Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
A Meeting of the Shareholder Activist Families
A Meeting of the Shareholder Activist Families
Aug 26, 2026 3:50 AM

Thus far your writer’s reportage on matters related to so-called “religious” shareholder activism has focused mainly on the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and As You Sow. It is called Interfaith and that should tell you that this project isn’t restricted to Protestants and Catholics. Certain other members from another Great Faith unfortunately fall into the same category.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation, another ICCR member, describes its faith-based mission thus:

The Nathan Cummings Foundation is rooted in the Jewish tradition mitted to democratic values and social justice, including fairness, diversity, munity. We seek to build a socially and economically just society that values nature and protects the ecological balance for future generations; promotes humane health care; and fosters arts and culture that munities.

Laura Shaffer Campos, director of NCF shareholder activities, described the focus of NCF activism to ICCR’s Corporate Examiner:

Of course, we file directly on climate change. But we also seek to address climate and inequality by panies on issues like corporate political spending and the network neutrality of the wireless networks that represent the primary means of Internet access for economically munities.

NCF’s proxy resolutions include political contribution disclosure requirements, which were submitted this year to Duke Energy and Spectra Energy. Where to begin when one would be hard-pressed to find anything in “Jewish tradition, democratic values and social justice” to actually support such claims?

Yet, NCF – in cahoots with ICCR in a fashion that might prompt a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act investigation with any other enterprise that, say, – is proud of mon ground shared with the heads of the five families…errr… ICCR:

The ability to work in coalition with other ICCR members is a significant benefit of membership. In our experience, the world of shareholder activism is a uniquely cooperative field, with experienced investors happy to help ers to the field, or even just a particular issue, by showing them the ropes. When NCF joined ICCR more than a decade ago, we benefitted greatly from the knowledge and expertise of our fellow ICCR members as we filed our first proposals and worked to get up to speed on issues like sustainability reporting and ethical criteria for the extension of patents. ICCR continues to allow us to expand our impact by leveraging the issue-area expertise of our fellow ICCR members. It also provides a forum for us to speak about the importance of addressing issues like pensation. Over the years, we’ve also benefitted from the unique moral authority some of ICCR’s members bring to our work.

The heavy-handed leaning on corporate America by NCF and ICCR is wrong on so many levels, space limits listing them all here. Let’s suffice today with the evisceration of NCF’s obsession to impose network neutrality, provided by The Wall Street Journal’s L. Gordon Crovitz. He presents empirical evidence that broadband investment has decreased significantly since the Federal Communications Commission adopted net neutrality regulations earlier this year, which treat the Internet as just another utility:

The FCC never planned to set rates and terms for broadband under the laws that dictated how railroads operated in the 1880s and the phone system in the 1930s. But President Obama decided “net neutrality” was good politics, so he demanded that mission impose the most extreme form of regulation. Today bureaucrats lobbied by special interests determine what is “fair” and “reasonable” on the Internet, including rates, tariffs and business arrangements. The FCC got thousands of requests for new regulations within weeks of the new rules.

Before Obamanet went into effect, economist Hal Singer of the Progressive Policy Institute predicted in The Wall Street Journal that if price and other regulations were introduced, capital investments by ISPs could quickly fall from the $77 billion invested in 2014—between 5% and 12% a year, according to his forecast.

Now Mr. Singer has analyzed the latest data, and his prediction e true. He found that in the first half of 2015, as the new regulations were being crafted in Washington, major ISPs reduced capital expenditure by an average of 12%, while the overall industry average dropped 8%. Capital spending was down 29% at AT&T and Charter Communications, 10% at Cablevision, and 4% at Verizon. (Comcast increased capital spending, but on a new home-entertainment operating system, not broadband.)

Until now, spending had fallen year-to-year only twice in the history of broadband: in 2001 after the bust, and in 2009 after the recession. “In every other year,” Mr. Singer wrote for Forbes, “ISPs—like hamsters on a wheel—were forced to upgrade their networks to prevent customers from switching to rivals offering faster connections.”

These results are what pass for “social justice” according to NCF and ICCR? Seriously, how can a group of investors consider such results beneficial for not only their own portfolio but portfolios of others who don’t share their fervent social-justice ideology? Instead, they’ve stifled investments, killed jobs and harmed the future viability of Internet Service Providers. More’s the pity.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Get a Free Rental of ‘For the Life of the World – The Church’
For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exilesisa 7-part series from the Acton Institute that seeks to examine the bigger picture of Christianity’s role in culture, society, and the world. The Gospel Coalition (TGC) ishighlighting an episode and sharing an exclusive codefor a free 72-hour rental of the full episode. Here’s the trailer for episode 7,The Church. Visit TGC to get thecode for the free rental(you have to apply the code today, but once you do the rental...
The Giver: Adding Color to a Monochromatic World
The Giver, a cinematic adaptation of Lois Lowry’s contemporary young adult classic, is great summer action-adventure entertainment. The film also serves as a terrific example for future moviemakers seeking to transfer themes of spiritual faith to celluloid without succumbing to preachiness and overwrought didacticism. Yes, The Giver is yet another dystopian sci-fi adventure story featuring handsome young protagonists rebelling against established A-list Hollywood stars portraying adult autocrats. But, unlike the silly, over-the-top political media and often disturbing ultraviolence of The...
Do Leaders of the Religious Left Really Care About Climate Change?
A few weeks ago I wrote about how some leaders of the religious left were supporting the EPA’s proposed new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units. At the time I wrote, “While there may be some religious liberals who have been duped into thinking the new proposals will actually affect climate change, most are just signaling their allegiance to the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.” After I wrote that sentence I wondered if...
Restricting ‘Human Breeding,’ Wherein I Call Zoltan Istvan A Moral Idiot
I have a large family. Yes, I have 5 children of my own, but I also have 23 nieces and nephews and 30+ great-nieces and nephews. Large. And we’ve heard it all. “Don’t you know what causes that?” (usually chortled with an panying poke in the ribs.) “Are you done now?” “Wow, you’ve got your hands full…” (translated: “Dear heavens, what is wrong with you people??”) It’s all good. Say what you want; we like having loud family gatherings, trying...
Customers More Forgiving of Businesses with Religious Affiliation
Whenever I get a craving for a chicken sandwich and waffle fries, it’s invariably on Sunday—the one day a week when Chick-fil-A is closed. Rather than e frustrated by the closure, though, I appreciate that Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, was motivated by his religious beliefs to give his employees a day of rest. It turns out I’m not the only one. “I am from the South and there is pany called Chick-fil-A, and they are known for their...
The Fight Against Human Trafficking: Are Boys Being Left Out?
The face of human trafficking, for the public, is typically female and young. There is an assumption that females are the victims and males are perpetrators. But is this mindset keeping boys and young men from getting the help they need to escape human trafficking? The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange believes this is the case. While it appears that males make up about half of human trafficking victims, the numbers may be higher, especially for those involved in sex trafficking....
The Test of Self-Interest: Letting God Choose For You
“To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.” –Ecclesiastes 5:1 Obedience to God is a fundamental requirement of the Christian life. With our constant recitations of “thy will be done,” it may seem a rather obvious point, but while many of us fortable with the basic aims and directives of the Gospel –feed the poor, serve the needy, steward your talents, love your enemies...
Teaching Kids About Work in a Prosperous Age
Last Saturday was hot and humid in our corner of the world, and thus, my wife and I quickly decreed a pool day on the front lawn. The kids were ecstatic, particularly our four-year-old boy, who watched and waited anxiously as I got things prepared. All was eventually set — pool inflated, water filled, toys deployed — but before he could play, I told him he needed to help our neighbor pick up the fallen apples strewn across his lawn....
The Jeremiah Option vs. the Benedict Option
The barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers, said Alasdair MacIntyre, they have already been governing us for quite some time. About the best we can hope for at this stage of history, he wrote in his influential book After Virtue, is “the construction of local forms munity within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us.” “We are waiting not for a Godot,” concluded MacIntyre, “but...
What You Don’t Know About Child Trafficking May Surprise You
One of the strongest voices in the fight against human trafficking belongs to a survivor. Rani Hong, founder of The Tronie Foundation, has a bright smile and warm eyes. Her placid face does not tell the story of her life, but her words do. She wants her voice to be heard so that others do not have to experience what she did as a child. (Her Twitter handle is @RanisVoice.) In preparation for a campaign called, “Everyone’s Kids, Everyone Gives,”...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved