Sunday, July 20, 2014

Some U.S. faith groups unload fossil-fuel investments

Worried about global warming, a growing number of churches and other faith groups are divesting their holdings in fossil-fuel companies, which release large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. “The warning in Scripture that ‘the wages of sin is death’ could not be more literally true than it is in the case of fossil fuels,” said Serene Jones, president of New York’s Union Theological Seminary, whose board voted in June to divest its $108.4 million endowment of holdings in fossil-fuel companies. “While we realize that our endowment alone will hardly cause the fossil-fuel giants to miss even half a heartbeat,” Jones said, “as a seminary dedicated to social justice, we have a critical call to live out our values in the world. Climate change poses a catastrophic threat, and as stewards of God’s creation, we simply must act.” Other religious institutions that have recently voted to divest fossil-fuel investments include the World Council of Churches (July 10), the Unitarian Universalists (June 28) and the United Church of Christ (July 2013). Many smaller and regional groups — such as the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, the Shalom Center and the Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — have also approved fossil-fuel divestment. And the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) last month voted to study the possibility...more

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