War is wrong. Conscription for war is inconsistent with freedom of conscience, which is not merely the right to believe but to act on the degree of truth that one receives, to follow a vocation which is God-inspired and God-directed.
Interpretation
War compromises individual freedom and conscience.
Bayard Rustin's quote emphasizes that war contradicts the fundamental principle of freedom of conscience, asserting that individuals should have the right to act according to their beliefs and the truths they hold dear. Moreover, it highlights that being conscripted into war suppresses one's ability to follow a divinely inspired path, challenging the moral and spiritual autonomy of individuals.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of individual freedoms, one might quote Bayard Rustin to emphasize the moral implications of conscription.
Twenty-five, 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian.
God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying.
If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.
If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.
My activism did not spring from being black...The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family.
I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.
In the present imperialistic milieu there can be no wars of national self-defense.
Thought is creating divisions out of itself and then saying that they are there naturally.
The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement.
For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.
I am quite ready to acknowledge . . . that I ought to be grieved at death, if I were not persuaded that I am going to other gods who are wise and good (of this I am as certain as I can be of any such matters), and to men departed who are better than those whom I leave behind. And therefore I do not grieve as I might have done, for I have good hope that there is yet something remaining for the dead.
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
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