Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Bruce Edward Walker: ‘Shutting down discourse is justice denied’
Bruce Edward Walker: ‘Shutting down discourse is justice denied’
Nov 24, 2024 1:28 PM

Bruce Edward Walker recently wrote mentary for The Tampa Tribune entitled, Shutting Down Corporate Speech in the Name of Social Justice. He says that:

Corporate boardrooms arebeing caught up ina newwave of religious fervor sparkedbyclergy andmembers ofreligious ordersin search ofsocial justice. Alas, this movement is only superficially about the spirit.In truth,corporate directors pany executives are facinga very worldlymissionary effort bypriests, pastors, nuns and laypersonsarmed withproxy shareholder resolutionsthat advance politically liberal dogmas, including attempts to undermine the Supreme Court’sCitizens United ruling.

Enlisting members of the munity to this movement is simply disguising “leftist ideology in church vestments.”

The nuns and friars submitting the proxy resolutions are members of the New York City-basedInterfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which, for the past 41 years, has established itself as “the pioneer coalition of active shareowners whoview the management of their investments as a catalyst to promote justice and sustainability in the world.” The ICCR’s view of “justice and sustainability,” however, seems less grounded in Christian doctrine than talking points from MSNBC.

Theseresolutions, not surprisingly, list the amount of money spent by pany on “direct federal lobbying”using figures taken from Senate reports. What seems toupsetthereligious activists,or actually ICCR, is the lack of disclosure of “lobbying expenditures to influence legislation in states,” including “trade association payments” and “membership in tax-exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council.”

Walker fears that:

encouragingboards of directors”to prehensive disclosure related to direct, indirect and grassroots lobbying”efforts as noted in the ICCRproxy resolutions derivesfrom the desire to publicly shame the corporations in question for supporting groups that advocate in theirbest interests. Ultimately, the goal is toend these relationships altogether.Is this not an injustice, by any measure?

Because groups such as ALEC leantoward drafting free-market, lighter regulatorypolicysolutions, it can only be surmised that ICCR simply wants to shut down one side of the discourse with which it disagrees.In this alternate universe, justice apparently denotes big-government oversight of all aspects related to corporate speech, includingthecontents ofthatspeech.

There indeed exist many valid reasons for assuring the privacy of corporate donations to advocacy groups such as ALEC, which hasbeen a major target of liberal/progressive critics. From the corporate side, the effects of these shareholder campaigns could lead panies severing all connections withALEC and other advocacy groupsworking on their behalf.And, indeed, this has panies such asGeneral Motorsand Walmart, which cut their ties to the organization.

He concludes with this thought:

Shuttingdown discourse is justice denied. If the proxy shareholder resolutions put forth by ICCR members and other groups are successful, corporations will lose powerful voices that speak on their behalf. But the biggest losers will be thepeople who benefit most fromthe paniesthatprovide employment opportunities, engage in philanthropic efforts and pay taxes to munities to which they belong.

By all means, those groups represented by the ICCR should exercisethefreedomto express their opinions on any number of issues. But we as Americans— andespeciallyreligiousleaders —should champion freedom of speech in all its guises rather than support efforts to stifle it.

Bruce Edward Walker has written several posts on the Acton PowerBlog about social justice and the ICCR. Check out his posts here.

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
Crushing religious schools with state funding
The UK government has crafted an educational mandate for religious schools that Sohrab Ahmari at Commentary calls “Orwellian.” Under the proposal, all schools would be required to teach children from age 4 and up “age-appropriate” content that includes information about same-sex marriage and transgenderism. Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and others with traditional views on sex and gender would have ply. No exceptions. He notes that a senior government adviser stated it is “not OK for Catholic [or other religious]...
Radio Free Acton: Philip Booth on what’s missing from Laudato Si’; Upstream with jazz legend Norma Winstone
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Rev. Ben Johnson, Senior Editor at Acton, speaks with Philip Booth, Professor at St. Mary’s University in the UK about what’s missing from the 2015 Papal Encyclical: Laudato Si’. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to British jazz legend Norma Winstone about her contribution to Jazz and her newly released album: ‘Descansado – Songs For Films.’ Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read “Property rights and...
Give socialism a try? Let’s not.
“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man” – Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski played by Jeff Bridges. ‘Jeff Bridges speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California’ by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 3.0 Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. The title is a bit misleading as the piece makes no positive case for socialism but rather chronicles her own and...
Samuel Gregg on contradictions in the papacy
Journalist and Harvard alumnus Philip F. Lawler is no stranger to spotting inconsistencies in the Catholic Church. After the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis unveiled in 2002, Lawler released his highly researched book, The Faithful Departed, tracing the Church’s history of corruption while maintaining an “attention to facts” and a “calm tone.” Lawler’s latest book addressing the Catholic Church tackles problems starting in the papacy. In an article written for The Catholic World Report, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, unpacks...
After apartheid, South Africa veers toward vengeance
“South Africa’s institutionalized national sin of radical and often violent racial segregation, officially known as Apartheid, ended in the early 1990s. Changes in law, however, do not necessarily mean that there is immediate social transformation,” says Trey Dimsdale in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The deep civic wounds that this dark period inflicted on the nation still fester, as evidenced in a March 1 vote by the National Assembly to confiscate white-owned land pensation.” A national policy as thorough and systematic...
What is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?
Note: This is post #70 in a weekly video series on basic economics. GDP is the market value of all finished goods and services, produced within a country in a year. But what does “market value” mean? And what defines a “finished good”? In this video, Marginal Revolution University helps us make sense of this important economic indicator by explaining how GDP puted. You’ll learn whythe eggs in your homemade omelet part of the GDP, but the eggs your baker...
How the Reformation led to a reallocation of religious resources
Soon after Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door at Wittenberg (if he even did), Protestants began to be blamed for unleashing many of the destructive influences of Western Civilization. As a Baptist, I thinkthe criticisms are overstated (and thatthe good of the Reformation far outweighs the bad) but they aren’t wholly without merit. There is more than a grain of truth that anunintended effect of the Protestant Reformation was to increase the rapid expansion of secularization....
Misreading capitalism
‘A statue of Adam Smith on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile’ by Zenit CC BY-SA 3.0 At this year’s LibertyCon Byran Caplan, Economist at George Mason University, and Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, debated the perennial question of ‘Socialism vs. Capitalism.’ Both Caplan and Bruenig have posted their opening statements and it is an interesting and engaging exchange. Caplan is charitable, well-reasoned, and clear and Bruenig is both gracious and an engaging storyteller. Bruenig’s story while superficially plausible makes many...
Employers should fulfill their obligations to tipped employees
A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips, according to the Department of Labor. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that bined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee’s bined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly...
The logic of the soul: 6 quotes from Whittaker Chambers’ ‘Letter to My Children’
In a recent Acton lecture, Greg Forster highlights the work of Whittaker Chambers, the former Soviet spy who converted to Christianity and became one of the most influential public voices in the fight against Communism. Chambers’ most famous and enduring work, Witness, is an astounding personal memoir and a literary treasure. It transcends genres, mixing the thrills of espionage and political intrigue with quiet spiritual reflections and jaw-dropping forays into moral philosophy, all in the service of a simple but...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved