Pastor Takes on ‘Sin Stock’ Holdings
A Wesleyan Methodist pastor is questioning how his denomination’s pension fund is invested.
Dale Walker pastors Union Hill Wesleyan Church in Whitleyville, Tennessee. He noticed a couple of years ago that the pension fund, in part, is invested in firms that could profit from, promote, or philanthropically support immoral practices or products.
“Things like abortion, pornography, alcohol or gambling — and these things deeply concerned me,” he tells OneNewsNow.
Determined to do something about that, Walker took the issue to those to whom he answers in the denomination.
“It’s actually, I guess, a good thing that Jesus wasn’t a member of a large denomination today because when he drove the money changers out of the temple he probably would have had to take it through committee after committee after committee, and he probably would have never got it done,” comments the pastor.
In Tennessee, Walker and supporters have been able to get a resolution passed that will go before the national body meeting next year and will address the issue.
He describes it as “hypocrisy” to take a denominational stance against immorality, yet profit from it in a pension fund. “I mean, after all, why do they call them ‘sin stocks’?” he asks. “They call them [that] because they make a lot of money and it comes down to one thing: the love of money is the root of all evil.”
Walker does not participate in the Wesleyan pension fund because “he does not want to pollute” his personal investment portfolio. He is hopeful Wesleyans on a national level will understand the need for change.
(Source: OneNewsNow)
