What follows is a summary of the teachings of Christianity and the Bible on this matter; although not all of us taking a stand refusing to allow our women to register for a military draft are Christians. Yet many of us are, and we are duty bound to point to the tenets of our faith on which we take this stand.
Contrary to the policies of the United States Military, God’s Word requires the principled opposition to women serving in military combat positions and the mandatory of drafting of women into such positions. At her 30th General Assembly (2002) the Presbyterian Church in America adopted the following recommendation from the Ad Interim Study Committee on Women in the Military:
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.
We affirm the arguments made in the majority report of that committee and understand the title of that document to be a succinct summary of Scripture’s teaching: “Man’s Duty to Protect Woman.”
The following paragraphs from “Man’s Duty to Protect Woman” are a concise summary of the biblical arguments:
First, God the Father wages war in defense of Israel, His Bride; Christ our Savior fights to the Death defending His Bride, the Church; the Holy Spirit calls men as officers to guard and protect His Bride; the duty to protect the Garden of Eden and the warning not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was given by God to Adam; husbands protect their wives, not wives their husbands. Thus we are taught the binding nature of man’s duty to guard and protect his home and wife.
Second, woman is the weaker sex and part of her weakness is the vulnerability attendant to her greatest privilege—that God has made her the ‘Mother of all the living.’ Men are to guard and protect her as she carries in her womb, gives birth to, and nurses her children.
Third, we are to renounce every thought and action which tends towards a diminishment of sexual differentiation since God made it and called it ‘good.’ [E.g. Scripture’s injunctions concerning women exercising authority over men (1 Timothy 2), women or men wearing clothing of the opposite sex (Deuteronomy 22:5), sodomy (Leviticus 20:15-16), etc.] Rather than a stingy attitude which minimizes sexuality’s implications, we ought to rejoice in this, His blessing.
We also object to the conscription of women on the following ground: the habitual carrying of an innocent non-combatant—the pre-born child in his or her mother’s womb—into warfare without his informed consent is immoral. Professor Vern Poythress explains:
…to conscript women is immoral, because it unnecessarily endangers the lives of fetuses. The fact that the commanders and/or conscriptors cannot know with certainty is the problem. Principles like the goring ox and the rail around the roof of houses show that we must not only not be guilty of willfully taking innocent life, but must protect against opening the possibility of accidental taking of life.
The authors of “Man’s Duty to Protect Woman” conclude:
We…are convinced that the creation order of sexuality places on man the duty to lay down his life for his wife. Women and men alike must be led to understand and obey this aspect of the biblical doctrine of sexuality, believing that such will lead to the unity and purity of the Church, and to the glory of God. Those who deny this duty, whether in word or action, oppose the Word of God. Taken together, we believe the above arguments provide a clear and compelling scriptural rationale for declaring our Church’s principled opposition to women serving in military combat positions.
At its 2019 meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, Southern Baptists adopted a resolution titled “On Expanding The Selective Service To Include Women.” It reads as follows.
WHEREAS, The United States Congress in 2016 appointed a National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service to investigate the question of expanding Selective Service registration to all Americans, which would subject women to potential military conscription, and to report back to the President and Congress in March 2020; and
WHEREAS, The Commission is currently soliciting input from America’s religious institutions on this question; and
WHEREAS, The Southern Baptist Convention in 2016 adopted a resolution “On Women Registering for the Draft” wherein the Convention resolved to “call on the Administration, Congress, and all military leaders not to require women to register for military drafts”; and
WHEREAS, Requiring women to register for the Selective Service alongside men would be to treat men and women interchangeably and to deny male and female differences clearly revealed in Scripture and in nature; and
WHEREAS, We honor women who wish to engage in military service as volunteers, however, we oppose efforts to force women into military service by government coercion; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, June 11–12, 2019, strongly urge the President and Congress not to expand the Selective Service to include women, which would be to act against the plain testimony of Scripture and nature; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we continue to affirm the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention resolution “On Women Registering for the Draft.”
Moreover, even more recently, at the 2021 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Southern Baptists overwhelmingly adopted a resolution opposing the so-called “Equality Act.”
An article titled “Should women be forced to sign up for the draft?” quotes theologian Owen Strachan:
“This grand project [of requiring women to register for the draft] presents several problems for believers,” Strachan told the Christian Examiner. “It diminishes the glory of God, who created man and woman, and who loves manhood and womanhood more than anyone. It also places women in harm, and all in the name of empowering them. A compulsory draft of women means that many will be forced to enter combat positions. This is a gross violation of God’s design and common sense.”
Scripture and basic biology make the issue clear-cut, Strachan added.
“Men are best able, on average, to bear the brutal responsibilities and duties of warfare,” he said. “Women, by contrast, have struggled in limited samples to perform the minimal physical tasks necessary to battlefield survival. We know why: God made men differently than He made women – ‘male and female He created them’ (Genesis 1:27). Men are made to use their greater strength to risk their lives for women and children. This is clear in the example of the great Davidic warriors, the ‘mighty men’ of Israel (see 2 Samuel 23). These men put their lives on the line for those God called them to protect, provide for, and lead.”
Glenn T. Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family, told Christian Examiner that a “virtuous nation and good soldiers protect women and children.”
“They don’t send their women off to battle,” said Stanton, who also serves as a research fellow at the Institute of Marriage and Family in Ottawa. “The real issue here is the draft. There are highly skilled women serving in the military at very high levels and doing very important and dangerous tasks. A mother here at Focus has a daughter who is one of the Air Force’s leading pilots of their biggest cargo planes. She rocks! But she chose to serve her country this way and she is making incredible contributions.
“Requiring women to register to defend their country is not virtuous,” Stanton said. “Rosie the Riveter served her country heroically, but she didn’t need to be drafted into the military to do it.”
For further reading: “Women Should Not Be in Combat (Says a Female Marine Captain)” by Owen Strachan
Principal writers: Brian Bailey, Tim Bayly, Michael Foster, Andrew Dionne, and B. Nathaniel Sullivan
This compilation copyright © 2021 by Word Foundations. All rights reserved.