Riverside Community Church in Hood River has become the first faith-based congregation in the Gorge and the first within the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC) to vote to divest funds from the fossil fuel industry.
The action, adopted at a meeting on May 15, makes Riverside one of a number of organizations, individuals and foundations in the nation that have chosen to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Others joining in the movement to divest (now up to $3.4 trillion) include the World Council of Churches, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Stanford University, University of Washington, and over 500 other institutions.
Rev. John Boonstra, a member of Riverside and a Creation Justice Minister in the United Church of Christ, said the vote recognized the harm that the business plan of the fossil fuel industry is perpetuating on the planet and its inhabitants.
“They have known for more than 20 years that the burning of their product is a major contributor to the warming of the planet,” Boonstra said. “Yet, much like the tobacco industry, they have tried to hide the truth and sow doubt in the minds of people and policy makers in order to protect their hundreds of billions of dollars of profit.”
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