Thursday, November 10, 2005
Here's an article on the divestment backlash within the Presbyterian Church (USA). The anti-divestment advocates in the piece sound pretty optimistic about their chances of getting divestment overturned at the next annual meeting, but I really wonder...it's the quick "feel good" vote to say "yay" in response to "phased, selective" divestment, and it must be very difficult to contact and educate every person who shows up to vote...even if a majority of members oppose divestment.
As a side note, here is another inter-faith group working against divestment noted in the article: Faiths for Fairness
Churches: Wrestling With Divesting
"There are already two overtures that have been passed [at local presbyteries] that would repeal divestment" at the Birmingham meeting next year, he continued.
Harter's co-chair at Presbyterians Concerned, Rev. John Wimberly, used a poll of Presbyterian members last year to back up his point that as time goes on, the Presbyterian Church will slowly back away from divestment.
"This time last year, some 60 percent of those surveyed didn't know anything about divestment," he said. "Right know, you've got knowledgeable people talking about it, but the people voting on it next summer will be average people coming from places like Duluth, Minn., and Kansas City."...
