The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) would start discussions with General Electric and Palantir Technologies, Inc. to “move these companies away from actions that create human harm, are a barrier to peace, and violate human rights” if the 226th General Assembly adopts a recommendation overwhelmingly approved Tuesday.
The Financial Resources Committee voted 37-3 to approve the recommendation and send it to the full assembly next week.
If approved by the assembly, it would be the first step in a process that could lead the denomination to end its investment in the companies. Currently, the Presbyterian Foundation and the Presbyterian Board of Pensions have about $1 million invested in GE and $100,000 in Palantir, representatives from the Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) told the committee.
At issue is GE’s manufacture of jet engines and other parts for military equipment and Palantir’s artificial intelligence used in surveillance.
The PC(USA) “has long recognized that church investment is ‘an instrument of mission.’ General Electric and Palantir Technologies are both involved in activities that bring them into direct conflict with our policy of mission-directed investment,” says the FIN-01 overture from the Presbytery of Pittsburgh, which began considering the action prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s devastating and deadly retaliation on Gaza.
The goal of the “focused engagement” with the companies would be to move the companies “away from actions that create human harm, are a barrier to peace, and violate human rights.” The process can lead to shareholder resolutions, but if no progress is seen, the final action would be a recommendation to divest.
The denomination currently has more than 50 companies on its Divestment/Proscription list, most of them because of their involvement in military-related industry, including companies such as The Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrup Grumman Corp., and Raytheon Technologies Corp., according to a public MRTI document.
