Resolution on the Conscription of Women (Reformed Episcopal Church, 2021)
Resolution on the Conscription of Women (Reformed Episcopal Church, 2021)
The Resolution on Selective Service Registration and Potential Conscription of Women is a 2021 statement issued by the Reformed Episcopal Council of Bishops addressing the possibility of requiring women to register for Selective Service or to be subject to military conscription. Building upon the REC’s earlier 2016 and 2017 statements opposing the assignment of women to combat roles, this resolution expands the Church’s theological concerns to the question of civil obligations surrounding the draft.
The bishops reaffirm the biblical distinctions between male and female, oppose any governmental requirement that women register for the draft, and commit the Church to pastoral care and teaching on these matters.
Background
In the mid-2010s, the United States military officially opened all combat roles to women. While this change did not immediately alter Selective Service requirements, discussions in Congress raised the possibility that women could be required to register for the draft.
The Reformed Episcopal Church had previously issued statements articulating its opposition to women in combat roles based on biblical anthropology, including the 2016 Resolution on Women in Combat and the subsequent 2017 Resolution on Women in Combat. As political momentum increased toward including women in Selective Service registration, the bishops issued this 2021 resolution to address the potential pastoral, theological, and moral implications for REC members.
Summary
This resolution:
- Reaffirms the REC’s previous theological objections to women in combat.
- Notes that those objections were not heeded by policymakers.
- Observes that women now serve in all military capacities, including combat.
- Warns that the political climate may soon require women to register for the draft.
- Recognizes that many REC women hold biblical objections to military service, especially combat service.
- Formally objects to the registration and conscription of women.
- Calls the Church to teach and uphold biblical distinctions between male and female.
- Encourages resistance to “radical feminism” in favor of historic Christian anthropology.
Full Text of the 2021 Resolution
Resolution On Selective Service Registration and Potential Conscription of Women to Military Service Reformed Episcopal Council of Bishops
WHEREAS, The Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church in their 2016 Resolution On Women in Combat expressed our biblical and theological concerns regarding women in combat; and
WHEREAS, this concern prompted us to call upon the President, Congress, and all military leaders to reverse the present policy and to restore the historic limitation of military combat service to males only; and
WHEREAS, this resolution was not heeded and women now serve in all capacities including combat roles; and
WHEREAS, given the current political and cultural milieu, there is a possibility that women may be included in Selective Service registration and thus be susceptible to a military draft; and
WHEREAS, some of our female members may, on the basis of their theological and biblical concerns, object to serving in the military especially in combat roles.
Therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church, do, with loyal respect and deep concern, voice our objection to the registration of and potential conscription of women; and
Be it further RESOLVED, that we offer the teaching and pastoral offices of this church to promote the biblical and theological standards set forth in our 2016 Resolution on Woman in Combat; and
Be it further RESOLVED, that we offer the teaching and pastoral offices of this church to promote and instruct our members in their distinct biblical duties as male and female; and
Be it finally RESOLVED, that we call upon members of the Reformed Episcopal Church to resist the movement towards radical feminism and to embrace the call of being biblically male and female filling distinct roles as equal members of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Citation
- Resolution on Selective Service Registration and Potential Conscription of Women (2021). {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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