A Reverse March Through the Institutions?
In 1792, amid growing distrust among shareholders in the emerging American economy, the “Buttonwood Agreement” created the first American stock exchange. Seeking to restore trust and free exchange in a volatile marketplace environment, it laid the foundation for what would become the New York Stock Exchange.
Today, the rampant politicization of “big business” has also eroded trust with consumers and shareholders. Remember how Target sold gender-neutral clothes to young children and “chest binders” to adolescent girls?
An organization that has been pushing corporate America out of ideological activism is the 1792 Exchange. The Exchange’s mission is “to produce research and develop resources to help steer public companies in the United States back to neutral on ideological issues so they can best serve their shareholders and customers with excellence and integrity.”
“Neutral” is the right word. The goal is not to form a theocracy within corporations, but to simply depoliticize them and free the market. Corporations should not be putting their thumbs on the scale of political and social issues, but many have been, aligning to advance progressive and left-leaning, social justice causes. Corporate America has become a late example of the Marxist goal of a “long march through the institutions,” even to serve causes counter to the preferences of a large portion of their consumer base (think Bud Light).
These decisions by corporations have had incredible ripple effects across culture, from how employees are trained to how funds are spent in support of LGBTQ legislation and other progressive causes. Much of the activity can be categorized as what Steven Soukup called “woke capital” in his book on corporate political correctness. For example, in 2023, the Claremont Institute published a database tracking corporate contributions and pledges to the Black Lives Matter organization. The results were jarring. According to Newsweek, “Companies and corporations pledged or contributed an astonishing $82.9 billion to the BLM movement and related causes. This includes more than $123 million to the BLM parent organizations directly.” A cultural narrative gains incredible traction when reinforced by corporate entities.
For years, America’s leading corporate LGBTQ ideology enforcer has been the Human Rights Campaign. Their Corporate Equality Index grades companies on their pro-LGBTQ stance. As Soukup described, “The [CEI] has become an enormous concern for companies that desperately want to avoid the label ‘homophobic’ and thus do everything they can to appease and ally with HRC.” In fact, companies fall over themselves to earn a perfect score on the CEI, which involves, among other requirements, designing corporate policies that ensure medical benefits for “transgender treatments.”
The 1792 Exchange launched a “Back to Business Tracker” to identify companies that withdraw from the index, eliminate their DEI programs, and avoid taking polarizing stances on political or cultural matters. This tracker puts counterpressure on corporations, encouraging them to return to “neutral,” and informs the public when activism is a driving agenda. It’s a wonderful resource to leverage influence as consumers, organizations, and families.
According to 1792’s index, the corporate tides of America are changing. In 2026, 61% fewer Fortune 1000 companies and 65% fewer Fortune 500 companies chose to participate in the HRC’s CEI. Such a decline suggests that many businesses no longer fear the repercussions and intimidation that HRC previously leveraged against them. Such a drop represents a hit to what The Daily Signal has labeled the “transgender industrial complex.”
The CEI has strong-armed businesses into promoting DEI and other radical policies far too long. The retreat from the CEI by so many corporations is welcome and suggests that certain trends are not inevitable. Perhaps, a backwards march through the institutions is even possible. At the very least, Christians should be encouraged by the news and reminded that resisting what is evil in culture can be an act of restoration.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carico.
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John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
