2.14 billion: SOLD!

I'm not an avid reader of financial news, and I don't follow the stocks unless it was part of an effor to glean material for found poetry, so I did not get the news flash that Tenaris has purchased Hydril for 2.1 billion. This news normally doesn't phase me because, shamefully, I normally just write it off as another "unchangeable" in the larger world where I cannot make a difference. However, just today, I learned that the former president, trustee, and chairman of the Hydril company (a gas/oil company) is a current donor for the seminary... Knowing this forces me to once again re-evaluate my principles, to examine once more what it means for me to be working in a theological institution that is supported financially (among other means) by companies such as this. I am astounded by the amount of money that we're discussing here. 2.14 billion is not an insignificant sum, and yet we are begging, pleading, tearing our hair and nails out b/c we hope to acquire a $100,000 or so to begin covering the huge financial deficit our seminary is facing -- and not just our seminary but seminaries all over.

I listen to our trustees' investment sub-committee and wonder whether it means anything to say that we want to be responsible stewards of our resources, to say that we want to research the companies we invest in, etc. It isn't strange or demanding; it is a part of being responsible investors and that means knowing exactly where our money is going and what it is doing.

The 2.14 billion is such a huge number for me, I don't think I even know how much that is. Imagine all of that in pennies, and I'm running barefoot in it...

But think of what the 0.1 will do to help theological education. Not to mention eradicating poverty, hunger, disease. Imagine what the 0.04 can do for education in the developing nations.

Exactly how much of 2.14 is 0.1, I don't know. What does it mean for any of us -- for those of us who have it and those who don't... what does the 0.1 equal?