For many Christians, values of faith, generosity, and stewardship guide many everyday decisions, from choosing how to spend time and money, to how we serve our communities. When people think about investing money to support “Christian” work, the first thing that likely comes to mind is donating to their church or a ministry they care about. But there’s another option you may be overlooking: Faith-Based Investing.
Considering our investments through a Biblical lens means recognizing that every investment represents a real company, and taking the time to think about the implications of what and where we’re investing. What’s really inside a mutual fund, ETF, retirement account or portfolio? This concept is called “Faith-Based Investing” and it compels us to ask questions like:
“Which activities are my finances supporting, enabling, and catalyzing in the world?”
“Do these company’s products, mission, and activities align with my Christian convictions?
“How can my investments reflect my faith?”
Key Takeaways:
- Faith-Based Investing (FBI) helps Christians evaluate whether their investment portfolio aligns with their Biblical values, and determine what kind of impact it’s having on the world.
- We often forget that every investment represents ownership in a real company, including its activities, products, and practices. FBI allows us to consider what’s inside our holdings, and “vote with our dollars.”
- Faith-Based Investing is built around eliminating companies whose operations conflict with biblical values, evaluating businesses making a positive impact for people, communities, and society, and engaging with companies through shareholder influence and proxy voting.
- Transparency matters, but it’s often hard to know all your portfolio represents. Independent tools offered by OneAscent, Eventide Christian Investment Council and others can help investors evaluate how closely portfolios align with Christian principles.
What is Faith-Based Investing?
A simple approach to investing involves attempting to achieve a “perfect” portfolio with optimal returns based on trends, but Faith-Based Investing (FBI) emphasizes pursuing alignment between what you believe and what you own. It’s using your personal values and faith as a touchstone or criterion for determining where to invest. Some people like to think of FBI as a “nutrition label.” Before purchasing a food product in the store, you can read the label to determine whether the ingredients inside align with your health goals. Faith-Based Investing works in a similar way.
At its core, Faith-Based Investing seeks to align a Protestant Christian worldview and convictions with an investment portfolio through three key actions:
- Eliminate. This first step is identifying and screening out companies whose primary operations conflict with biblical values. For many Christian investors, this means choosing to avoid profiting from businesses involved in activities or industries they believe are inconsistent with their faith. Some of the more commonly avoided industries include: pornography, abortion, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, adult entertainment, and predatory lending.
- Evaluate. Faith-based investing isn’t only about what you eliminate or exclude from your portfolio, but also what you deem beneficial and choose to accentuate. Our investment team members consistently assess and screen companies to identify which ones most meet our clients’ investment objectives, and align with a biblical approach.
- Elevate. Rather than simply divesting from certain companies, faith-based investors can also exercise influence, encouraging companies to think differently about their corporate behavior, encouraging them toward practices that better align with moral and biblical principles. This is one of the reasons why some people describe FBI as “voting with your dollars.” It’s screening and then supporting businesses and causes you care about.
Anthem Advisors Approach to FBI
At Anthem Advisors we love to shape this conversation around the word “integrity,” which comes from the Latin word integer, meaning “whole.” Faith-Based Investing is a way to invest with integrity by considering the whole picture (including what’s inside the fund), not just potential returns. Integrity drives us to dig down into the businesses, their practices, and their impact on society to make better stewardship decisions and remain faithful to personal convictions. The Bible doesn’t require us to choose between faith and financial goals, it challenges us to consider them together.
A New Resource for Greater Transparency
One challenge for investors has always been determining how faith-based a particular fund really is, but the Christian Investment Council (CIC) is making it much easier.
The CIC provides independent, third-party analysis designed to help investors evaluate investment funds against Christian principles (rooted in the Nicene Creed). Much like a consumer report or nutrition label, the CIC offers objective information that allows investors to compare funds and determine how closely they align with their values. This resource is not designed to tell investors what to choose, but to provide transparency to make well-informed, faith-based investments. It’s a tool for answering, “How does this fund “stack up” from a Biblical perspective?”
Putting Faith into Action
All throughout Scripture, we’re reminded that what’s at the heart matters,whether that’s practicing integrity in our everyday lives, or getting to the heart of our holdings. Faith-Based Investing offers a great opportunity to not only live more in line with our values, but to also ensure we’re creating meaningful impact through our portfolio. If you feel compelled to spend some time eliminating, evaluating, and elevating, we’re here to help.
