VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS) -At a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Board of National Ministries Friday, members voted unanimously to divest from investments in corporations with direct business interests in Sudan.
Widespread human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian laws characterize current fighting in the country. The government has bombed civilian villages, hospitals, and relief sites, and there have been arbitrary arrests, detentions without trial, and violations of women and children, along with religious persecution, torture, and executions. Racial and religious minorities are the principal victims of these human rights violations. All told, more than two million people have been killed since 1983 as a result of what has become Africa's longest-running civil war.
National Ministries' action follows an alert from the congregation of Hyde Park Union Church in Chicago, Ill., urging portfolio investigation "with dispatch" to identify investments in companies doing business with the government of Sudan, followed by divestiture of those companies.
Treasurer, Dr. Margaret Ann Cowden says, "Along with being a vehicle for funding mission, National Ministries' Common Investment Fund also has always been important as mission in itself through socially responsible investing. Finance Committee members were eager to use our funds to bear Christ's witness against these atrocities that are such an affront to the common humanity that unites us all."
Members of the Finance Committee of the Board of National Ministries approved divestiture "as soon as possible with due prudence to fiduciary responsibilities."
"The congregation of Hyde Park Union Church is extremely concerned about the current conflict in the Darfur region of the Sudan," wrote the Rev. Susan Johnson, senior minister, and Elizabeth Beazley, of the Missions & Social Concerns committee, in a letter to National Ministries in May. "We feel that Christian organizations should be at the forefront of examining and condemning this genocide."
An American Baptist Churches USA Resolution on Sudan details the war's roots and urges individual American Baptist action as well, including keeping the Sudanese people in prayer, donating funds to groups ministering to the people of Sudan, and engaging U.S. political leaders to work toward influencing the peace process in the war-torn country.
Andrew C. Jayne American Baptist Churches, USA Mission Resource Development http://www.abc-usa.org/