Our goal at www.jayperoni.com is to help you make wiser decisions with your investment dollars.  On a regular basis we will feature a new segment called  ”The Battle of Good Versus Evil”.  We will look at the activities of various corporations and present both the good and bad being done by publicly-traded companies.

I wanted to share some analysis from our friends at www.stewardshippartners.com:

Time Warner  (Ticker TWC) – Porn, Homosexuality and Anti-Family Activity

“Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through who they come.” Luke 17:1 (NIV)

Time Warner is perhaps best known today for its disastrous acquisition of America Online, viewed by many as one of the worst decisions by a corporate management team in history. While this purchase of one of the Internet’s early icons has severely hurt shareholders, we are more concerned by the moral pollution Time Warner is now spewing throughout our society as its negative societal impact goes well beyond just the company’s shareholders. While this company certainly has some worthwhile attributes, these are easily offset by the sizable quantity of disturbing activities for which it is responsible.

In addition to advertising in porn magazines, Time Warner’s AOL.com derives revenue from ad placements and/or links to porn websites. Clearly, as Christian investors we seek to avoid ownership of companies involved in activities that are harmful to those both producing and consuming the pornography.

Time Warner has also been identified by the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute as one of the foremost supporters of homosexual­ity. The Bible clearly indicates that homosexuality is a sinful behavior and using shareholder resources to promote homosexuality is at odds with Christian investors’ beliefs.

Via Time Warner’s Home Box Office unit, its movie production units and its broadcast TV unit, the company produces a massive quantity of programming which undermines healthy family values. Violence, drug use, sexual content and obscene language are frequently found in the company’s programs.

Excluding Time Warner from our list of potential investments is not a difficult decision. There are few admirable aspects to this company. As BRI investors seeking to please and honor our Lord, we naturally look elsewhere to achieve investment success as we do not want to be associated with a company using shareholder resources in a manner which have a negative impact on individuals and society in general.

Jay’s Take:

Not a place where I would feel comfortable investing the money God entrusts to me.  According to Morningstar (as of 2-20-10), the top ten funds that own Time Warner are as follows:

  1. American Funds Growth Fund of Amer A
  2. Dodge & Cox Stock
  3. American Funds NVIT Growth-Income II
  4. Dodge & Cox Balanced
  5. Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx
  6. Vanguard 500 Index Investor
  7. SPDR S&P 500
  8. American Funds Invmt Co of Amer A
  9. Vanguard Institutional Index
  10. Van Kampen Comstock A