Choices: Culture or Kingdom
Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion

FROM Kathy Dunn, SAGC Shepherding All God's Creatures
May 2019

The planet and anything on it should not boil down in value to following the money trail. It’s not right. We all know it isn’t.

Zengardner OneEurope Photo

The naïve believes everything, but the prudent man considers his steps.
Proverbs 14:15

I have not always been the wisest investor in stock. One of the companies I invested in years and years ago, before my environmentalism and animal welfare concerns, was BlackRock. They are an American global investment management corporation, today the world’s largest asset manager with $5.98 trillion in assets under management as of December 2018. I plan to sell it after finding out how the company operates.

I write this here in effort to share what I am doing to rectify this as I try to green up my life, as I look at choices I make and have made to see how they fit with the moral and ethical beliefs that direct my life today, and in hope this process may help others who are or would like to do the same.

I hold no illusions. Most companies follow the money trail, and we are all placed in the position, if we want our choices to reflect our Kingdom values, of doing a lot of research and of treating our choices as a mine field we must maneuver to avoid those that don’t line up to Christ-likeness and our Kingdom ethics. We need to speak up against cultural norms, to live counter-culturally more and more in our modern world. We must also confront those who hold the power to affect the sanctity of life so profoundly – corporations, governments, elected officials – or any governing body, school, educational or medical board, entity, et al. – and hold them accountable. This is part of Spiritual Warfare as we endeavor to tear down Satanic strongholds.

Here is the letter I wrote to BlackRock’s CEO, in hopes of planting seeds and making change happen. Feel free to use it and/or make it your own for any company, corporation, or for whatever purpose you may need it for:

Dear Laurence CEO:

I am writing to tell you that I am going to sell my BlackRock stock as soon as possible. I have had the stock for years. But because major fund managers like BlackRock who have huge power over the biggest polluters but yet continue not to hold these companies accountable is a major problem for me as an investor.

BlackRock needs to change their ways, and there is no excuse. Decision makers at investment companies like BlackRock are putting profit above what is right at an expense to the environment and everyone’s health. It is a no-brainer today to see how fossil fuels affect the environment and cause global warming. At the point of drilling for oil and gas, to burning the stuff, we wreck havoc on the environment and there are bound to be oil spills – it was meant to stay in the ground! As a major fund manager, you could make such a difference in this world by only working with and supporting companies who invest in green and innovative energy solutions that do not harm our environment.

In so many many ways in fact we are destroying the planet; it doesn’t take much research to discover all the ways, from pollution from oil/gas to plastics and other chemicals we produce and use on massive scales. Animals and the poorer countries of course suffer first as they have to live directly with the kinds of environments the rest of us produce. Human health is at risk and many diseases we suffer from can be traced directly to the use of fossil fuels and gas.

Some fund managers claim they will use their power to ensure that companies act responsibly on climate, but year after year vote down climate shareholder resolutions and vote to re-elect business as usual directors to fossil fuel company boards.

We are the stewards of the planet. We are the overseers of all life on it. Our own, that of the animal kingdom, that of all plant life, that of sea life and the quality of the water we leave not only for our own use but for all life on the planet including marine and sea life that live in it. We are doing a terrible job.

The world is run more and more by corporations. And it is decision makers like you who can stop allowing companies to run a muck and make the changes that need to happen and reshape the trajectory of the future. At the rate we are going now, the future is bleak for all life. But you can change the landscape. As the world’s largest asset manager corporation you can choose to only manage companies that invest in solutions for energy that do not harm; that invest in the research, explores and invents new clean sustainable energies.

At one time when I first starting buying stock, I did not look too closely at moral and ethical implications of my investment decisions. But I do now. I am not a big fish, so you can ignore this email, if you are following the money. But if you care about what impact your life decisions make for billions on and off the job – and not only for people but the planet and animals as has been said – I hope you will care about this letter from me. I am just a small American citizen trying to sustain her life for herself and her family, and trying not to live – just for a few dollars – in such a way that is reckless and does harm to earth and life on it. It is harder and harder to choose the moral and ethical paths since what is available for consumer choices are more and more in the hands of companies/corporations and investment management companies like BlackRock who are not looking out for best interests of all of us or the earth.

The planet and anything on it should not boil down in value to following the money trail. It’s not right. We all know it isn’t. Most people I hope still believe in teaching their children the value of the sanctity of life and of family, and hopefully, of taking care of the earth because it is a living ecosystem that sustains us all, human and non-human. If we would but dig deeper into our hearts and look afresh at what is left of the beautiful oasis this planet was meant to be; learn about the animal kingdom that is left and has not yet gone extinct; see the rich diversity of life the earth is capable of and was created to sustain, I believe we could start being good stewards instead of bad ones.

Thanks for reading.

A very concerned citizen of Minnesota, USA,
Kathy Dunn

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Kathy Dunn: My calling as a Child of the Creator is to take the Gospel, as it relates to the WHOLE creation, to the world; and to remind the Church of its Biblical responsibilities to animals.

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