Rosie Venner has been talking rather a lot about banks. She thinks it matters—to God.
“We are called to be good stewards, to like our neighbors, to hunt peace, to act justly. Surely this could shape how we relate to money and where we bank,” she said.
Venner is a British Christian climate change activist working on the Money Makes Change campaign with the JustMoney Movement, a bunch that goals to be “the go-to organisation for Christians and churches” applying the teachings of their faith and the biblical calls to justice to the best way they handle their money. Which brings her to British banks, and the alternatives they make when investing the cash deposited by Christians who’re concerned concerning the negative environmental effects of burning fossil fuels.
Barclays, for instance, which is taken into account by some experts to be a key corporation controlling global financial stability, was the most important funder of the fossil fuel sector in Europe from 2016 to 2021, some years investing greater than 23 billion kilos (about $30 billion US) and investing in oil extraction within the Arctic Circle and the Amazon rainforest.
Altogether, in keeping with essentially the most recent data, banks pumped greater than 733 billion kilos (about $942 billion US) into the fossil fuel industry per 12 months.
Venner would love Christians to tug their money out of banks like that, since the Lord has shown us what is sweet and requires us to act justly (Micah 6:8).
JustMoney is partnering with plenty of Christian climate organizations—Just Love, Operation Noah and Switch It Green—to encourage Christians to make financial changes during Lent. They’re calling it The Big Bank Switch. It’s an invite for believers throughout the traditional period of fasting and self-examination to “align their money with their values by switching from a bank that funds planet-destroying fossil fuels to 1 that doesn’t.”
Those who sign The Big Bank Switch pledge to transfer their bank accounts to a green bank in late April. So excess of 100 Christians have promised they’ll switch banks. The activists hope to influence 1,000 people to vary banks by the tip of the campaign.
“The very practical motion of switching banks allows individuals to influence policies by removing our support for fossil fuel expansion,” said Stefan Spence, who has been heading up the campaign for Just Love UK. “Companies and governments depend on public support, so the clear message sent by The Big Bank Switch campaign would require a response. It’s an appropriate time, as other campaigns like Make My Money Matter are applying similar pressure, and in the previous couple of years, banks have began updating their sustainability policies.”
Historically, Spence said, banks have based investment decisions solely on returns for shareholders and concerns about financial risk. The only ethical consideration was for legal compliance. As a result, banks sometimes invested their money in ways in which their depositors find morally offensive. The money going to fossil fuel firms makes it less likely that Great Britain will effectively reduce carbon emissions, which for a lot of Christians is a crucial ethical issue.
“As Christians, we understand that the earth and heavens were made to declare the glory of God,” Spence said. “The plants, animals, and folks on Earth are beautiful and precious. God’s command to steward creation involves us caring for each people and the environment.”
He points to verses similar to Proverbs 22:16 as clear Scriptural mandates. The Bible says God hates it when people attempt to get ahead in ways in which make the wealthy richer and hurt the poor. And individuals who “sow injustice” will reap calamity (v. 8).
And banking doesn’t should be like that, in keeping with Spence. Investors could take ethical considerations under consideration as they weigh potential profit against financial risk.
Spence notes that this isn’t the primary time Christians have used their funds to create social change. Throughout the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, anti-apartheid campaigns effectively used boycotts to push corporations to stop financing projects in South Africa.
Operation Noah, one among the primary Christian climate charities within the UK, has also spent a decade encouraging Christians and faith-based organizations to divest themselves of investments that harm the environment.
“This pressure does actually work,” said Cameron Conant, Operation Noah’s communication officer. “I feel sometimes people can get disheartened and feel like campaigning doesn’t work, but I can say as a campaigner who has campaigned for plenty of years now, it does actually work.”
Conant has seen many individuals change their view, but additionally points to success moving larger institutions. Last 12 months, the Church of England divested of all oil and gas investments that weren’t in “real alignment” with agreed-upon goals of limiting carbon emissions.
The strategy, in keeping with Conant, is to assist people see that they do have an influence and to attach motion to Christian faith.
“Who funds fossil fuels? Who allows them to occur? It’s our political system and banks,” Conant said. “We’ve tried to talk with a unified Christian voice to say that is something Christians must be united on, that we’re called to look after God’s creation, and that similar to we shouldn’t be funding tobacco or arms or gambling as churches and as faith organizations, we shouldn’t be funding fossil fuels.”
And it could already be working. The Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitments Database shows that faith-based organizations are on the forefront of the divestment movement. And major banks are taking notice. Barclays announced last month that it is going to stop directly financing recent oil and gas projects.
Holly-Anna Petersen said Christian Climate Action, of which she is a member, has also had quite a lot of success in urging Christian organizations to think more rigorously concerning the impact their money is having on climate change. Recently, activists held a vigil outside the Church of England cathedral in Sheffield, urging the church to vary banks.
“For Christian organizations that always do their very own campaigning, to be the topic of a campaign was a bit uncomfortable,” Petersen said. “They also were quick to see the harm their banking was doing and so were very receptive.”
Christian Aid was convinced to change banks too.
“It is likely to be convenient to stick with the bank you’ve at all times been with. It actually does take some effort to change. But the climate crisis is funded and fueled by money,” said Ashley Taylor, Christian Aid’s senior advocacy advisor. “Doing what we will to assist turn off that money flow shall be essential if we’re going to finish the suffering of our brothers and sisters living with the worst climate impacts.”
Taylor encourages others to not underestimate the impact they’ll have.
“Actions speak louder than words,” she said. “It’s easy to declare a climate emergency, to say we care concerning the plight of those suffering and that we don’t stand with polluters. But by banking with those who fund polluters, we risk being a part of the issue we claim to oppose.”
Venner said making that connection is essential. She remembers when she first realized that the bank where she did business was a part of the system she was concerned about. Her banking, she realized, was connected to the very issues she was praying about.
“I worked for a global development charity,” she said. “I met people from all all over the world and heard the struggles of communities being moved off their land or having their livelihoods threatened due to mining, large-scale agriculture, or oil and gas projects. The finance that enabled those projects got here from the banks I walked past on the high street—it was a direct link to people I cared about, communities I prayed for.”
This Lent, she hopes to assist other Christians make that very same reference to The Big Bank Switch.
“I feel it’s coming at the best time,” Venner said. “Many Christians are concerned concerning the climate crisis and are waking as much as the role of finance inside this.”
