Feel a draft? Be a peace church.

Of course we will never have a world free from conflict, but we can radically reduce destructive conflict while engaging in constructive, creative conflict.

Social norms are important, and of course they are fed by home life, school life, all forms of media, and the norms of all organizations to which we belong. 

For example, some years ago I testified to a church council as they considered whether to formally declare that the Just War Doctrine was antithetical to their faith. I made two primary points: 

1. The Just War Doctrine requires a nation to exhaust all avenues before launching a war. Since there are literally hundreds of potential nonviolent acts of resisting injustice, it is essentially impossible to satisfy that criterion. 

2. Any faith that officially rejects the Just War Doctrine is not only changing its own internal practices, norms, and culture, it also protects its young people against conscription into an unjust war. For example, during the Vietnam War there was a draft and young men who were born and raised in one of the historic peace churches--most Quaker sects, many Anabaptist sects, and other recognized sects--those young men were virtually always granted Conscientious Objector status. Of course they could go off to war if they wished, but they were not usually conscripted.