Detroit Clergy Discuss Draft

An Interfaith group of clergymen who oppose the war in Vietnam will hold a conference for draft age men on Dec. 28 at the Central Methodist Church on Woodward at Adams.

The clergy committee on the draft has called the conference because it believes that churches that have expressed opposition to the war have an obligation to those men who face the possibility of serving in a war they think unjust.

The committee feels that this obligation includes providing opportunities for potential draftees to meet together to discuss their decisions, and to avail themselves of the best legal and other counseling available.

The conference will open at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, with talks on the war in Vietnam and the draft from the point of view of a student and a clergyman. The Reverend David M. Gracie and Frank H. Joyce will speak.

These talks will be followed by a panel discussion on the draft. In the panel discussion, James Lafferty, Executive Secretary of the National Lawyers Guild, will explain how the Selective Service System works. The Reverend Eugene Ransom of Ann Arbor will talk about the alternatives of conscientious objection and Daniel R. Wood of the student committee on the draft will talk about the alternatives of noncooperation.

At 2:30 p.m. there will be workshops for draft age men. Participants in the workshops will explore the various responses to the draft.

At 8:30 p.m. the conference will climax with a rally on the theme “Nuremburg and the War in Vietnam.” Ernest Goodman of the National Lawyers Guild and Paul Booth of SDS will speak.

Related

See Fifth Estate’s Vietnam Resource Page.