nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

126 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
and war in the center of the international picture. This in the thinking of an
increasing number imperils the world's new-born desire for peace and constitutes
an approach to the international situation that will undermine the moral
leadership of America.
Because this question will come up again we urge our people to a serious
study of its meaning for the life of our nation and for our international relations.
What is being the First Power worth if it means to be feared and hated
by other peoples, to create a military minded citizenship, to surrender our
heritage of peace-loving democracy, and to lead the world back -to the armed
competition that resulted in two World Wars? Let every Christian weigh the
following considerations which must enter into any realistic approach to the
issue. They also have the advantage of a high moral point of view:
1. "Conscription is unilateral action and thus, threatens the United Nations
Organization and all efforts towards world co-operation.
2. "Conscription arouses the darkest suspicions of all nations, provoking
them into competitive armaments and hostile camps.
3. "Conscription is no protection. It is based on obsolete notions of warfare
and has little relevance to the atomic age.
4. "Conscription follows the disastrous pattern of European militarism.
5. "Conscription would regiment our youth and expose them to the dangers
of barracks life at a most crucial and impressionable period in their lives.
6. "Conscription would establish an undemocratic system aimed at unquestioning
obedience to military authority and constitute a totalitarian threat
to religion, education, labor, and business."
On the basis of these judgments we join the National Council Against Conscription
in the following appeal: "Therefore, we call upon all people of good
will to oppose every move toward that new isolationism which says that we
shall arm to the teeth against all others. Positively we urge support of every
measure that helps to strengthen international organization and to place our
Nation on the side of cooperation, friendship, and peace."
FROM CAMP TO CIVILIAN LIFE
Another task of the churches that will continue for some time is that of
helping returning service men in their readjustment to civilian life. The government
should be commended for making it possible for many of them to continue
their education, to be relocated in the economic world, and for its efforts to
provide housing facilities. But there are some things the state cannot do. In
moral and spiritual adjustments the churches have a duty to perform. Contact
ought to be made with every church member who returns and every effort
made to bring them into the life of the church and to serve them as Christian
brothers in the community.
Along with the returning service men will be the small number of conscientious
objectors who have been working in non-combatant jobs in camps,
hospitals and various auxiliary positions. They ought not to be overlooked.
They have been without pay and can claim no aid from the government in
readjustment. They are our Christian brothers who have followed their consciences
at great cost. We urge the churches to honor their sincerity and
courage and their religious convictions, by helping them to get jobs and giving
them a friendly welcome back to their church homes and communities.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Concerning the Work of the Social Service Commission
Since through the years the Social Service Commission has had a general
function in the field of public morality and social problems and we have come
upon a time when these problems are multiplying and the organization of convention
agencies is undergoing changes in the interest of efficiency, we recommend
that the Hxecutive Committee, through a sub-committee and in conference with
representatives of the Social Service Commission, be requested to restudy the
proper functions of such a Commission for our time and to set out more clearly
the scope of its work, in order