Archive for the ‘Amnesty’ Category
Catholic Church moves to kick Amnesty out of its schools
The Catholic Church in Ireland looks set to abolish Amnesty groups in schools as a result of its recent pro-choice stance. I doubt there’s ever been such a potent example of the danger of giving religious groups the authority to impose their sometimes limited sense of morality on students. Perhaps Amnesty should start a new campaign for freedom of conscience in those schools where students are prohibited from taking part in groups that oppose the moral stance of those that run them.
What’s even more infuriating is that there are plenty of middle paths here. Amnesty operates under a campaign structure where groups can take up campaigns on choice. Very little of its activities in school are about fundraising for the general organisation, its campaigns tend to be about education on human rights issues and promoting direct action like letter writing. There is absolutely nothing stopping these schools from refraining in campaigns that conflict with their stance on abortion and still allow students to take part in some of the most important work that exists in the world today.
The Vatican has said Amnesty has “has betrayed its mission” but I think it’d be more fair to call this an example of mission creep; Amnesty’s original mission to free prisoners of conscience has over time evolved into an all pervasive human rights movement which, while laudable, inevitable bring a confrontation between those who hold the freedom for a women to choose to be a fundamental right and those who don’t.
Much as I hate the idea of this great human rights movement being held hostage by groups whose objection is grounded not in objective reason but faith based assumptions on pre-birth human nature, it must be weighed up if taking a stand on these issues is worth the lose of support for it’s core missions. For the women this helps it absolutely is, but does it harm its future effectiveness across all areas? One Amnesty’s greatest strengths is it’s authority and support from all areas of free society, by taking a stance on a subject that still brings division in our society it reduces that strength. Is this a significant hindrance? Only time will tell.
