Hello friends! It has been a while since I’ve spent some time here with you. I return on a very special occasion. Actually, two special occasions. First, the 223rd General Assembly of the #PCUSA begins this Saturday in St. Louis, Missouri. Second, yesterday I joined a 263 mile journey from the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky to the 223rd G.A. in St. Louis. It is a walk to raise awareness about the harm being done to the planet by our use of fossil fuels, and to put pressure on the General Assembly to divest our Foundation and Board of Pension funds from stock in fossil fuel companies, in order to re-invest in companies seeking to produce clean energy from renewable resources (e.g., solar, wind, or even algae).
In 1971, the then United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., at our 183rd General Assembly, declared that the church’s financial investments are more than just practical means to create revenue, they are also “instrument[s] of mission and includes theological, social and economic considerations.” To that end, the church created the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI), which was charged with implementing the G.A.’s socially responsible investing policy.
In that time, MRTI has utilized our shareholder status in a number of corporations to try to re-shape the work of those companies around the church’s values with regard to it’s pursuit of peace, social and economic justice, environmental justice, and securing and protecting the rights of women. The PC(USA) hit the national news in 2014 when, after nearly a decade of negotiations, voted to divest from Caterpillar, Inc. due to it knowingly selling tractors to the U.S. government which, in turn, armored and armed those tractors in order to sell them to Israel for use in demolishing Palestinian homes in Gaza and the West Bank. The effort was to equally apply our socially responsible investment policy, though it raised the ire of many of our Jewish partners.
The call of the Fossil Free PCUSA organization and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is to call on G.A. and MRTI to apply the same social consciousness to our vast investments in oil companies. Some argue it’s better to keep our investments and have a seat and voice at the shareholders’ table. But others argue that the church could be contributing the further development and refining of alternative energy sources.
I’ve hung my hat with PPF and Fossil Free PCUSA. I had the privilege of serving on the planning team for this walk, and am proud to have worked with some of the finest social justice advocates our church has to offer!
I do not believe companies with sole purpose of extracting oil from the earth are going to be motivated by the small percentage of shares the Presbyterian Board of Pensions and Presbyterian Foundation may hold. I do believe we can do more good by re-investing in proven and even exploratory research and development companies, though our return on investment may not come for years or even decades to come in the form of cleaner air, better living conditions for the poorest of humanity, and a healthy relationship with God’s earth that sustains us.
Stay tuned here for photos and some videos coming forth. AND IF YOU’RE ATTENDING G.A. THIS YEAR, LET ME KNOW! I’d love a chance to see you. May Christ’s church be further moved by God’s Holy Spirit as we seek to be ever faithful to the good news and power of love.