“War is sin . . . violence must be abandoned. . . . We love our country . . . but true love . . .does not mean hatred of others.”
Although Orie, tuned as always to world events, saw the war coming in
1935, he could not possibly have imagined the destructive power of the
approaching global apocalypse. How was it possible to have learned so
little from World War I?
Historic Peace Churches Respond
World War II also had a profound effect on Mennonites and those from
other peace churches. It became something of a watershed; some chose
military service, while others chose the nonmilitary option of Civilian
Public Service (CPS) in the United States and Alternative Service Work
(ASW) in Canada. In both cases, young Mennonites left home congregations
and communities and entered a complex world. Both avenues led
toward assimilation and the integration of Mennonites and Brethren in
Christ into North American society. For those choosing the military, it
was often a doorway out of peace churches and into the mainstream.
Those who served in CPS or ASW typically caught a new vision and
passion for service and mission, which reshaped the church and redefined
Mennonite identity. At the fore were mentors like Orie Miller and
Harold Bender.
Prelude to Civilian Public Service
In the next five years, a dizzying array of peace committees, some newly
minted, held a myriad of meetings and conferences and sponsored publications
to nurture peace convictions. Orie was in the center of activity
as the secretary of the MC Peace Problems Committee; executive secretary
of MCC; vice president of the Continuation Committee of Historic
Peace Churches; as the Washington link for the Mennonite Central Peace
Committee, which became MCC Peace Section in 1942; and finally, as
vice president of the National Service Board for Religious Objectors
(NSBRO) when it was formed in 1940.
New Statements on War and Peace
In September of 1936, a “Sub-Committee on Literature” of the CCHPC
met in Chicago. After a review of peace literature available in each
church, they agreed that new peace education materials were needed “in
the face of war crisis with the perils of an enlarging army and navy.” Each
church was to write a new position statement on peace and war to be circulated
to the other member churches. Guy Hershberger, Rufus Bowman,
and William Harvey were appointed to create a handbook of war resistance
for future draftees.
Negotiating with Washington
The German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, added a sense of
urgency to the work of the Historic Peace Churches. The CCHPC met in
Goshen two weeks later on September 17. The first agenda item was a
discussion about whether to attempt a second “interview” with President
Roosevelt. Two years earlier, the PPC had met with the president to inform
him of their position on peace and war, and to present their hope for
nonmilitary alternative service.32 Regarding a second visit, Orie counseled,
characteristically, that if they did, they should make sure to have a “concrete,
definite proposal.”
Paul Comly French
Orie always said that Mennonites led the way in the planning for alternative
service, but the Quakers made the most difference in Washington.
In July, Quaker journalist Paul Comly French went to Washington to
lobby for peace church concerns. French had been a reporter for the
Philadelphia Record and the New York Evening Post. Joe Weaver, a
Mennonite who worked in the NSBRO office in Washington, later
said he admired French because he was dynamic, fearless, persistent,
and resourceful.
The Face of the Government
The NSBRO consulted with the successive directors of the Selective
Service administration, Lewis B. Hershey and Clarence Dykstra, as they
constructed the program that became Civilian Public Service. Dykstra,
president of the University of Washington and a respected political scientist,
seemed a better fit in some opinions than did a career military
brigadier general. Of Dykstra’s appointment, Time magazine said, “It
was the addition of one more big name to President Roosevelt’s impressive
defense corps . . . to keep the army from civilian draftees until actually
inducted into service.” The peace churches found Dykstra to be
“understanding.”
Equanimity under Fire
While CPS was a unique church-state experiment and represented a great
effort on the part of the peace churches, not everyone was happy with the
result. Mennonite conservatives complained of the influence of liberals in
their camps. For others, CPS blurred the distinction between church and
state, or as some put it, CPS created “an unholy alliance” between the
two. In 1941, complaints from the Virginia Conference executive committee
sparked an MC Investigative Committee, headed by Orie’s friend A. J.
Metzler of Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Its task was to investigate all charges
of liberalism and “mismanagement” of the Mennonite camps.
Continued Attempts to Discredit Orie Miller and Others
True to form, Orie never complained of unfair charges, nor did he speak
disparagingly of his Virginia interrogators. Robert Kreider, on staff at
the MCC Akron office and responsible for CPS hospital units, was aware
that MCC and CPS were “under surveillance” from fundamentalists such
as “the Sword and Trumpet people,” who were well-represented in the
Virginia meeting. Orie’s equanimity under fire increased Kreider’s already
high respect for him.
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