Brian Ellison, a minister from Missouri and chair of the denomination’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI), told the council that “something needs to change” and that, despite attempts to negotiate with Caterpillar, “things are worse now than they were two years ago.”
Caterpillar continues to sell bulldozers and other equipment that are being used to demolish homes of Palestinians and to build the separation barrier between Jerusalem and the West Bank, Ellison told the council’s Justice Committee.
“We need to continue to be a prophetic voice and to speak out,” said Andrew Sonneborn, a council member from Springfield, Ill. – not far from the Caterpillar corporate offices.
“For many years, Caterpillar declined to meet” with MRTI or with other ecumenical groups working on issues of socially-responsible investing, Ellison said, in part because legal action was pending involving the death of Rachel Corrie, a young American woman who died in 2003, struck by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces while protesting a home demolition.
Eventually, Caterpillar officials did meet twice with MRTI, he said. But “they have not acknowledged responsibility for the end use of their products,” Ellison said. The company’s position is “they sell tractors. What people do with them is not their responsibility.”
The decision on the MRTI recommendation regarding Caterpillar is one of a series of measures being considered by the PC(USA) that are drawing attention from Jewish groups. Close attention is being paid to the report of the General Assembly’s Middle East study group which is due to be completed March 5, and which, while still not complete, already has drawn criticism.
The council also approved on Feb. 26 sending two theological reports – one called “Christians and Jews: People of God,” and the other “Toward an Understanding of Christian-Muslim Relations” to the General Assembly.
Some council members argued against approving the MRTI recommendation, in part because some Presbyterians in Great Rivers Presbytery, near Caterpillar’s corporate headquarters, said such an action could cause difficulty for people employed by Caterpillar and for Presbyterian congregations in the area.
“The prophetic and the social justice ministries of the church are very important,” said council member Clark Cowden, executive presbyter of San Diego Presbytery. But when those ministries threaten “the fragile connectional nature” of the church, it’s time to step back, Cowden said.
Some Presbyterians from Great River Presbytery located in central Illinois near Caterpillar’s corporate headquarters, sent the council a letter in which they state that divestiture could have “devastating consequences” for Presbyterian churches in the area. That letter – on which the presbytery has not formally voted — states that Caterpillar makes construction and mining equipment, which often is used in humanitarian response in times of disaster.
“Caterpillar, Inc. is a valued and valuable member of the Peoria, Illinois, community,” the letter states. “For many people in Central Illinois, Caterpillar is not only a corporate giant, a good investment, and a source of the kind of heavy equipment that is needed to do work in times of stability and times of instability. It is also the employer that provides the income for many families, including many Presbyterian families. … In one of our largest and fastest growing churches in Peoria, thirty per cent of the members are currently employed by Caterpillar or its subsidiaries. The other two large PC(USA) congregations in Peoria would reflect the same kind of numbers.”
The letter states that “if the PC(USA) divests from Caterpillar, they are considering `divesting’ from the denomination.”
Ellison said MRTI has met several times with representatives from Great River Presbytery, and “I appreciate very much the concern about the connectional nature of the church.”
But “there actually are far more presbyteries who will be agitated and disturbed by our failing to take a step,” he said.
Newark Presbytery, for example, has submitted an overture asking the 2010 General Assembly to begin the process of divesting from Caterpillar, and not to reinvest unless MRTI “is fully satisfied that Caterpillar, Inc. no longer engages in the selling of equipment to Israel that is used to build illegal Israeli settlements, construct walls that illegally encroach upon Palestinian lands cutting Palestinians off from their own property and natural resources, destroy Palestinian life and property, and otherwise continue to support the occupation of Palestinian territories.”
The overture states that denouncing Caterpillar won’t change the company’s corporate behavior. “Now that corporate engagement is no longer a realistic option, the only option left is divestment,” it states in the rationale. “It is no longer a question about how long we can wait, but rather, whether we will do the right thing, or even anything at all.”
There is considerable history involving the PC(USA) and divestment in companies doing business in Israel. In 2004, the General Assembly was hit with a blast of controversy when it voted to have the PC(USA) begin the process of phased, selective divestiture in five companies — Motorola, Citigroup, ITT Industries, United Technologies, and Caterpillar.
In 2006, the assembly passed a statement that the denomination’s investments in Israel-Palestine be invested “in only peaceful pursuits,” and saying that MRTI should use a process of corporate engagement to achieve that.
In June 2007, satisfied with the progress, MRTI removed Citigroup from the focus list for corporate engagement. It recently added Hewlett-Packard to the list — equipment it produces is used at checkpoints along the separation barrier, Ellison said — and MRTI has continuing engagement with Motorola, ITT, United Technologies, and Hewlett-Packard, he added. The techniques of engagement include sending letters, holding meetings, filing shareholder resolutions, and working ecumenically, he said.
But with Caterpillar, “we have not seen the progress we would like to see,” Ellison told the council’s Justice Committee. “We’re running out of options within the regular corporate engagement process.”
Near the close of its plenary session Feb. 25, the full council had some preliminary conversation about the MRTI recommendation.
“It’s mind-boggling to me” that the council would consider such a recommendation, said Steve Tonissen of Illinois, an at-large member of the council’s Stewardship Committee, because so many companies do business with Israel and could be singled out for scrutiny. “I’ll bet you could find Campbell’s Soup cans in the Israeli Army,” so why not add hundreds of firms to the scrutiny list, Tonissen asked.
“Don’t limit yourself,” he said. “Go after everybody.”
Ellison responded that “the General Assembly initiated this process,” not MRTI. “We’re being responsive to the General Assembly.”
Before the council’s vote, Cowden said he doubted that the PC(USA)’s action would convince Caterpillar to see things differently. “I think it will deteriorate the relationship,” he said, and “the brunt of this will be felt by one presbytery.”
But Roger Gench, a council member from Washington, D.C., said the MRTI recommendation could push Presbyterians to take a closer look at their own personal investments.
“This is a very profound witness to members of the Presbyterian church that we have responsibilities,” Gench said. “We all ought to be sensitized” to the way our personal investments are connected to companies “whose products are used for purposes of violence and war. … That’s part of our Christian responsibility.”
