Conscientious Objection Stories

Historic Profiles

• St. Martin of Tours (315-397 AD)
  "I am a soldier of Christ. I am not allowed to fight."
• Archibald Baxter (New Zealand, WWI)
  "War can do nothing but bring harm to every nation that engages in it."
• Austin Regier (U.S., WWII)
  "The sanction of the state of the killing of an enemy soldier does not relieve me of my duty to my God."

• Franz Jaggerstatter (Austria, WWII)
  Jaggerstatter refused to serve in Hitler's war machine. As a result, he was imprisoned and eventually beheaded.

Contemporary Profiles

• Joe Gibson (Discharged from the U.S. Marines as a conscientious objector, February 4, 2012)
  "How can I possibly claim I love my enemy when...the military culture...teaches me to hate them?"

• Logan Mehl-Laituri (Iraq War Veteran, Conscientious Objector)
  "God displayed to me...what it means to love our enemies."

• Ertell Whigham (VN War era Marine recruiter, now a Mennonite pastor)
  "How can you tell someone about the love of Jesus and take their life?"
• Dale Bartell (Iraq War Veteran, Conscientious Objector)
  “Our children won’t be blinded by the message of military recruiters.”
• Anita Cole (Conscientious objector from the U.S. Army, November, 2001)
  "I will not be able to live in any sort of peace if I kill."