[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 32, Volume 6]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 32CFR1636.6]

[Page 329-330]
 
                        TITLE 32-NATIONAL DEFENSE
 
                  CHAPTER XVI--SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM
 
PART 1636_CLASSIFICATION OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 1636.6  Analysis of belief.

    (a) A registrant claiming conscientious objection is not required to 
be a

[[Page 330]]

member of a peace church or any other church, religious organization, or 
religious sect to qualify for a 1-A-0 or 1-0 classification; nor is it 
necessary that he be affiliated with any particular group opposed to 
participation in war in any form.
    (b) The registrant who identifies his beliefs with those of a 
traditional church or religious organization must show that he basically 
adheres to beliefs of that church or religious organization whether or 
not he is actually affiliated with the institution whose teachings he 
claims as the basis of his conscientious objection. He need not adhere 
to all beliefs of that church or religious organization.
    (c) A registrant whose beliefs are not religious in the traditional 
sense, but are based primarily on moral or ethical principle should hold 
such beliefs with the same strength or conviction as the belief in a 
Supreme Being is held by a person who is religious in the traditional 
sense. Beliefs may be mixed; they may be a combination of traditional 
religious beliefs and nontraditional religious, moral or ethical 
beliefs. The registrant's beliefs must play a significant role in his 
life but should be evaluated only insofar as they pertain to his stated 
objection to his participation in war.
    (d) Where the registrant is or has been a member of a church, 
religious organization, or religious sect, and where his claim of a 
conscientious objection is related to such membership, the board may 
properly inquire as to the registrant's membership, the religious 
teachings of the church, religious organization, or religious sect, and 
the registrant's religious activity, insofar as each relates to his 
objection to participation in war. The fact that the registrant may 
disagree with or not subscribe to some of the tenets of his church or 
religious sect does not necessarily discredit his claim.
    (e)(1) The history of the process by which the registrant acquired 
his beliefs, whether founded on religious, moral, or ethical principle 
is relevant to the determination whether his stated opposition to 
participation in war in any form is sincere.
    (2) The registrant must demonstrate that his religious, ethical, or 
moral convictions were acquired through training, study, contemplation, 
or other activity comparable to the processes by which traditional 
religious convictions are formulated. He must show that these religious, 
moral, or ethical convictions, once acquired, have directed his life in 
the way traditional religious convictions of equal strength, depth, and 
duration have directed the lives of those whose beliefs are clearly 
founded in traditional religious conviction.
    (f) The registrant need not use formal or traditional language in 
describing the religious, moral, or ethical nature of his beliefs. Board 
members are not free to reject beliefs because they find them 
incomprehensible or inconsistent with their own beliefs.
    (g) Conscientious objection to participation in war in any form, if 
based on moral, ethical, or religious beliefs, may not be deemed 
disqualifying simply because those beliefs may influence the registrant 
concerning the Nation's domestic or foreign policy.

[47 FR 4655, Feb. 1, 1982, as amended at 52 FR 24457, July 1, 1987]