Nick Vujicic, a motivational speaker who traveled the world through his organization to speak to millions about his Christian faith, became a co-founder of a pro-life bank after he was kicked out of his bank, a false article was published about him, and a grenade was thrown into his house.
Vujicic, the founder, president, and CEO of the Ministry of Life Without Limbs, met with the board of his organization and was suggested to speak for the pro-life cause. Vujicic agreed, but before he even started speaking he faced all kinds of harassment.
“I got kicked out of a bank, with no warning, it froze my credit cards, froze my debit cards … they did a review of me as a client and they don’t want anything to do with me,” Vujicic said in a recent interview on EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.
Vujicic learned from the co-founder of his pro-life bank that “most banks give philanthropically under social responsibility to give to causes that provide [to] the biggest abortion clinics in America.”
Vujicic said that his new bank, Pro-life Bank, will be a religious for-profit entity and will not fund abortion.
“But we will actually fund 50 percent net profits to Judeo-Christian line nonprofit organizations that are biblically aligned and doing the will of God, according to our belief systems.”
Stakeholder Capitalism
According to an article in The Epoch Times, Vujicic attributed the refusal to provide services to certain individuals by private industries to new standards in business management called Environmental, Social, and Governance considerations (ESG). A person may be evaluated based on whether he or she goes along with the business’s nonprofit causes or is environmentally friendly, Vujicic said.
“If I own a V12 twin-turbo [car], which I do, I’m actually then harming the environment. I get categorized as a second-class citizen. It’s going to be called carbon credits. And we’re going to be categorized [on] how harmful Nick is on the environment, socially based on what he believes, and who he gives to, what he doesn’t give to.”
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), ESG considerations are the “yardstick for stakeholder capitalism” and will be essential for corporate success in the future.
READ: Is there a biblical basis for capitalism?
Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the WEF, proposed the concept of the Great Reset to transform the world economy from “shareholder capitalism” to “stakeholder capitalism.”
Stakeholders “include the enterprise’s owners and shareholders, customers, suppliers, collaborators of any kind, as well as the government and society, including the communities in which the company operates or which may in any way be affected by it,” according to a WEF report (pdf).
The WEF proposed a set of metrics that will be used to rate companies based on ESG standards in order to inform investment decisions. The Corporate Finance Institute noted that investment strategies based on ESG have gained popularity among millennials.
Environmental metrics “might focus on a company’s impact on the environment—for example, its energy use or pollution output, … [as well as] on the risks and opportunities associated with the impacts of climate change,” according to a bulletin by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Social metrics “might focus on the company’s relationship with people and society—for example, issues that impact diversity and inclusion, human rights, specific faith-based issues, the health and safety of employees, customers, and consumers locally and/or globally.”
Governance metrics “might focus on issues such as how the company is run—for example, transparency and reporting, ethics, compliance, shareholder rights, and the composition and role of the board of directors.”
In September 2020, the WEF provided guidelines (pdf) for stakeholder capitalism metrics based on ESG that will evaluate the composition of the company’s governing body based on factors such as gender, stakeholder participation, and the ratio of “under-represented social groups.”
Among other metrics recommended by the WEF related to the environment are greenhouse gas emissions, size of land used, water consumption, air, and water pollution.
–Michael Ireland | ANS
