Young WCG member Mr. Andrews joined the Worldwide Church of God on his own, although his mother was a reader of The Plain Truth magazine, published by the WCG. WCG elder Brian Knowles baptized him in 1969, and he began attending the congregation in Tulsa Mr. Knowles pastored. Back from Canada Although Mr. Andrews, before the date of his scheduled induction, took a brief "vacation" to Canada, he was "fully registered" with his draft board, he said. "I went through the process, the full process, after studying the Scriptures and making my decision on my own. I asked for 1-H status." He admits he considered simplifying the avoidance process by relocating to Canada, as did other Americans in the 1970s who were reluctant to serve. But he thought better of that course of action and traveled back to Oklahoma to face the music and the federal court system. Series of court trials Mr. Andrews said he would have gladly served in a government-sponsored work program for conscientious objectors as a low-paid employee of Goodwill Industries or some other participating employer, but he steadfastly refused to serve in any way in the military, even as a noncombatant. "My draft board would not grant me the 1-H classification, so, after I refused to take the oath while I was being inducted, I went through a series of court trials." Mr. Andrews' lawyer had recommended he request a decision from the judge without benefit of a jury. "One of my witnesses was Brian Knowles," said Mr. Andrews. "He talked about how faithful I was. He thought I was very sincere in my beliefs, and he counseled me quite a bit, although the church advised him and the other ministers in no uncertain terms not to get deeply involved in counseling members about the draft. "But most of my counseling came from the booklet that Worldwide put out [Military Service and War]." In the jailhouse then After Judge Bohannon handed down the five-year sentence, Mr. Andrews found himself for two days as a resident of the county jail in Oklahoma City. "That was the worst part of my incarceration," he said. "That was the most terrifying place in the whole world, let me tell you. There's no place like county jails. They give you a jumpsuit and nothing else. I had my Bible, and that was it, although I couldn't read it because it was too dark." Mr. Andrews occupied a cell with "five or six" other men. "While I was in jail there was some kind of a violent suicide or some kind of a death in a nearby cell." Protection lacking After two days as a guest of Oklahoma County, local officials released him to the federal prison in nearby El Reno. There he settled in as a resident of an open dormitory with 50 or 75 other prisoners. "There was only one guard for all these 75 men, and he told me he couldn't protect me 100 percent, so that made feel real good. "But the guards there were okay. I even requested that I not have to work on the Sabbath, and they worked with me on that. "This was unusual, I understand, because they did not get a lot of requests like that. "I found out later that the Jehovah's Witnesses, who were also convicted of draft evasion, had a whole building all to themselves in another wing of the prison." Although Mr. Andrews' conviction was similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses', he did not live with the captive JWs; the federal government housed him with the general prison populace. The Journal wondered why the prison had a special wing for Jehovah's Witnesses. Didn't any JWs successfully navigate the system and end up serving in civilian work programs as did many young conscientious objectors in the Worldwide Church of God? "No," he said. "The reason the Jehovah's Witnesses were so susceptible to conviction for draft evasion was that they refused to serve in any way. "They would not serve in the military, and they also would not serve in any civilian work program. The only choice a JW had was to serve in the military or go to prison. So they went to prison." Nonviolent and trustworthy Mr. Andrews worked on the prison grounds mowing the lawn, including the grass on the outside of the fence that encircled the facility. "They trusted those of us who were nonviolent types," he said. "They figured we were not going to run away." Although El Reno was "better" than the state penitentiary at McAlester, Okla., said Mr. Andrews, "it was still prison. "There is a big difference between being free and being behind those walls. Freedom never looked better to me. I was praying every day that God would make a way for me to get out of there." Helping Mr. Andrews pass the time were "quite a few visitors," many of them from the WCG's Oklahoma City congregation. His mother and his sister Natalie also visited him. His most unforgettable experience in El Reno came when a fellow inmate pierced him in the side with a sharp object and remarked that he "wouldn't mind killing somebody someday." Anti-Vietnam groundswell Mr. Andrews had expected to stay locked up for five years, but events and circumstances came together to spring him from El Reno after only two months. "About this time is when all those protests began to happen throughout all the universities throughout the United States," he said. "It was a tremendous groundswell against the Vietnam War." Muhammad Ali's conversion But the immediate circumstance that led to his release involved champion heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali. Mr. Ali, who until his conversion to Islam in 1964 was Cassius Clay, was supposed to be inducted into the Army in April 1967. He, like Mr. Andrews, had refused to take the oath. He, like Mr. Andrews, was subsequently convicted of evading the draft and sentenced to five years. Mr. Ali's reason for refusing the draft, he said at the time, was his conversion to Islam and that "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." No Web site this Journal writer could locate gave many details of Mr. Ali's reasons for refusing induction. One did quote Mr. Ali, who is black, as saying later in life that, if the Vietnam War had been "about blacks," he would have gone to war "in a minute." Whatever the pugilist's precise reasons, his case wound up in the U.S. Supreme Court four years later, and the high court voted in 1971 to reverse his conviction. With Mr. Ali's conviction vacated, hundreds of men serving time for draft evasion in American prisons found themselves suddenly free, including Mr. Andrews. First out after Mr. Ali "I was the first one out after they released Muhammad Ali," he said. "It was written up in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City papers that I was the first one. My lawyer picked up on the Ali decision immediately." Retroactively unconvicted Mr. Andrews, although convicted of draft evasion, a felony, doesn't know exactly how he was retroactively declared a nonfelon, but his record, he said, was wiped clean. He officially has no history of having been convicted of anything, much less serving time. "They somehow reopened my trial," he said. "They said I did not get due process or something like that. Retroactively, in a sense, they unconvicted me, although I had served two months." You can't go back If Mr. Andrews could live that part of his life over, he would "still be a CO," he said. "But hindsight is great, and I would definitely do a lot of things differently. "I would be more proactive about getting my information to the draft board, and my words to the draft board would be much more guarded than they were in 1971. "But I was fresh in the church. Talk about somebody who was green." Also, if he had things to do over, he would consider serving in the Army as a noncombatant, possibly as a medic. Further, he said, he would definitely not tell the director of his draft board that she should not consume unclean meats. "Boy, did that ever backfire on me. I shouldn't have been discussing pork with my draft board." Fatherly advice Although the United States has not had a draft since 1973, many Church of God members think it could be reinstituted, especially in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war on terrorism. Mr. Andrews has advised each of his six sons, on reaching age 18 and registering with the U.S. Selective Service, to write on the bottom of their registration forms: "I am a conscientious objector." "If the draft ever came back," he said, "each of my sons would have to look at his own understanding of the Scriptures and make up his own mind. "But I felt it was better that they start out by stating they were conscientious objectors. Then, if they decided they want to do something differently, that's fine. "All of them have agreed with that approach." Mr. Andrews lives in Tulsa with his wife, the former Miriam Rude. The Andrewses have nine grown children: Michael, Margaret, Matthew, David, John, James, twins Evelyn and Joseph, and Amanda. | 