Conscience in Action Part 6 (Post WW2c)

Part 6 of 7 parts, continuing in the period of 1951 to 1972.

Its slightly longer episode, but do listen to the end, where Bro Rob Crispin, not a conscientious objector per se’ tells his story of finding the ‘pearl of great price’ whilst being in the services, his whole life till then, his career, his aspiration but he was in no doubt as to what he must do.

It might have been assumed that once the war finished, there would be less need to demonstrate ones conscience against military activity, but this was certainly not the case. In fact after a short reprieve, after the National Security Act expired on December 31 1946, with development of the Cold War, the Korean War and communist advances in South East Asia the new Prime Minister, R. G. Menzies successfully introduced new legislation to parliament in 1951 which involved conscription. This was in place until it was repealed in 1972 by the new Prime Minister, G Whitlam.

In 2007 the AACE – the Association of Australian Christadelphian Ecclesias published a book entitled:

“Conscience in Action – the experience of conscientious objection in Australia”

The book Summary says the following:

As brothers and sisters in Christ, while respecting those placed in authority over us and the laws they enact and administer (Rom 13:1-7), we stand for the principles of Christ in relation to our conscientious objection to military service and related activities, and to political involvement in our country. We try to follow the commandments of Christ that we do not fight because we are his servants and his kingdom ‘is not of this world’ (John 18:36). We do not participate in political activities because we are ‘strangers and pilgrims’ in this world (1 Peter 2:11), looking for God’s kingdom to be established at the return of His Son.

The book is both descriptive but exhortational, out lining the reasons for the principled stand and how that was enacted by brethren and sisters down through these years.

Information was collected from many sources including and most importantly in the case of this podcast – accounts of personal experiences.

Thankfully in the couple of years leading up to the publication, a number of oral accounts of the personal experiences of brothers and sisters were recorded. Now nearly 20 years on, many of these brothers and sisters have subsequently fallen asleep in the Lord making these recordings a treasured resource indeed.

The recordings are available with the book, but we reproduce them here in part for convenience and for those who don’t have a copy of the book.

But we do encourage you to get a copy and it is available at AACE.info.

www.wildernessconversations.com