It seems that the Church of England has investments not only in Wonga but in gambling, tobacco, pornography and arms dealing, not to mention alcohol – I expect that is just communion wine, though.
I think that the real problem is not so much what the church invests in, but how much it has to invest in the first place. An organisation that wastes no opportunity to heap opprobrium on a secular government for not doing enough for the poor, is sitting on £5.2billion which, instead of distributing to the poor, it invests, taking advantage of the capitalist system of which it disapproves, at the highest possible interest rate, all the while venting its indignation on Wonga for – that’s right – charging the highest possible interest rate.
From here:
It also emerged that the Church’s ‘ethical’ rules allow it to invest its £5.2billion assets in firms involved in gambling, tobacco and alcohol.
Even firms involved in arms dealing, pornography and human cloning are not barred from receiving Church investment.
The Archbishop confirmed the Church had a £75,000 stake in US venture capital firm Accel Partners, which injected capital into Wonga in 2009.
Jesus had one word for this:
HYPOCRITES!
No kidding Terry!
In a recent article regarding the residential schools I spent a couple of days just trying to unravel the ACoC’s accounts. [http://www.jesusofnazareth.ca/residential-schools-2013.html]
I am no accountant, in fact I loath accounting; however, this article gave me a very small insight into forensic accounting, which I concede could well be an interesting career.
The CofE stinks but in all fairness how can anyone invest money in a pension fund and remain lily white?
Admittedly it was before the Reformation, but for many years the Diocese of Winchester held freehold title to brothels in Southwark.
The “working girls” were popularly known as “Winchester geese.”