Adventists Need Not Serve in the Military, Russian Court Rules

Sixteen students from the Russian Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary have won a court case against Russia's military registration committee, Adventist News Network reports. The students were placed on trial on May 27 because they refused military service. The military registration committee had planned to assign the students to a non-combatant corps; the court ruled that the committee should not call the students for military service until a law on alternative service is passed by the Russian parliament. Such an act is currently being enacted.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has historically urged its members to refuse to bear arms; most Seventh-day Adventists have instead served their countries through alternative service or through noncombatant military service.