Peggy,

As a longtime member of the Sierra Club and as an even older member of the
Catholic church, I find myself waiting for the time when both organizations
can get beyond the narrow definitions of family planning that have
galvanized us over the last 35 years.  Both organizations need to dialogue
beyond their respective stances.  Catholics need to recognize the burden of
the human population on the earth; Sierra Club should listen to its own
critique of technology and admit that quick technological fixes like
abortion move us further from the natural world we are trying to protect and
enjoy.

One of the greatest development for the Club in recent years has been our
effort to reach out to groups we have ignored:  Labor unions, Native
Americans, and other minorities.  I look forward to a club leader who will
open up dialogue with church leaders who have been excluded from our
efforts.  Then we can only pray that the patriarchal church will be open
enough to dialogue.

Jim Redmond
> ----------
> From:         Peggy Murdock[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Iowa Discussion, Alerts and Announcements
> Sent:         Wednesday, March 10, 1999 7:55 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Human Population Control
>
> I have just been reading some of the emails about the population control
> issue and am not surprised to find that it is divisive. I believe the best
> way to destroy an organization is from the inside, and I think diverting
> our energies from working to protect habitat and the environment by trying
> to make human population control our primary issue could be harmful, not
> just for the environment, which would have lost it's most effective
> advocate, but also to the Club itself.
>
> As I remember the choices presented in the general voting, there was no
> way
> to express the opinion that population control was not an appropriate
> focus
> for this organization. The yes and no votes all had to do with how the
> club
> was to go about it.
>
> Presenting choices that prevent people from expressing an opinion about
> the
> core premise is a trick employed by therapists and is unworthy of an
> ethical organization.
>
> The feminist rhetoric that seems to be driving a good bit of this has
> always seemed anti-Catholic to me, and possibly anti-Christian. As a
> Catholic Christian, I am beginning to look toward the time when I will
> need
> to decide if I have a moral obligation to separate myself from the Club. I
> firmly believe in it's original work, but this, with it's promise of the
> implementation of American-style family planning complete with abortion
> and
> infanticide, is something I can never, ever support.
>
> Population control smells like paternalism to me. Is this even an
> appropriate way to implement a feminist agenda? And isn't the feminist
> agenda already well represented and effectively advocated by other
> organizations?
>
> Peggy Murdock
>
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