Read rare, historic letters about the draft from WT attorney, Hayden Covington, written to a young JW man.

by AndersonsInfo 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AndersonsInfo

  For those who are interested in this subject, especially researchers and historians, I posted on my website extremely rare material dealing with one man's struggle to avoid being drafted into the US Military for religious reasons.

  This is a huge downloadable collection of correspondence between Richard Rawe, his draft board and government officials after he was ordered to report for military duty. Richard saved every letter and even the envelopes from the time he was called up for military duty when he was 18 in 1952 until 1960 when he was 26 and too old to be drafted.

  What makes this collection unique and special is that there are many, many important private letters from Watchtower attorney, Hayden Covington to Richard containing instructions and advice. This is historical material that allows us to peer into the legal mind of Covington with regards to the draft situation during that time period. It also serves to give us a glimpse into a time in America when one young JW man refused to become part of the military because it was a requirement of his religion for him and all other young JW men of draft age to do so and not because they were pacifists.

  http://watchtowerdocuments.org/the-rawe-files-document-downloads/

  Barbara
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  Balaamsass2

  Thanks Barbara!
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  Oubliette

  Cool! Thank you for sharing Barbara!
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  4thgen

  Thanks again, Barbara
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  Magnum

  Thank you. I'm very interested in the subject.
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  designs

  Many of us were Pacifists (and still are) what so many of us resented was being hung out to dry by the Org. when our arrests and trials came up.
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Excellent, I will definitely read all of these
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Fascinating. One striking thing that is surprising is the sheer amount of time that Covington's office spent on this individual case, answering specific questions for a single individual. If they did that for each and every one of the draft-age men it would have been a fulltime job for many people. Things are different now.

  Another thing that is interesting is how often the individual is instructed to maintain his records of how much time he spends in 'ministry' to his 'congregation of laymen' (not the local congregation, but rather the people in the community who are visited), with specific recording of their names, the times they are visited, and almost all the details of the calls. I have always wondered if the initial purpose of the time records of the WT and the door-to-door records was exactly for this, to provide documentation in court for the draft board requirements, and that the use of the time records for JW control came in later.
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  nonjwspouse

  I believe also the recorded time is used to claim they are a religion that gives to the community, in order to achieve the tax free status. It is the only way they can claim community involvement in order to achieve the legal status. Paperwork is the only proof.
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  Pistoff

  When I was preparing to battle the draft board (in the end, not needed; the Vietnam war and the draft were coming to an end, and I was in a holding classification, as opposed to 2 older friends of mine, who each year sweated out the lottery announcement), I would save the outlines for talks, assignments, etc at the service meetings, all in case I needed to defend my 'minister' deferrment application.