Dear Doug,  I am the Pastor of a small church in Ohio. I recently read your article titled, “The Church Must Oppose the Sin of Women at War.” I was immediately aware that my thinking had been wrong. I had been preaching a series on culture/society and added a sermon on the topic of women in the military. What else can I do to oppose this and to see to it that my 16 year old daughter and the other youg ladies of our nation never have to face the draft? Thank you for your service. P.A.
 
You can not imagine how it encourages our hearts to hear from church shepherds like yourself  who are committed to applying the Word of God to the defining issues of the day.  Here are some thoughts in answer to your question:
 
It is the duty of the clergy to (a) resolve to study to show themselves approved unto God on matters of faith and practice, especially those timely and relevant issues; (b) to rise up in the meeting of the church and exhort the body of Chris to be faithful to think and act biblically; (c) to lead by example with their own families; (d) to hold those in their congregations accountable to the law of God; and (e) to be part of the great cloud of Christian witnesses throughout biblical and Church history who have offered a prophetic voice of accountability to the civil magistrate when he deviates from the revealed moral law of God.
 
On a practical level these duties might manifest themselves in some of the following ways: (Note: The numbers below correspond to the above letters)  
 
1. Give your congregation tools which will equip them to think and act biblically. I recommend passing out articles, referring brothers and sisters in the Lord to helpful websites, and, most importantly, building a library of resources which faithfully exposit and make practical the Word of God.
 
2.  Offer timely messages on the duties of Christians in a free society, biblical principles of voting; patriarchy and male leadership, biblical womanhood, just war, the meaning of the rule of law; godly vs. ungodly resistance to civil magistrates; presuppositional thinking and a host of other subjects which directly affect the way we should live and act as believers in the 21st century. Only foolish shepherds will ignore the fact that our nation is gearing up for a co-ed draft. If we do not preach and prepare our people today, our daughters (and sons) may find themselves facing challenging ethical dilemmas without a compass to guide their responses in the very near future.

3.  Train your own daughters and shepherding your bride such that they present to the congregation the sweet aroma of Jesus Christ through their model example of biblical womanhood and virtue. In my experience of observing other faithful leaders, a  positive example is more effective than a dozen sermons.
 
4.  Consider and discuss with the men of your church the propriety of adopting a position paper on the issue of women in the military (examples of which are on the Vision Forum Ministries web site). In the advent that a member of your congregation who is female should consider becoming a soldier, the church leadership should meet with her and counsel her from Scripture against it. Because the Scripture opposes women in the military by way of pattern, principle and actual precept (God in fact calling the act of a woman putting on military apparel to fight as a man to be an “abomination”), the local church should not hesitate to bring discipline on a member or family that will disobey the Word of God, irregardless of the formal biblical confrontations and appeals of the church leadership. This may seem radical to some, but discipline for unrepentant and continuing sin is a command of God, and the only way the Church will be a blessing to our nation is if we are a self-governing institution.
 
5. Finally, as a shepherd you are a minister of the Gospel with duties similar in kind to that of John the Baptist before King Herod to exhort the ministers of God (Rom 13) who serve as civil magistrates to honor the transcendent moral laws of God. This is done in two ways. First, it is handled through personal and direct confrontation. Writing and visiting our leaders (congressmen, judges, etc.) and clearly sharing God’s Word as applied to public policy is crucial. (I did this for years in Washington D.C., and trained others to do so as well. Frankly, I was surprised by how many times a faithful witness evoked a positive response, if only to restrain evil.) Second, leaders who advance policies either through malice, ignorance or willful rejection of God’s Word must be held accountable through godly and appropriate public criticism and at the ballot box.  This is especially clear where the civil magistrate advances policies which are described as “abominations” in the Bible. Abominations come in many forms, but they are directly connected with the judgment of God on a civilization. Examples include support for homosexual civil unions or marriages; toleration for the execution of any children through abortion; formal rejection of the duty of the state or the right of civil magistrates to acknowledge the One True God of Scripture; or perverting the natural biblical order by sending women into war as combatants. Politicians who behave in such a matter need to know that regardless of the alternatives at the ballot box, such civil magistrates have violated their oaths of offices, have broken covenant with God who holds all kings and judges accountable to His law; have broken covenant with our people by transgressing our national covenant found in the Constitution and its preamble, the Declaration of Independence, and, absent repentance and change, are disqualified from holding public office.
 
Unless Christians make the registration of daughters pursuant to a draft an issue in the 2004 election, and require candidates to commit to (1) oppose the current Administration’s request through the Selective Service Administration to make daughters subject to national selective service;  (2) oppose all unbiblical and unconstitutional drafts, and (3) take women out of combat zones (and ultimately restore an all-male corps of soldiers), we will have no one to blame but ourselves when a politician of the future comes to draft our daughters. God forbid that the architects of such a cultural tragedy were politicians who profess Christ, and that the Church remained silent because we were more concerned with losing an election than speaking the truth.