Larry, please let me be clear: I oppose the Selective Service bill. Having said that, I still do not believe that any religion or religious organization, including any of the Historic Peace Churches, should be given any special status. I realize that Quaker settlements predate the US Constitution, but so do Congregationalists (formerly Puritans) and a host of others, each of whom came to found its own "New Zion in the Wilderness of America." The Establishment and Free Exercise clauses were written into the First Amendment to recognize both the religious pluralism of the new nation and the need to create a secular government (at first only at the federal level).

I suspect that we will keep this discussion going at another time and place!

Kindest regards,
Steve