There's an old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. But as it turns out, there have always been people trying very hard to stay out of them.
One of the more fascinating chapters in religious and legal history involves a principle called the ministerial exemption and its role in avoiding military service.
It’s a story that goes back many years, though as a growing number of social media users are now pointing out – may be relevant again today.
Draft Rumors Spark Concern
Following the outbreak of war in Iran, speculation about a potential military draft in the U.S. has begun. These rumors have people thinking about what they would do if drafted… and ways to avoid that scenario altogether. Among the most-shared tips going viral: get ordained online.
We can’t comment on internet rumors. What we can say is that the conversation is drawing on a history that stretches back much further than most people realize.
What Is Ministerial Exemption?
The notion that religious leaders should be kept away from battlefields goes back centuries, if not further. Clergy across feudal Europe were generally exempt from military obligations in exchange for spiritual service, for example.
Over the centuries, ministers and clergy were often permitted to stay home and tend to their flock when countries went to war.
In the U.S. during World War I, Jehovah's Witnesses claimed ministerial exemption on the grounds that every adult male member of their faith was, by definition, a minister.
It was an early preview of the debates that would explode again fifty years later.
Vietnam, the Draft, and ULC Ordination
No era tested these questions quite like the Vietnam War. As hundreds of thousands of young men were drafted into a deeply unpopular conflict, protest movements proliferated – and so did creative attempts to avoid the draft. Among the most notable: ordination by mail.
The original Universal Life Church, founded in 1959 by Kirby Hensley, operated on a radical premise: that ordination should be available to all who seek it, freely, without theological gatekeeping. Ordination was available in person or by mail.
As Vietnam escalated, rumors spread that getting ordained could help keep you out of the conflict. Thousands sent letters and received ordination credentials in return. But the government remained skeptical, and many people were told their ordination was not sufficient for exemption.
Other Ways People Avoid the Draft
Ordination is just one method people have pursued. Here are some other reasons folks have used to seek draft exemption over the years:
1. Getting Married
President Lynden Johnson signed an executive order ending marriage-based exemptions on August 26, 1965, but not before thousands of couples scrambled to beat the midnight deadline.
2. Having a Baby
Previously, JFK had signed an executive order to exempt men with children – prompting millions of so-called "Kennedy fathers" to start families to avoid a future draft.
3. Citing Medical Conditions
Medical deferments were widely used – and widely abused. Both Donald Trump (bone spurs) and Joe Biden (asthma) avoided the draft through combinations of student and medical exemptions.
4. Littering
Folksinger Arlo Guthrie famously avoided the draft due to a conviction for littering that deemed him “morally unfit” for service. He later chronicled the story in the song “Alices’s Restaurant.”
5. Pretending to Be Gay
Decades after the war, actor Chevy Chase confessed that he avoided going to Vietnam by telling the draft board that he harbored homosexual tendencies. He added he was "not very proud" of having done that.
6. Becoming a Missionary
Missionaries were exempt from the draft. Mitt Romney received his deferment this way, spending two years in France as a Mormon missionary.
7. Just Staying in School... Forever
Before Congress reformed the draft in 1971, you could get a student deferment simply by being a full-time student and proving you were working towards a degree. Another incentive to work on that Ph.D!
Should You Become Ordained?
Clearly, there have been some creative solutions to avoid going to war over the years. As the world faces another uncertain conflict, it’s only natural that those ideas will start getting shared once more.
Ordination with the Universal Life Church may not be able to solve every problem in the your life – but it’s a pretty great way to start if we might say so ourselves!
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