560 - Conscience and Dividends: Churches and the Multinationals

Conscience and Dividends:
Churches and the Multinationals
By Thomas C. Oden
Washington, D.C., Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1985. 169 pp. $15.00 ($9.00 paper).

One hesitates to disagree with so widely appreciated a commentator as Martin E. Marty. But in this case, I do. In the foreword, Marty describes this book by Drew University theologian, Thomas Oden, as a "judicious mixture of commitment, moral reasoning, and hard-headed factual analysis." The book's purpose is "an empirical and ethical evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of church statements and actions toward multinationals."

Oden concludes that the corporate responsibility efforts of the churches need to be reconceived. Here are, his reasons: church members are far more favorable to multinationals than official church pronouncements; church agencies are not responsible representatives of their churches; church funds should not advance state-controlled economies, but encourage market economies compatible with Judeo-Christian ethics; missionaries who provide information "to American churches on social issues must be tested to ascertain the reliability of their sources and political orientation"; persons with Marxist ideology must not "foist these assumptions off on the churches as Christian"; Christians must be attentive to real guilt for actual social injustice, but not be manipulated by those who use guilt as an instrument of political strategy; delegated church representatives must not represent the consciences of others without consulting them; church leaders should not manipulate the media; social activism through shareholder action is less effective than Christian workers and managers working within corporations.

These conclusions are the familiar litany of wrongs regularly described by Ernest Lefever's Ethics and Public Policy Center which published the book. Considerable documentation accompanies this analysis, but issues and evidence are used selectively. Regarding the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination which I know firsthand as staff for an agency and which is often referred to in the book, some evidence is accurate, some inaccurate, some misleading, and altogether the conclusions unconvincing. The book takes a romantic view of the multinational corporation. Various critiques of them- are substantially rejected, again, unconvincingly.

The churches still badly need ethical analyses which are not polemical, but ask difficult questions and help us think and act strategically and faithfully. This one misses the mark.

Belle Miller McMaster
General Assembly Mission Board, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Atlanta, Ga.