Pro-abortion Presbyterian political proposal plummets

Excuse the alliterative repetition of five Ps in the headline, but I’ve heard enough Presbyterian sermons to know that is their occasional communication style. Let me add another P, perverse. Recently the pension fund of the PCUSA, the formerly large but rapidly declining mainline denomination, used the stocks that it holds presumably for the primary purpose of pecuniary (OK, I’ll stop) returns for retired ministers and their widows to pressure a grocery store chain to divest from its home state over abortion politics.

Albertson’s is headquartered in Idaho, which protects the life of the unborn. The PCUSA dragged out an argument that has failed repeatedly in the past with other companies, claiming that restricting access to “reproductive healthcare” is a business risk because women would be driven out of the work force to have their babies and that would lead to a worker shortage.

Preposterous!

Demographic data show that Idaho has experienced a population explosion, with people coming in at an almost unsustainable pace. And where are they coming from? Washington, Oregon, California. They are coming from pro-abortion states. Genuinely worried about worker shortages? Then maybe offer proposals to get companies to divest from abortion meccas such as California and New York.

The good news is that the proposal was pulverized by shareholders, receiving less than 5%—which bars that topic from being brought up on this company’s ballot again for three years. The better news is that four years ago proposals like this were getting support levels in the 30s and 40s, not in the low single digits.

The trend is on our side. Last year in a proxy voting review held by one of the ESG clearinghouses, a representative of the pro-abortion firm Rhia Ventures lamented the decline in support for “reproductive” proposals, a very poor choice of names for a procedure that, if it succeeds, means no actual reproduction occurs. “Reproductive was cut in half” she said. She was referring to vote totals for the proposals, but surely this was a Balaam’s ass moment of prophetic discourse. Of course the reverse was true, the collapse of Roe vs. Wade and the rise of pro-life legislation meant that there was going to be less “cutting in half” in actual reproductive healthcare.

What happened? Engagement happened. The proxy advisory services (the companies you’ve never heard of that have enormous effects on the corporations that you are worried about) switched from supporting these proposals to opposing them. Texas State Sen. Bryan Hughes used his subpoena power to pull executives before him and raise this issue. Also, in our small way, our firm and the shareholders we worked with challenged the advisory services about this obvious political side-taking. So the advisory service changed its recommendation.

I cannot emphasize enough how much Christian thought leadership and alleged cultural engagement is us talking to each other about them and not us talking to them.

But the problem is hardly solved, because the problem is that this proposal was presented in the first place. Christians who are members of mainline denominations might be shocked to know what their pension plans are doing with the faithful tithes of generations past and present. There is a word for the repurposing of assets from a holy to an unholy purpose. That word is sacrilege.

It’s not just the Presbyterians. Take a look at the members list of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, which is the central clearing house for religious institutions engaging with companies: Member Directory | Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. The ICCR is thoroughly captured ideologically by the left including on issues regarding abortion and disarming Israel.

Any names look familiar? Many will be the usual suspects, but you might be shocked to see a few institutions that claim to represent evangelical Christians.

Don’t see any familiar names? That’s good news, kind of. But just because your church or wealth manager or ministry or pension fund isn’t putting such proposals on the ballot doesn’t mean they’re not voting for them.

It’s time for faithful Christians to push back. As in every other culture war engagement of our time, progressives are functionally post-millennial, pushy, even pugnacious. And the right is for the most part, well, pusillanimous.