A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

e Old Order Mennonites, who had 100 percent of their drafted men in alternative service, and the Mennonite Brethren in Christ (now United Missionary Church) who had only 10 percent in CPS. 31 A summary of the final draft census of all Mennonites broken down according to church groups, giving the number of men and the percentages in each classification, for the entire conscription period 1940-47, is given below. TABLE VIII Draft Census of Various Mennonite Church Groups' 2 I-A l-AO IV-E Name of Group No. of Per- No. of Per- No. of Per- Men centage Men centage Men centage Total (Old) Mennonite 980 29.9 349 10.6 1943 59.5 3.272 General Conference Mennonite 1799 57.7 486 15.6 828 26.6 3,113 Old Order Amish 23 2.9 27 3.5 722 93.5 772 Mennonite Brethren 225 31.5 228 31.9 260 36.4 713 Mennonite Brethren in Christ 527 78.5 112 16.7 32 4.8 671 GIVING TO CAESAR 351 Conservative Amish Mennonite 34 13.8 24 9.7 187 76.3 245 Brethren in Christ 63 25.9 56 22.2 126 51.8 245 Church of God in Christ Mennonite 10 5.0 3 1.5 187 93.5 200 Defenseless Mennonites 91 54.8 58 34.9 17 10.2 166 Krimmer Mennonite Brethren 65 48.1 21 15.5 49 36.3 135 c^vangcinai iviennoniLe Brethren 16 14.6 29 26.6 64 58.8 109 Old Order Mennonite 0 0.0 0 0.0 72 100.0 72 United Zion Children 41 74.6 3 5.5 11 20.0 55 Hutterian Brethren 2 6.2 1 3.1 29 90.6 32 Reformed Amish Christian 0 0.0 0 0.0 6 100.0 6 Church of God (Mennonite) 0 0.0 0 0.0 3 100.0 3 Summary 3876 39.5 1397 14.2 4536 46.2 9,809 If only 46 percent of the Mennonite men drafted entered Civilian Public Service (see table above), why did 54 percent choose to enter military service? Although no simple answers are possible, the conclusions arrived at by the Draft Census Study are as follows. "The order of the relative strength of the influences which channeled men into military service is as follows: associates, family, finance, and lack of peace teaching." 33 The several Mennonite conferences used various methods to help the CPS men at the time of their discharge. The U.S. Mennonite Brethren Church gave each man, CPS and army, a twenty-five dollar love gift when he returned from service. In addition, each CPS man was given five dollars per month up to $150.00 for the time he was in CPS." Not to be overlooked is the fact that the churches contributed a total of over three million dollars in money and goods to the MCC for the operation of CPS camps