New York’s influential Union Theological Seminary has announced that they will be pulling millions of dollars of investments from the fossil fuel industry, explaining “it is ever clear that humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels is death-dealing—or as Christians would say, profoundly sinful.” In an article posted by Time.com, the school’s president Serene Jones said (in part):
At Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, we have a particular call to live out our values in the world. In accordance with that call, our Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to begin divesting the school’s entire $108.4 million endowment from fossil fuels, becoming the first seminary in the world to take this dramatic step in the fight against global climate change … For Christians, sin is the word that describes anything that prevents us from having a faithful relationship with God, with each other, with ourselves, and with creation … Climate change poses a catastrophic threat. As stewards of God’s creation, we simply must act to stop this sin.
By doing so, the school has become the first seminary to publicly divest from fossil fuels for spiritual reasons. You can see her entire statement here, which is definitely worth the read …
