“You will know them by their fruits” – Matthew 7:16
This article announces the return and revisioning of Fossil Free UMC, a movement to urge United Methodist boards, agencies, churches, and individuals to divest from fossil fuels, the primary driver of global heating. Our first task is to persuade next year’s General Conference to add “fossil fuels” to our list of ethical investment screens. This movement is a call to us as United Methodists to walk our talk about climate change.
We United Methodists, as a denomination, have long taken a stand against the burning of fossil fuels, the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Our 1980 General Conference resolution on energy policy made us the first denomination to link the burning of fossil fuels to what was then called “global warming.” It urged The United Methodist Church and the nations of the world to make renewable energy and conservation the main energy priorities. That resolution has been updated at almost every General Conference since it was passed. It now prioritizes climate justice, challenges false solutions, and gives updated information that we were unaware of in 1980. As of 2016, it declares that “The burning of fossil fuels causes large-scale pollution and seriously alters the environment by increasing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.” (https://www.umc.org/en/content/book-of-resolutions-energy-policy-statement)
Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Our United Methodist Social Principles and Book of Resolutions contain excellent statements calling for strong climate action. Our Council of Bishops and many of our general boards and agencies have spoken out. Many United Methodists have taken individual or communal action to “green” our lives and our churches. Some of us work on disaster relief, resilience, and mitigation, including through education and advocacy. Yet our investments in banks and other financial institutions that fund fossil fuels may have far greater climate impacts than any other aspects of our lives. As a denomination, we still fund the “money pipeline” that finances the coal, oil, and methane gas extraction, transport, refining, exporting, and infrastructure that damage creation and endanger the future.
Despite our best intentions and stated commitments, through our investments we are diminishing God’s good creation and harming our global neighbors, especially those who are most vulnerable. We United Methodists must walk our talk if we are to be taken seriously when we acknowledge that “the burning of fossil fuels causes large-scale pollution and seriously alters the environment by increasing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.” The renewed Fossil Free UMC movement is challenging us to be true to our word on the issue of climate change.
Our first task is to support the petition to General Conference calling for “fossil fuels” to be added to our list of ethical investment screens in Paragraph 717 of the Book of Discipline. In this article, and in the coming months leading up to General Conference, we will make the case that adding “fossil fuels” to this list makes sense, both morally and financially.
Taking a Moral Stand on Climate Finance
Many sayings of Jesus from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount can be used to make a moral case for financially divesting ourselves and our churches, boards, and agencies from fossil fuel companies. Among them are:
- “You will know them by their fruits.” (7:16)
- “You cannot serve both God and money.” (6:24b)
- “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (6:21)
- “If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.” (6:22b)
- ““In everything do to others as you would have them do to you…” (7:12)
These sayings remind us that there are spiritual pitfalls to having divided loyalties, especially where money is concerned and especially if others are harmed by our actions. In our financial dealings, as in all our dealings, the world will know us by our fruits.
The moral arguments for divesting our money from fossil fuels are clear. As United Methodists our mission is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” That means making sure that our churches and ministries promote spiritual formation in the context of the world as our parish and in the direction of the world as God intends for it to be. Surely the God of steadfast love, who declared all creation good and who has nurtured and sustained life on earth for eons, intends for life in abundance to continue (Genesis 129:12-17; Exodus 20:6). Surely Jesus, who said “just as you did it to one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40), calls us to consider our impacts on those who are most vulnerable in all our decisions.
The larger “fossil free” movement has inspired a total of over $40 trillion worth of divestments so far from faith communities, universities, foundations, and financial institutions. It states the moral argument in simple terms: “It’s wrong to profit from wrecking the planet.”
The Financial Risks of Investing in Fossil Fuels
As climate change progresses, fossil fuel investments become riskier as lawsuits against fossil fuel companies and governments become common, as governments enact strong policies to fight climate change, and as renewable sources of power become cheaper. What is the risk? That the reserves of coal, oil, or methane gas upon which fossil fuel companies are valued will become stranded assets. These reserves, which now count as so valuable, will have no real value if they cannot be burned. Some financial analysts call this a “carbon bubble,” which will burst if governments get serious about transitioning to renewable power.
The far greater risk is to ignore this reality. Yes, we may profit for a while, but we also prop us the current fossil-fuel based global system, which is time-bound anyway. The climate disasters already upon us make clear that if the current rate of warming continues, the extent of destruction will escalate indefinitely, wreaking unimaginable havoc. Yet big oil, gas, and coal corporations continue to base their value on their reserves, cast doubt on the reality of climate change, and build new infrastructure that will lock us into increasing fossil fuel use for decades.
This is untenable. As a church, investments in fossil fuels puts us at cross purposes with the just and sustainable transition that we claim to be working towards. So, for us as United Methodists, which will it be? Will we continue to cast our lot with the fossil fuel companies? Or will we invest (literally) in a just and sustainable clean energy future? This is what is before us as we consider adding fossil fuels to our list of ethical investment screens.
Join Us!
Join us! We are a movement of United Methodist joined together by a shared love of our church and our world, and a desire to meet the current existential climate crisis. Learn about the issues, educate others, advocate, and take action. We can do much more together than we can do alone.
Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” Not by their words. Not by their statements. By their fruits. The United Methodist Church has been calling for the nations of the world and the church to quit relying on polluting fossil fuels for more than four decades and to instead rely on just and renewable energy sources and serious conservation efforts. It is time for the church to walk our talk about climate change, to cease investing in fossil fuels, and to put our investments where our resolutions have been calling us for so long.
Contact us at info@fossilfreeumc.net. Our new website at fossilfreeumc.net is up and running, and content is being added day by day.
Sharon Delgado is a retired UM Elder, Chair of the Cal-Nevada Climate Justice Ministries Task Force, member of the Coordinating Committee of the UM Creation Justice Movement, and Convener of Fossil Free UMC. She is author of The Cross in the Midst of Creation, Love in a Time of Climate Change, and Shaking the Gates of Hell. She blogs at sharondelgado.org.