The questions below can be used to simulate a Mock Draft Board for high school students. This exercise may be useful for students who are considering whether to become Conscientious Objectors. Some questions were adapted from a Handbook for Conscientious Objectors.

For FGC’s resources on Raising Conscientious Objector Consciousness Among Young Friends, visit our website.

From Worksheet Form 22:

1. Describe your beliefs which are the reasons for you claiming conscientious objection to combatant military training and service or to all military training and service.
2. Describe how and when you acquired these beliefs.
3. Explain what most clearly shows that your beliefs are deeply held. You may wish to include a description of how your beliefs affect the way you live.

Some Sample Questions about Religious Belief:

1. Are you a member of a church? How long have you been a member? If not a member, why not? How often do you attend?
2. What does your church say about wars?
3. Why do most members of churches support the war and you don’t?
4. Where in the Bible do you find anything that forbids you to help defend your country?
5. Why did Christ say, “He that hath no sword, let him buy one,” “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” and “I come not to send peace, but a sword”?
6. If you don’t call yourself a Christian or a Jew, why do you call yourself religious?
7. Aren’t you really just expressing a personal moral code?
8. If the Supreme Court had ruled that you had to belong to a church to qualify,would you join one?
9. If God told you to defend your country, what would you do?
10. How about the Christian doctrine of approval for just wars?
11. How do you explain all of the wars in the Old Testament?
12. What good does it do just to pray for those who would attack us and do nothing else?
13. Why is it wrong for our military to prevent evil from happening to others?
14. Islamic fanatics like bin Laden want to rule the world. Will you let that happen?

Other General Questions:

1. Why didn’t you put in a claim for CO before, instead of now when you are drafted?
2. Why did you register under Selective Service initially if its purpose is to raise an army?
3. Do you object to others being drafted, or just yourself?
4. Would you be making a CO claim if your lottery number were 360?
5. Do you object to killing or are you really just afraid of being killed?
6. What method would you use to resist evil?
7. Are you against all wars, or only this war in ____ (specify)?
8. If someone in your family had been killed on 9/11, would you feel differently?
9. If someone were about to kill your mother or father, would you attempt to stop him or her, even if it meant killing him or her first?
10. Do you have any friends or relatives who are Muslims?
11. Do you have any duty at all to your community and nation?
12. Why is it wrong to defend your country’s interests?
13. Why accept the benefits of a country you won’t protect?
14. What do you think happens to people like you in Iraq, Russia, China, North Korea, etc.?
15. Should we let terrorists oppress their people while building weapons of mass destruction that they will use on us?
16. If a nation suffers unprovoked attack, should it not defend itself?
17. How can you restrain an army except by a more powerful army?
18. If everyone held your views, our country would be destroyed by chemical, biological, and eventually nuclear weapons. What do you think about that?
19. Do you realize that by not helping our army, you are, in effect, helping the terrorists?
20. If you don’t believe in participating in war, how do you expect us to stop terrorism?

If you’re interested in learning ways to use these questions appropriately with youth, please visit: