Someone asked me the other day, “What is the difference between social responsible investing and faith-based investing?”  So here is my response:

Differentiating Between Socially Responsible Investing and Faith-Based Investing

There is continued confusion pertaining to the difference between socially responsible investing and faith-based investing. This book, while encouraging socially responsible investing, focuses on “faith-based investing,” which is investing that avoids companies whose activities are intrinsically evil, meaning the activities are always immoral, regardless of the circumstances or culture, as revealed by God through time. For example, abortion, the murdering of the innocent, is always wrong and immoral even if it is legally permissible within a society.

“Socially responsible investing,” on the other hand, is investing that avoids companies whose activities are not considered socially responsible, and tends to correlate the important issues of a time period or a current fad. For example, though certain activities that can cause damage to or are not conducive to preserving the environment may not be socially responsible, such activities are not intrinsically evil or immoral.

Faith-Based Investing, Biblically Responsible Investing, Morally Responsible Investing – call it what you like:  We as faith-based investors seek to honor God with the investments God entrusts to our care.