The questions below can be used to create 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.

Three Starter Questions

  1. Describe your beliefs. Are you claiming conscientious objection to all military training and service, or just to combatant experiences?
  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.

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 this 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” if he didn’t want you to fight in war? (Or: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” or “I come not to send peace, but a sword.”)
  6. If you don’t call yourself a Quaker, 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? Isn’t this a just war?
  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?

Other General Questions

  1. Why didn’t you put in a claim for Conscientious Objector status 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 Conscientious Objector claim if your lottery number were 360? (People with higher numbers are not/ were not drafted.)
  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? Immigrants? Enemies of the US?
  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?
  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?

Note: Some questions on this list are not legal to ask in a real draft board.

Last updated December 18, 2025.

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