Over the years I have met many people who are shocked to
realize where they are investing. A few
months ago I met a guy we’ll call Robert.
Robert was a minister in a
growing church in New England. He had
been a dedicated Christ-follower for nearly thirty years and a quite active
investor. Before he met me, he had never
put much thought into his investments or the values it reflected.

After an analysis of his portfolio and exactly where it was
he was investing, he was shocked to say the least. His face turned white as he read the names
and what activities each company was involved in. The companies he owned were involved in:

  • Producing pornographic videos and magazines
  • Actively donating and lobbying for pro-abortion
    organizations like Planne
  • Parenthood
  • Producing abortion-related products and drugs
  • Operating casinos and gambling facilities
  • Manufacturing and distributing alcohol and
    tobacco

Here Robert was making conscious decisions not to support
unfavorable companies that did not reflect his values. In spite of these conscious decisions in his
consumer life, the end result showed that some of Robert’s investment purchases
had slipped through the cracks in his portfolio. Many of his investments directly violated his
values and were not the types of companies he could be “proud to own”. The question for him became, “How can I
continue doing this with a clean conscious? If I do profit from my current investments,
was it the moral and ethical thing to do?

Where
to Draw the Line?

You make deliberate choices in your life each and every day. Such choices include, but are not limited to:
where you work and earn income, where you spend your income, what charities and
ministries you support, and where you invest your savings.

Some questions to ponder:

Work: Is it morally acceptable to work at an
abortion clinic?

Spending:
Is it morally acceptable to purchase
pornography?

Giving: Is it
morally acceptable to donate money to homosexual lobbyists or fund embryonic
stem cell research?

Investing: Is it
morally acceptable to neglect where you earn your profits? What’s more important: the size or source of
profit?

Many unknowingly invest in mutual funds that buy the
following types of companies:

  • Companies that profit from abortions
  • Companies that profit from online pornographic websites
    and adult entertainment nightclubs
  • Companies that profit from cloning animals and embryonic stem
    cell research
  • Companies that actively promote the homosexual lifestyle

After completing the moral audit for Robert (a free service
at www.faithbasedinvestor.com),
he was shocked to realize he was profiting from many industries and companies
that violated his values. He found that
he was supporting all of the above areas with his investment dollars. Even
though he strives to support causes he believes in and avoid things he is
opposed to, these factors were never considered in his investments. Each year
his investment dollars were supporting values that blatantly contradicted his
belief system. Bottom line, Robert felt that he was working against
himself. He felt like he was donating
money to kingdom purposes yet supporting companies with his investment dollars
that were in violation of God’s Word. He
thought, “How could God bless these investments when they clearly are opposed
to His teachings”. It just didn’t make
sense to Robert.

Where
the Real Power Is

You may be thinking, Robert was not directly investing in
these companies, so what difference does it really make? After all, the
companies that he owns in his portfolio don’t really benefit much from an
increase in stock prices. Or do they? Isn’t this similar to when you buy a used
Ford on a random car lot and Ford does not receive any benefit from that used
car sale?

The truth is: there really is power in your choices. Money
is a form of power. If you want to change the world, start with your actions.
You have the ability to create change. Stock prices are affected by supply and
demand. Supply represents the number of outstanding shares that a company has
in the marketplace. Demand is represented by the number of investors willing to
pay for the stock of a company. Typical CEO and executive bonuses are tied to stock
performance. Boards of directors and key shareholders care what the price of
their company stock is. Employees who may have stock options and company stock
in their 401(k)s care about the share price. This directly means that typical
executives, employees, board members, and key shareholders are affected by the
increase or decrease of a company’s stock price.

If you want to change a company’s behaviors, affect them
where it really hurts: their stock price. It is virtually impossible to boycott
every product a company manufactures; however, it is easy to avoid buying a company’s
stock. If millions of like-minded investors rallied together to do the same,
you could not only affect Wall Street, you could change the direction of this
country. Reformation in America is more likely to happen through Wall Street
than through the White House. Lobbying can be effective, but changing corporate
America is the key! Corporations will listen when Americans begin avoiding
their company stock because of immoral activities.

Case in point, I was listening to the radio not too long ago
and heard a news report that a major pornographic distributor reported
significant losses for their net earnings report due to a 30 percent drop in
advertising revenues. If investors avoid buying a company because they
advertise in a pornography magazine, that corporation will evaluate their
advertising practices. This can hurt a company where it really matters: their
wallet!