The Church of the Brethren Service Center in Maryland, site of Anabaptist organizing around issues of conscientious objection to military service, received a surprise visit last October from the director of the Selective Service System’s Alternative Service Division. In December, directors from the Brethren General Board returned the favor and met with staff from the Selective Service in Virginia to determine the purpose of the October visit.
"We are concerned by the fact that Selective Service has had people out in the field exploring alternative service sites, and also that they have reorganized and now have a separate program within Selective Service for alternative service, and last fall they named a director," Phil Jones, director of Brethren Witness in Washington, D.C., told Sojourners. "These are red flags as far as I’m concerned. But the Selective Service is still giving us the spin that there absolutely will be no draft." The Brethren were told that the Selective Service’s visit in October was just for the purposes of "outreach."
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