Always Live a Quiet and Peaceable Life

The following is another excerpt from testimony in front of the House Military Affairs Committee hearings on the Selective Training and Service Act from July 10 to August 2, 1940. This is from is from a statement written by Orie Miller, a shoe manufacturer and member of the Mennonite's Peace Problems Committee.

If our country becomes involved in war, we shall endeavor to continue to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; avoid joining in wartime hysteria of hatred, revenge and retaliation, manifest a meek and submissive spirit, being obedient unto the laws and regulations of the government in all things, except in such cases where obedience to the government would cause us to violate the teachings of the Scriptures so that we could maintain a clear conscience before God (Acts 5:29). We confess that our supreme allegiance is to God, and that we cannot violate this allegiance by any lesser loyalty, but rather must follow Christ in all things no matter what the cost. We love and honor our country and desire to work constructively for its highest welfare as loyal and obedient citizens; at the same time we are constrained by the love of Christ to love the poeple of all lands and races and to do them good as opportunity affords rather than evil, and we believe that this duty is not abrogated by war. We realize that to take this poisition may mean misunderstanding and even contempt from our fellowmen, as well as possible suffereing, but we hope by the grace of God that we may be able to assume, as our forefathers did, the sacrifices and suffering which attend the sincere practice of this way of live, without malice or ill will toward those who may differ with us.