
2.15 3.24 4.31 3.53
June 1, 1945
Nonfathers 78.1 94.0 52.6 33.2
Fathers 34.5 30.3 11.2 8.1
Ratio (nonfathers
father)
per
2.26 3.1 4.7 4.1
August 1, 1945
Nonfathers 76.2 95.0 52.3 32.9
Fathers 32.8 28.3 9.1 6.8
Ratio (nonfathers
father)
per
2.32 3.36 5.75 4.84
Source; adapted from U.S., Selective Service Sys
tem, The Classification Process, Special Monograph Series,
No. 5, Vol. Ill, pp. 53, 59, 65.
61
Fathers would thus have a larger investment with time
than the nonfather, accounting for lower rates of objec
tion.
Finally, the same relationship between objection
and family status appears in the corresponding data for
Negroes, as shown in Table 6. Table 6 presents data for
Negroes, but for the same dates and ages as in Table 5
for whites.
There were more than 100,000 registrants in each
age and family status group, except for the 19-25-year
old fathers. This group did have more than 10,000 regis
trants on each of the three dates, however.
It is noted that the rates of objection for
Negroes are lower than the corresponding rates for whites.
One reason for this dampening effect of Negro race may
be that Negroes have closer relations with each other than
do whites and therefore do not develop individualistic
attitudes in problem solving.
62
TABLE 6
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION RATES (NUMBER OF OBJECTORS PER
100,000 CLASSIFIED REGISTRANTS) FOR NEGRO FATHERS AND
NONFATHERS, BY AGE GROUPS, ON SELECTED DATES
Objectors
Ages
19-25 26-29 30-33 34-37
April 1, 1945
Nonfathers 10.6 13.9 11.9 8.0
Fathers 8.7 9.1 4.3 4.8
Ratio (nonfathers
father)
per
1.22 1.53 2.77 1.67
June 1, 1945
Nonfathers 10.1 13.9 13.5 7.2
Fathers 9.4 10.0 3.3 5.3
Ratio (nonfathers
father)
per
1.07 1.39 4.09 1.36
August 1, 19 45
Nonfathers 14.7 13.4 13.4 8.3
Fathers 11.7 9.4 3.8 5.8
Ratio (nonfathers
father)
per
1.26 1.42 3.5 1.43
Source: adapted from U. S., Selective Service Sys
tem, The Classification Process, Special Monograph Series,
No. 5 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1950), III,
54, 60, 66.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of the present study was to develop
and to test three sociological hypotheses of the causes
of conscientious objection. Hypotheses were proposed
which were compatible with existing images of the con
scientious objector found in the literature.
The three variables were chosen for study in
view of their universality and importance in sociological
explanation. These were religion, education, and family
status. The interrelations of these variables were not
explored due to limitations of existing data.
Available data support the hypothesis that rates
of objection vary directly with sectarianism of religious
group as measured by size of religious group and by the
average yearly salary paid to the clergy of the group.
This finding serves to expand the understanding
of the church-sect typology as well as of the causes of
63
64
conscientious objection.
Available data also support the hypothesis that
rates of conscientious objection are directly related to
educational level. This conclusion is qualified by the
possibility that certain types of education have more
effect than other types of education. Data for testing
the latter hypothesis are not presently available.
The hypothesis that nonfathers have higher rates
of objection than do fathers is also supported by the
data.
B IB L I OG R AP H Y
65
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works Relevant to Conscientious
Objection
Boulding, Kenneth E.; Brick, Allen; Camp, William;
Karpatkin, Marvin; Laird, James H.; Meacham,
Stewart; Swornley, John, Jr.; and Tatum, Arlo.
The Draft? New York : Hill & Wang, Inc., 1968.
/
Elliff, Nathan T. "The Prosecution of Conscientious
Objectors under the Selective Service Act,"
Federal Bar Journal, VI (October, 1944), 41-50.
Finn, James. Protest; Pacifism and Politics; Some Pas
sionate Views of Nonviolence. New York : Random
House, Inc., 1967.
Gory^ Adrian, and McClelland, Daniel. "Characteristics
of Conscientious Objectors in World War II,"
Journal of Consulting Psychology, XI (September-
October, 1947), 245-257.
Lapp, Ralph E. The Weapons Culture. New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, Inc., 1968;
May,/Mark A. "The Psychological Examination of Consci
entious Objectors," American Journal of Psychol
ogy, XXXI (April, 1920), 152-165.
Mayer, Peter. The Pacifist Conscience. New York : Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966.
Mead, George Herbert. The Conscientious Objector. Pa
triotism through Education Series, Pamphlet No.
33. New York : National Security League, 1917.
66
67
Muste, A. J. "The Individual Conscience," in The Paci
fist Conscience. Edited by Peter Mayer. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 19 66.
Rabin{^ Albert. "Rorschach Test Findings in a Group of
Conscientious Objectors," American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, XV (July, 1945) , 515-519.
Schlissel, Lillian (ed.). Conscience in America: A Docu
mentary History of Conscientious Objection in
America. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.,
1968.
Sibley, Mulford Q., and Jacob, Philip E. Conscription of
Conscience ; The American State and the Conscien
tious Objector. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1952.
Tatum, Arlo. Handbook for Conscientious Objectors.
Philadelphia: The Larchwood Press, 1965.
Thoreau, Henry David. "A Plea for Captain John Brown,"
in Conscience in America: A Documentary History
of Conscientious Objection in America. New York :
E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 196 8, p. 81.
________ . Walden and Civil Disobedience. Edited by
Sherman Paul. Riverside Editions. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1960.
Tolstoy^ Leo. The Kingdom of God Is within You. New
York : The Noonday Press, 1961.
________ . "Leo Tolstoy Pleads for Each Man to Follow
His Own Reason and Conscience," in Instead of
Violence; Writings by the Great Advocates of Peace
and Nonviolence Through History. Edited by
Arthur and Lila Weinberg. Boston: Beacon Press,
1963.
U.S., Selective Service System. Conscientious Objection.
Special Monograph Series, No. 11. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1950.
68
U.S., Selective Service System. Classification Process.
Special Monograph Series, No. 5. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1950.
Dependency Deferment. Special Monograph
Series, No. 8. Washington : Government Printing
Office, 1947.
Weinberg, Arthur, and Weinberg, Lila (eds.). Instead of
Violence: Writings by the Great Advocates of
Peace and Nonviolence through History. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1963.
Zahn, Gordon C. War, Conscience and Dissent. New York :
Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1967.
Works Relevant to Sectarianism of
Religious Group, Educational Level
and Family Status
Broom, Leonard, and Selznick, Philip. Sociology. 3rd ed.
New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963.
Douglass, H. Paul, and Brunner, Edmund D. S. "The Church
as a Social Institution," in Religion, Culture and
Society: A Reader in the Sociology of Religion.
Edited by Louis Schneider. New York : John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 1964.
Durkheim,^Emile. Suicide. Translated by John A. Spaulding
and George Simpson. New York: The Free Press,
1951.
Dynes, Russell. "Church-sect Typology and Socio-economic
Status," American Sociological Review, XX (Octo
ber, 1955), 555-560.
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience.
New York : The New American Library, Inc., 1958.
Johnson, Bentonf "On Church and Sect," American Socio
logical Review, XXVIII (August, 1963), 539-549.
69
Mead, George Herbert. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 19 34.
Merrill, Louis Taylor. "The Puritan Policeman," American
Sociological Review, X (December, 1945), 766-776.
Parsons, Talcott. "Christianity and Modem Industrial
Society," in Religion, Culture and Society; A
Reader in the Sociology of Religion. Edited by
Louis Schneider. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 1964.
Schneider, Louis (ed.). Religion, Culture and Society;
A Reader in the Sociology of Religion. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964.
Stroup, Herbert. The Jehovah * s Witnesses. New York :
Columbia University Press, 1945.
Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian
Churches. Translated by Olive Wyon. New York :
The Macmillan Co., 1931.
7
U.S., Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census.
Religious Bodies : 1936. Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1941.
________ . Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract
of the United States; 1946. Washington: Govern
ment Printing Office, 1946.
/
Weber, Max. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Trans
lated and edited by Hans Gerth and C. Wright
Mills. New York : Oxford University Press, Inc.,
1946.
. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capi
talism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 195 8.
Yinger, J. Milton. Religion, Society and the Individual:
An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion.
New York: The Macmillan Co., 1957.

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Creator Paradise, Valdemar Forrest (author)

Core Title A sociological study of the influence of religion, education, and family in producing conscientious objection

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Degree Master of Arts

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