Court Opinion

ID: 9651261
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:11:31.2628+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:31.387161
License: Public Domain

DENMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent. The statement of the court’s opinion omits the most important piece of evidence in the record. It recites at length some of Berman’s statements and then states of them “No reference whatsoever is made to appellant’s religious training and belief.” On the contrary, these statements are preceded by the following in his application for a conscientious objector’s status:
“I claim the exemption provided by Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 for conscientious objectors, because I am conscientiously opposed by reason of my religious training and belief to participation in war in any form and to participation in any service which is under the direction of military authorities.
“Herman Berman.”
(Emphasis supplied.)
Like all internal mental or spiritual action one’s training of himself to a belief that he should not kill has as its paramount proof the statement of the believer. Berman’s statement as to his training and belief is not only not contradicted but, in my opinion, supported by every fact in the record, beginning with his statement that as a result of his training and belief
“Therefore, for the sake of humanity and out of deep loyalty to my fellow citizens I am opposed to war and refuse to participate in any activity connected with the war effort. However, I seek to continue working in the fields of constructive effort, alleviating distress among the under-privileged members of society, assist in breaking down the barriers of race, *383color, and creed, and work towards a society based on social ownership and cooperative and genuinely democratic control of the means of production and distribution for the benefit of all mankind.” (Emphasis supplied.)
through to the statements of the Congregational clergyman and the professor of Christian religion that they, from Berman’s statements and conduct showing his mental condition, were convinced his beliefs were religious.
Berman’s statement of his religious training and belief was followed by a list of the works of authors (not considered in the court’s opinion hut later considered here) through whose teachings he received the training and belief he claimed in that statement.
It is my opinion that Congress would have regarded it by “religious training and belief” if Abraham Lincoln had never attended any religious service but had so trained his mind from intensive study before the fire in his log cabin of the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, and Pilgrim’s Progress, that he acquired a religious belief. Nor that it was not religious if he believed he lived in a world in which men, by a quality of their spirits not controlled by material things — that is in a supernatural world of spiritual beings — owe a moral duty to other men, also morally free, not to destroy the bodies in which their spirits are enfleshed. In my opinion, Congress did not think it necessary for his religious training and belief that Lincoln should have trained himself or have been trained by concentration of his mind on the discourse of a clergyman in the course of attendance of services of the protestant church of which he became a member.
Nor did the Secretary of War in his regulation prescribing the form for conscientious objectors deem it necessary that the training should come from some other person but, on the contrary, that it could come from training of the mind in the study of books. Under the title “Religious Training and Belief” is the Secretary’s question
“2. Explain how, when and from whom or from what source you received the training and acquired the belief which is the basis of your claim made in Series 1 above,”
being the statement that Berman objected to killing by reason of his religious training and belief. Since the Secretary’s regulatory interpretation of the words “religious training” is rational, it has the effect of law. Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 342, 349, 40 S.Ct. 155, 64 L.Ed. 297.
Two of the teachers through whose books Berman was trained in his humanism are Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian and long a clergyman in churches of that faith, and Eugene Debs, also a Christian though of no church affiliation. Like Berman, both were socialists. The training of Berman’s mind by Thomas’ book As I See It, listed in the record under the heading Religious Training and Belief of his application, well may have been accomplished by such passages under the title The Church, as those at pages 146 and 147.1
Similarly, training to the point of reli*384gious conviction could come from Debs’ powerful appeal for prison reform, Walls and Bars, containing such pathetic chapters as “A Christmas Eve Reception” in Atlanta penitentiary.
It is true that there is no evidence that Berman’s religious conviction that he should not kill his fellow man flowed from the command of some god or gods of one or another of the world’s many religious congregations, and we may assume that such was not its source. But many of the great religious faiths with hundreds of millions of followers have no god. George Galloway, Professor of Theology of St. Mary’s College, St. Andrews, so describes the ancient and present Chinese religion of Tao as having no god, and so of Buddhism in its earlier years.2 Ency. Brittanica, 14th ed., Vol. 19, p. 111. It is wrong to say that “a sincere devotion to a moralistic philosophy” is inconsistent with “a belief in his responsibility to an authority higher and beyond any earthly one,” if that supernatural'authority is confined to a belief in a particular god. This would exclude all. Taoist China and in the Western world all believers in Comte’s religion of humanism in which humanity is exalted into the throne occupied by a supreme being in monotheistic religions.
This recognition of religion as not requiring a god is excellently stated in Judge Augustus Hand’s opinion in United States v. Kauten, 2 Cir., 133 F.2d 703, 708.3
Even the dictionary definitions recognize that religion need have no god. Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1937, defines religion as “An apprehension, awareness, or conviction of the existence of a supreme being, or more widely, supernatural powers or ' influences controlling * * * humanity’s * * * destiny.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Here we have Berman’s uncontradicted statement that his “conscientious” objection is the result of his religious belief. “Conscience” is not derived from a, materialistic concept of the origin of human beings. Materialists believe that everything in man is causatively derived from prestellar matter in which all that is now existing was there patterned. We may think our will is free to serve our fellow man but even the thought is not our creation. It is just the exact'working out of these primal forces by an uncontrollable causation.
The power of conscience postulates a supernatural spirit.3 Only by the spirit’s superiority and control over the demands of surrounding nature can man be conscientious. Only by supernatural power does man’s will overcome his animal desire to kill or destroy. Men have their choice of belief between Kant’s categorical imperative in them, of freedom of will, or a mere recognition that nature gives a feeling that they are doing something virtuous or vicious which it has preordained. Berman’s statements that he had a religious conviction, that “therefore” he acted under the pressure of his conscience in his striving, to aid his fellow man, show *385he chose the former. He is clearly within the dictionary definition. He believes he is actftig under a “supernatural power * * * controlling * * * humanity’s * * * destiny.” lie is a conscientious objector within the statutory exemption and the district court erred in holding to the contrary.
The decision of this court of appeals on this important question of law is in conflict with the decision of the Second Circuit in United States ex rel. Phillips v. Downer, 135 F.2d 521. I am in accord with all that the Second Circuit there says and holds.
Special statement of fact by Stephens, individually, C. J.
The quoted statement which Judge Den-man refers to in his dissent as “the most important piece of evidence in the record” is a printed form, without any part emphasized. Following the signed statement, is more, which we set out in the margin.a
Rehearing Denied; Denman, Circuit Judge, dissenting.

 “What will such a man say? That to be a Christian one must be a socialist? Not necessarily. To bo a good socialist in our present society, is indeed, easier than to be a good Christian. Socialism does not, like Christianity, say ‘give to him that asketh of thee.’ Socialism, as Bernard Shaw and others have pointed out, calls men to work out a new social order, not to personal renunciation save as that may be involved in the social struggle. Tolstoi’s life was an attempt to carry out immediately the full ethic of the gospels, not of socialism. If it was, as I think, a glorious failure; if a general imitation of Tolstoi's bread labor would
bring our modern machine age society to disruption and starvation, the fault was not in Tolstoi, but in the impossibility of living out so completely Christian an ethic in an interdependent society based on economic principles which are the denial of a Christian ethic. Men will continue to fail as Christians in an unchristian order. The Christian keen enough to discern the compromises forced on him despite his best intentions has peculiar reason for wanting the cooperative commonwealth. He should, indeed, set himself some standards of conduct and recognize some compromises which he cannot make and keep house with himself. But *384in an economic order where production is for profit and exploitation is inherent in it, he cannot wholly escape by any renunciation short of suicide. And suicide is defeat. The man who says that he lives by the Golden Rule only conceives life in its visible personal relations. He has no conception of how completely the Golden Rule is denied by the rule of gold which is the master of economic life.
“Nevertheless, while I think socialism is the best road to a Christian social order, another man with at least equal force —so far as the gospels are concerned— may urge Tolstoi’s type of individualistic anarchy, or something like Kropotkin’s communistic anarchy * *

 What was said by Chief Justice Hughes in bis dissent in United States v. Macintosh, 283 U.S. 605, 51 S.Ct. 570, 75 L.Ed. 1302, concerning a religion having a “God” refers to Professor Macintosh’s belief in his “God” commanding him not to kill. To attribute to such highly educated men as Hughes, Holmes, Brandéis and Stone an ignorance of Taoism or Comte’s humanism, or their denial that either is a religion if the question had been presented to them, would be an unwarranted assertion of their ignorance of the history of religious beliefs.

 “ * * * Recognition of this obligation [of conscience] moved the Greek poet Menander to write almost twenty-four hundred years ago: ‘Conscience is a God to all mortals’; * *

 “1. Describe the nature of your belief which is the basis of your claim made in Scries I above. Democracy cannot be served by going to war. The way to serve democracy is to cultivate and extend it — to make it work — where even only a semblance of it exists. Through abolition of restrictions on our democracy, political and economic (poll taxes, etc.), not only would democracy be served, but society as a whole would be benefited. This would be preliminary to a social order based on the mutual understanding of human needs, and hence resulting in the cooperative commonwealth.
“2. Explain how, when, and from whom or from what source you received the training and acquired the belief which is the basis of your claim made in Series I above. In 1936, I began to realize the causes of recurring wars and depressions. At that time, I resolved to learn more about it. Though the following books and publications convinced me, they did not advocate or ask anyone to become a conscientious objector. This I have done of my own accord, fully realizing the possible consequences. ‘As I See It’ by Norman Thomas. ‘Other People’s Money’— Louis Brandéis. ‘War Madness’ — Stephen Raushenbush. ‘Is Conscience a Crime?’ — Norman Thomas. ‘Walls and Bars’ — Eugene Y. Debs. ‘Merchant of Death’ — Fortune Magazine, 1934. ‘Nye Committee Investigation of Munitions’. The Fellowship’ — Publication of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The Call’— Socialist Party organ.
"3. Give the name and present address of the individual upon whom you rely most for religious guidance. I rely on no one for religious guidance.
“4. Under what circumstances, if any, do you believe in the use of force? I have no objection to using force of a nonviolent nature. Non-cooperation and resistance without destruction of life can be more effective against an enemy than the typo Americans are being forced to use. I approve of a society in which the members are resj)onsible to law and order formulated by themselves.
“5. Describe the actions and behavior in your life which in your opinion most conspicuously demonstrate the consistency and depth of your religious convictions. I have distributed educational material on numerous occasions (Samples attached) and have sold educational material of a similar nature. I have collected food, clothing and money for war sufferers of Spain in their recent struggle, and also for needy Americans. (See attached credentials.) Participation in organizations of which I am a member has meant sacrifice of time, money, and effort in advancing their respective causes. (See attached statements on purposes of organization.)
“6. Have yon ever given public expression, written or oral, to the views herein expressed as the basis for your claim made in Series I above? If so, specify when and where. Yes, I have written letters to the editors of newspapers, (New York Post, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Daily News) expressing my views on the subject. I do not have these in my possession, however. I have taken, on joining the Youth Committee Against War, the Oxford Pledge — T refuse to support the United States in any war it might undertake.’ ”