The world tries to make claims on our children. It assumes that it has the right to do so. As a result, they can be called on to make some incredibly mature decisions while still in their teens. Everything they know about the Bible and everything they have learned at home, in Sunday school, in CYC, and in the ecclesia is sometimes put to the test.
Here is a report of the experiences that two Christadelphian young people had while they were in high school. The report was written by one of them shortly after the events took place.1Almost any Christadelphian young person who is in a public high school will be able to relate to these experiences and appreciate the decisions that were made.
A Navy rock concert at school
“It was mentioned to me one day at school that the Navy would be performing a rock concert at our school. I wanted to find out more about it before attending, so I decided to speak with the sophomore class advisor. The only information that she could give me was that the school mentors were sponsoring the event. As it turned out, my math teacher was the head of the mentors, so, one day before math class, I decided to ask her nonchalantly what the concert was about. I got the response, ‘It’s a rock concert, just come and see.’ This teacher had no idea that I am a conscientious objector. Obviously, her response did not help me much.
“I spoke with my mom and brother (who was in the same school) about whether or not we should attend the rock concert because we are conscientious objectors. We talked about what to do in this situation. Naturally, I didn’t want to make myself stand out unnecessarily, but I didn’t want to be where I shouldn’t be, either.
“With a few days left before the concert, my math teacher began making comments to the class like, ‘Now that you know these math equations, you can work on submarines, and you can sign up with the recruiters when they come on Tuesday.’ As recruiters commonly come to our school and set up tables at lunchtime, I wanted to know what recruiters she was talking about. Knowing full well that Tuesday was the day of the concert, I asked what was happening on Tuesday? The response I got was, ‘You don’t know what Tuesday is? It’s the day of the rock concert.’ She then made additional comments how, on Tuesday, ‘You can sign up for the Navy.’
“When I knew that recruiters would be at the concert, it seemed to me that the intention was to get the teenagers hyped with rock music and then ask them to sign up for the Navy. I wasn’t comfortable with this. My brother agreed with me that he did not want to go to the concert, either. We decided that the best person to speak with about our concerns was the principal.
“Originally, our intention was for my brother and me to speak with the principal ourselves, but then we figured having an adult go for us might get better results. We asked our mom to speak with the principal, and she did. The principal was very understanding. Our mom told the principal that she had taught us her beliefs and that she was a conscientious objector. She said that we, however, would choose ourselves to be (or not to be) Christadelphians, as we got older, by confessing and being baptized. She told the principal that the only reason she was speaking for us was that we had asked her to. She added that we both felt strongly about being conscientious objectors, and for that reason we felt we could not attend military events.
“The principal was fine with this, and said we could go to her office when they called our grade levels for the concert, and she would not draw attention to us. She allowed us to stay in her office and do homework. When we heard everyone leaving at the end of the concert, we just went to our lockers with everyone else and went home. When other teenagers asked me where I had been, my response was, ‘I had something I had to do,’ which was true. I had to do my homework.
“We were fortunate that our principal was so understanding. Let us pray that all people we come into contact with may be as understanding.”
The ASVAB Test
“In March of my junior year, it was brought to my attention that the military would be administering a test to all the juniors in our school. It was the ASVAB Career Test, designed to assess student aptitudes and then use the results to steer students toward suitable careers.2
“After hearing this information, I went to the vice principal of the school and explained that I was a conscientious objector. I asked to be excused from the testing. He was very respectful of my situation and said that I need not explain my stand any further because he understood. He said that this was a matter we should discuss with the principal. He went with me to the principal’s office and explained the situation. The principal said that he remembered about a student in the school who was a conscientious objector but could not remember who it was. (The principal remembered this because I had stated my position a year earlier concerning the military concert. He was vice-principal at the time.) The principal excused me from the test and offered to explain my position to anyone who wanted to know why I was not at the test site. I told him that I would be fine explaining the situation myself, but, as it turned out, there was no need to do so.
“I took an important lesson from this conversation. Although the principal could not remember which student was a conscientious objector, he knew there was one in the school. I realized that my behavior and attitude needed to always reflect my position and my beliefs, because my actions would speak louder than my words.”
Awards dinner
“Later the same spring, I attended an awards dinner for the junior class. When I walked into the room, I noticed a military serviceman present. This surprised me, and I began wondering what was going on because, to my knowledge, there was no reason for him to be there. I did not have long to think about it before the principal rushed up to my mother and me. He knew my conscientious objection stand from our previous conversation about the ASVAB Test. He addressed my mother and said that he just wanted us to know that the military man was present only to hand out awards.
“We were seated, and within minutes the vice-principal arrived at our table to explain the situation further. It turned out that the serviceman was there because he had earlier arranged for the military to cover the cost of the award plaques. For this reason it had been agreed that he should hand out the plaques. The administration had also explained to the serviceman that a family might be attending who were conscientious objectors. His response was (paraphrased): ‘If she doesn’t feel comfortable shaking my hand, she doesn’t have to.’ This came as a shock to me. It had never crossed my mind that someone might think a conscientious objector wouldn’t shake a person’s hand because that person was in the military! We explained to the vice-principal that we would not be rude to anyone because we are conscientious objectors, just because they are in the military.
“The vice principal also told us that other military officers had wanted to make the award presentation a military event, but this serviceman had spoken against the idea. He had maintained that this was to be a night for the juniors and not for the military.
“The serviceman handed out the plaques to each student, and when I was called, I shook his hand, just as I would any other person. I hoped that this action would show those involved that Christ did not teach his disciples to be rude or disrespectful to anyone.”
Use as case studies3
There is nothing like a real-life story to get older Sunday school students thinking and talking. By adding a few questions as talking points, the stories told here can be used as case studies in Sunday school or CYC. Here are some suggested questions to use:
- How did the consciences of these young people work in the matter of the Navy rock concert? What steps did their consciences compel them to take?
- Would you have done anything differently?
- How did the decision to take one conscientious stand make it easier to take a similar stand later on? Have you ever had an experience like this?
- Would you have shaken the hand of the military man at the awards dinner? Please explain.
- Identify Bible references that apply to the situations described in these stories.
- Written by Michelle Davey of Cranston, RI, now a sister in Christ. Her report is published with permission.
- ASVAB: Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. This career aptitude test is administered annually to high school students across America.
- See “God’s Way Works! The Use of Case Studies”, The Tidings, Dec 2012, pp.569-571.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One