Marvin’s Stand For Peace

A visual aid that could be used for this story would be a map showing the US and Costa Rica to illustrate the distance of their journey.

Marvin Rockwell was a man who believed in peace. During World War II he refused to be a soldier, and instead joined the army as a medical assistant helping injured soldiers.

After the war, Marvin and some of his friends and relatives, who all lived in Alabama, received notice that they must register with the government. If they registered, it meant that they were making themselves available to become soldiers for the army.

Marvin Rockwell, his nephews Leonard and Howard Rockwell, and their friend Wilford Guindon decided they could not do it. Registering would be like saying they supported war and violence, and they all believed that war is wrong.

They wrote letters to the local government explaining why they couldn’t register. The government arrested them and put them on trial for refusing to register.

Marvin told the judge how he was in the army before and saw how horrible war is and how he believed it was wrong. The Judge told the four men, "If you like your country then you should obey its laws. And if you don't like it then you ought to move out."

Although the judge sentenced the men to prison for a year and a day, they got out after 4 months because of their good behavior. Once they were out of jail, the men met with the rest of the Quaker families to talk about what the judge said. After a lot of discussion and prayer, they decided that if they stayed in the US they would still be supporting the army with their taxes. They decided to move out of the US and move to Costa Rica, a country that has not had an army since 1948.

Thirty-one people made the decision to leave their home in Alabama, and start a new life in a town in Costa Rica called Monteverde. It was a hard decision and a long journey, but Marvin and his community were able to follow their beliefs in their new home. They did not have to serve in the army or pay taxes that would be used to build weapons. They strove to follow God and live in peace with others.

Today, the government gives us an option not to serve in the army. But we don’t have an option to keep our taxes from paying for war. We believe that God wants us to be strong peacemakers and keep violence from happening. That means we have to show people what we believe the same way Marvin and his friends showed people what they believed, and let people know we think paying for war is wrong.

This last paragraph should be added to or edited to bring up your own congregation’s commitment to peace and how that commitment affects the congregation and/or individual church members. You can discuss what is challenging about opposing violence, and what obligations and responsibilities conscientious objectors have as part of their beliefs, especially regarding military taxation. You can also use information from the "Interactive Activities" sheet to show the level of military spending in this country.