Are Your Investments As Pro-life As You Are?
A casual discussion gets heated quickly
Bettie and I were having a conversation when we turned to her most passionate subject – defending and protecting life. Bettie, a long-time crusader champions for unborn children all over the world who do not have a voice. She attends the pro-life rallies, gives generously to causes she is involved in, and actively participates at pro-life conferences, prayer assemblies, and board meetings. Don’t forget Betty’s bumper stickers! For Betty, this has been her twenty year fight with many successes and failures!
However, little did Betty know she owns investments in the very same companies she spent twenty years fighting. Through her investment accounts which consist of both mutual funds and stocks, she found out she owns companies:
1. Making abortion drugs
2. Actively funding Planned Parenthood
3. Operating hospitals and abortion facilities
4. Electively providing insurance benefits to provide abortions
5. Engaged in embryonic stem cell research
To say, Betty was appauled would be an understatement. Betty didn’t care how small the ownership was in any of these types of companies. Her words, “I want no involvement in any of these life sucking companies. I want to be a part of the solution, not the problem”
How about you? Are there moral or social issues important to you? Do you care as much about the source of the profit as you do about the amount? I’d love to hear your reaction…
I am reminded of two verses:
“For there is nothing hidden, which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.” – Mark 4:22
“For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth
comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 3:20-21
2 Comments
I assume Betty sold her holdings in the companies that did the things to which Betty objected. And she most likely kept going to the anti abortion rallies and conventions. At these events she meets the same group of folks she met at the previous rally or convention. Can we say preaching to the choir?
But if Betty became an active stock holder in these companies, at the annual stockholder meetings she could present pro-life propositions for stockholders to vote upon. Perhaps changing the course (maybe not the first year or two), of the company’s activities to which she objects. I am sure there are other stockholders that feel the same way, some even sitting on the BOD.
These evil activities were allowed to become normal operation because good people did nothing.
Clyde, I agree we need to engage! Some are called to that approach. Being a shareholder, even if it’s just one share can make a difference! See Thomas Strobhar for an example:
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14184
Others are not called to activism. Instead, they want to actively avoid just profiting from industries that oppose their values. For example a couple years ago a member of a church won the lottery and wanted to give the proceeds to his church. The church which ran a ministry to help those trapped in gambling addiction refused the donation. Principles should trump profits. Everything belongs to Him anyway and He will always financially fund what is in His Will…