Back Towards The Locus

I was vaguely bemused to learn that the C of E plays the stock market: after their religion’s fractious relations with money lenders, they’ve apparently decided that if ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Thus, they’ve had to consider a “constructive engagement with the corporate world“. According to their Ethical Investment Policy(pdf), companies are monitored according to…

• responsible employment practices
• best corporate governance practice
• conscientiousness with regard to human rights
• sustainable environmental practice
• sensitivity towards the communities in which business operates

Unfortunately…

A new Amnesty International report says that the company in which the Church of England has its biggest shareholding is responsible for bringing impoverishment, conflict, human rights abuses and despair to the majority of the people in the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta.

…and, er…

Britain’s largest retailer Tesco will today come under fire over 7p an hour garment workers in Bangladesh as shareholders prepare to hail the company’s record £3 billion profits at its annual meeting.

The Church of England is a major shareholder with an investment of £27.5 million in the company, according to the last annual report of the Church Commissioners.

My moralising instinct wants to run riot, but that might be too hasty: after all, money is low, and being lost; they hardly seem to be making a killing. Asking them to invest ethically assumes that there are opportunities to do this and make returns – well, are there? Ekklesia suggests so…

In an age of green funds, co-operative banks, credit unions, micro-credit, mutuals, housing associations, (fr)ee-cycling and LETS (local exchange trading systems utilising non-monetary exchange) – all of which are suddenly much more attractive and popular given the financial turbulence of the last two years – there are now more possibilities than ever to choose from [21], and little excuse for evasion, complacency or inaction. [22]

If that’s the case, there’s no wriggle room: their investments contradict their ethics. If it’s not the case, perhaps they should lead by example – letting it be know that the corporate world is utterly ridden with hideousness.