Even without the draft, congregation leaders already encounter young women considering the military who need counsel since women are now sent into combat.  Still, few congregation leaders with whom I have spoken either know the main points in biblical studies about women and the military, or that everyone who enlists agrees to go into combat.

Provisions to register women for military conscription were included in the original versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2022 that passed in both the House and Senate. The provisions were removed in the committee process that reconciled the two versions, so they were not included in the final NDAA. The Supreme Court is expected to hear a case arguing that excluding women from draft registration is discriminatory. Whether by legislation or litigation, efforts to register women for the draft will continue.

Many Protestant denominations (links below) that take a complementarian position about gender have prepared studies that oppose assigning women to combat and/or conscripting women. In 2002, for example, the Presbyterian Church in America’s (PCA) 30^th General Assembly concluded (in part): “This Assembly declares it to be the biblical duty of man to defend woman and therefore condemns the use of women as military combatants, as well as any conscription of women into the Armed Services of the United States” (Minutes, pp. 282-9). In 2014, the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel extended such conclusions by describing the high risk that military women face of being raped by military men.

Six Biblical objections to using women as combatants appear in denomination studies.

1. The Lord assigned Adam to “keep” the Garden of Eden, where “keep” includes protecting it. Adam failed by standing aside while Eve faced Satan (Genesis 2:15; Genesis 3:1-6).
2. Husbands are to protect wives (I Peter 3:7) as Christ protects the church (Ephesians 5: 22-3).
3. Women should not put on the things special for men; the language suggests men’s things for war (Deuteronomy 22:5).
4. Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord always sent men and never women to attack enemies (e.g., Joshua 1:14; Judges 4:6-7; Nehemiah 4: 14).
5. In the one instance where Israel’s military leader, Barack, rebelled against the Lord by demanding that a woman, Deborah, accompany him into battle, he is rebuked (Judges 4: 8-9).
6. A woman can be pregnant even before being aware; military women, then, can take an unborn baby into combat risking its death (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13).

Some General Assembly minutes include minority arguments that women should be encouraged to volunteer for combat. No recorded denomination discussion, however, has ever supported registering women for military conscription.

Even without the draft, congregation leaders already encounter young women considering the military who need counsel since women are now sent into combat.  Still, few congregation leaders with whom I have spoken either know the main points in biblical studies about women and the military, or that everyone who enlists agrees to go into combat (Enlistment/ Reenlistment Document C 9. a. (4)).

Rather than repeat the extensive explanations, objections, and responses in the denomination studies (links below), I will describe personal experiences over 10 years to disseminate their points. These experiences include conversations with pastors, elders, presbyteries, Stated Clerks, seminary faculty, chaplains and chaplain endorsers, parachurch ROTC group leaders, senior staff of Senators, and Congressional committee members. They also include preparing and distributing a booklet adapting for Christian girls the theological language of denomination studies.

The most common response to draft registration that I receive is that we need not do anything because we can still rely on conscientious objection. Doing so, however, provides a thin hope.

Conscientious objection to being drafted has been possible, but not to registering. Also, conscientious objection policy traditionally recognizes pacifist opposition to war in any form (notably by Anabaptists), but not to Reformed just war views supporting some wars but not others, like wars fought by conscripted women.

Conscientious objection policy today is designed for military people who come to the conviction that they can no longer fight. The acceptable rationale, however, has shifted from religious affiliation to demonstrated, well-articulated personal conviction. A Chaplain Colonel advises me, however, that even chaplains who carefully articulate conscientious objection for exemption from Covid vaccination policy are being declined.

Given current policy, it seems unreasonable to expect 18-year-old women to convince draft boards that they should be exempt from draft registration. As legal adults, the burden to convince is on them personally, not on their parents or pastors. Even with a lawyer’s help, that burden seems especially challenging when a woman’s local church, presbytery/ synod, or denomination shows ambivalence about whether women should agree to combat by enlisting and has not confirmed its opposition to draft registration.

Why now?

When a war lacks sufficient voluntary enlistment to require a draft, draft boards will be overloaded with intermixed genuine and ingenuous appeals for exemption. It would be to our shame to wait until our daughters are involuntarily carrying weapons and our sons are ordered to send them into combat before beginning the slow process of building church consensus and appealing for government exemptions.

What to consider doing?

Parents – consider reading the denomination studies before advising your children and asking your elders to take a stand.

Elders – consider working with your colleagues to create appropriate congregation policy. Perhaps contact Elders in nearby congregations to do likewise, or ask your regional leader (e.g., Stated Clerk, Bishop) to raise the issue in your area.

Regional leaders – consider contacting your congregation leaders to address this issue and contacting regional leaders of other denominations to offer joint support. I have successfully promoted interdenominational cooperation among Bible-believing churches to influence a Senator.

Public Christian leaders (authors, bloggers, publishers, radio/ television hosts, Christian educators, women’s ministry leaders) — consider expanding your vision; take courage; recognizing government sin can be a way to introduce repentance and the Gospel of grace.

What may not be helpful?

Waiting for denomination leaders. For many denominations, studies like the one supporting the PCA’s 2002 resolution await local and regional confirmation that may be delayed until a catastrophe prompts belated, ineffectual action. Silence tells denomination leaders that we do not care. One chaplain who faithfully raised the issue of women and the military for many years wrote to me about our negligence in supporting denomination studies by saying, “Members of our churches love their daughters, they just do not love them in this way.”

We are leaving our children on the edge of adulthood to deal with problematic government decisions to the children themselves without adult guidance, without adult protection. We dare not repeat Adam’s sin by letting our children and young people face the Enemy alone.

Mark Peterson is a member of Redlands Community Church in Homestead, Fla.; he is in the process of moving his church home near to his new residence in central Florida. He was ordained a PCA Deacon in 1984. He is a semi-retired business professor, author, and editor.

Studies

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 2016, pp. 405-408, 449.

Associated Gospel Churches, 2013, fourth Mandated Policy. (AGC is the chaplain endorsing agency for many independent, non-denominational Bible churches)

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 2018.

Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2001, pp. 258-282.

Presbyterian Church in America, 2001, pp. 258-320. Sections 29-53 to 29-57; 2002, pp. 283-290. Sections 30-57 to 30-60.

Reformed Presbyterian Church of the United States, 1996 (no link available)

Reformed Episcopal Church, third (2017) and fourth (2021) Resolutions

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 2004.

Southern Baptist Convention, 1998, 2016.