You might find the Viewpoint Diversity site, promoted in this recent video from the ADF, interesting. It shows the sad state we are currently in with regard to censorship, with the average score being so low.
But frankly, I was expecting more from ADF than just a goal to get companies to nod the head toward “viewpoint diversity.” On the one hand, this might be helpful protection. On the other hand, “viewpoint diversity” seems to me to be the first step we took toward wokeness as a culture.
What I really want is grading of companies on moral commitments. Or that are Christian-owned, and where that makes an actual difference in their commitments (just like there are lists of companies that are women-owned, and black-owned).
Does the company have a public position against abortion? Does it oppose trans ideology? Racist BLM ideology? Does it close on Sunday so employees can go to church?
I don’t see the viewpoint diversity site as much more than begging to be allowed to keep a seat at the table.
First, we’re not a democracy! ADF should know better.
Second, I don’t know why we need another index. The simplest thing to do is to monitor the metrics the ESG folks publish. Let them do the work. If you’re ranked high there, that’s a problem. If you’re ranked low there, that’s not definitive but generally a really good sign. Those indexes are the ones investors and corporate America pay attention to and so those are the indexes they’re either working or not working to manage. We can use their own tool against them by just viewing it upside down.
My response is, if all we’re concerned about is knowing which companies are terrible, sure. But I suspect the ADF is going for something that people can use to pressure those same companies to score better on. Hence the complete lack of morality, apart from the great god of Diversity.
My proposed list is for…
Showing there is an alternate demand for companies that are different than ESG measures. ADF’s measure could also be argued to do this, but with such a narrow concern, and with what appears to me to be complete compatibility between scoring high on ESG and high on ADF’s Viewpoint Diversity, there’s little to no benefit in my mind.
Helping find companies we want support, which just having the ESG list doesn’t accomplish.
Which in turn could help those companies.
Do I really think such a list could work? I highly doubt it. I’m afraid without expensive vetting it would get filled with essentially spam companies. And if you limited it to those who are officially vetted, it would cost too much for anything but large businesses, which kind of defeats the point, since there aren’t any large companies we want to support.
My point in describing an alternate list was mostly just to show the emptiness of the ADF’s scoring method.
Still, I think a public statement companies could sign and badge they could put on their website, could be beneficial, even if it was just “We’re anti-ESG.”
For years after suggesting and seeing her through to being hired as Ex. Dir. of Presbyterians Pro-Life, Terry Schlossberg and I worked side-by-side running the organization. I was in her home many times.
She is now the Chairman of the Board at ADF. Wife of the late Herb Schlossberg who wrote Idols for Destruction, when I left the PC(USA) with our Wisconsin congregation, Terry turned her back on what I had tried to teach her and was ordained an elder at National Presbyterian Church in DC under its recently hired Sr. Pastor, Craig Barnes. Terrible man who is now prez at Princeton Seminary, and a few years back gave Princeton award to Tim Keller. Barnes and I had both been members of John Knox Presbytery in Wisconsin, and he betrayed the Lord there in a sermon he preached that was the final reason our elders decided to leave the PC(USA).
All this to say that Herb wrote a good book but was not a man I respected. And also to say that Terry perfectly fits the type of incremental deformation Evangelicals love and style “reform” that consists of standing athwart history and yelling “slow down!” Love,
There is a site running called Public Square, I don’t know all their commitments and often distrust these types of things because of how often they’ve let me down, but it’s something.
I should be clear that I am very much in favor of pointing out the companies that are actively fighting against freedom of speech and freedom of religion. It’s a truly important issue. Perhaps I’m partly just reacting against the baggage of the word “diversity.”
