Amnesty International is an activist organization working to secure and defend human rights around the world. The official website of Amnesty International USA says they are “a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people—no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world’s largest grassroots human rights organization.”
Begun in 1961, Amnesty International has done a lot of good on behalf of victims of tyranny, prisoners of conscience, and religious and political dissenters. For example, in 1963 Amnesty International led a successful campaign to help free Ukrainian Archbishop Josyf Slipyi from a Soviet prison in Siberia.
Through the years, Amnesty International has become more politically and socially liberal and currently supports many movements that run against God’s Word. Amnesty International takes stances in support of abortion on demand, support of LGBTQ rights, opposition to capital punishment, and support of decriminalizing prostitution.
Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are to “‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ . . . and ‘love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37, 39). Amnesty International could be seen as trying to follow the second commandment without keeping the first. But the Christian value of loving one’s neighbor cannot be divorced from the Christian value of loving God with our whole being. As Jesus said, the second commandment is “exactly like” the first (verse 39, ISV). The world’s “love,” detached as it is from a universal morality based on the character of God, leads to the elevation of immorality, and vice becomes a virtue.
Insofar as Amnesty International focuses on helping those who are being abused and exploited, it is doing a good work. Political prisoners of dictatorial regimes, victims of human trafficking, and those suffering for religious dissent in communist or Islamic countries, for example, need support and aid. However, Amnesty International’s open support of homosexuality, abortion, and prostitution makes supporting the organization difficult, if not impossible, for the believer in Christ.
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