What are the potential moral pitfalls of investing and how can we avoid them? Read this article to learn more.

Comments about and excerpts from J. Ross Justice's article in the May/June 2002 issue of Business Reform Magazine.

Article excerpts

Referring to the Parable of the Talents in Luke 19, Professor J. Ross Justice states, "It is impossible to make an investment without simultaneously expressing a favorable moral opinion of the worthiness of that future good or service which is being promoted. Investing in a particular project or company means we are seeking to promote that project or company in an attempt to change society. So a portfolio's internal rate of return cannot be used as the ultimate standard of success for Christian investing. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul in the process?

The value of all invested capital resources will be primarily and eternally judged upon the ethical nature, use, and goal of the investment choice. Only after passing that test can we then employ the secondary standards of marketplace success. The degree of monetary increase earned by serving the marketplace of human desires is a morally legitimate measure of economic success, but it is neither the highest nor the ultimate measure.

As Christians we would do well to remind ourselves that we will be held personally responsible for the ethical actions and goals of those companies in which we have invested our money. Even if we are unaware of how our invested funds have been used, God still holds us responsible for knowing. Such ignorance is culpable. Under Biblical law it is the ox owner's duty to know the needed state of repair of his fences. Just as we are held accountable for every idle word, so we shall be held accountable for every invested dollar.

In the Scriptures, ownership is directly associated with moral accountability and responsibility. There is no such thing as an ox owner who is not responsible when his ox breaks the fence and gores his neighbor. Therefore, the widespread use of passive investments in financial assets is inherently unwise and morally suspect. As Christians we have voluntarily placed ourselves into a market situation in which it is impossible for us to know or control how our investment capital is being used. That unbiblical break between ownership and responsibility is the root cause of widespread unethical business behavior. Rather than point fingers at others, Christian investors must acknowledge that we have abdicated our ethical responsibility over the wealth that has been entrusted to us.

Using Christ's parable as my illustration, I am suggesting that blind, passive investing in the securities market is unwise and possibly sinful. However, both Scripture and the life of Christ confirm that there is a righteous way to do everything, including investing,
2 Timothy 3:16 explicitly assures us of that fact. I believe there are wiser strategies for the Christian investor, focusing on active Biblical investments since they represent a deliberate attempt to retain control, responsibility, and accountability over the investment capital."

Comments

Professor Justice makes a very strong argument that wealth comes with management responsibility, not ownership rights.

In understanding why we, as Christians, must be concerned with where our money is invested, we need to be aware that although all other religions do good to earn the love of their god, Christianity teaches that we are to do good because of the love of God. We get support in 2 Peter 1:3-8 where we read, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, [because of] make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

Christianity Today columnist Mary Naber writes, after discovering what her investments supported, "If the Master angrily called the third servant wicked and lazy for merely burying his one talent, what awaited me? Master, with your money I purchased ownership shares in a company profiting from porn. Our company bought destitute women at a low price, for sale to addicted men at a higher price. Jesus warns that tithing our spices is insufficient if we remain blind to the more important matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23). Yet stewardship teaching in the church tends to begin and end with giving 10 percent. If God owns it all (Ps. 50:12), is he not intimately concerned with the other 90 percent? A full understanding of stewardship considers justice, mercy, and faithfulness in 100 percent of all that God has entrusted to us."

Paul Dietrich, a Christian investment manager states, "The saddest situation of all is that most church and religious funds are invested in these same offensive investments. Church and religious groups are as financially unconscious and morally separated from their investments as every other investor in the United States."

I have probably been the guiltiest of all. As a financial consultant and investment advisor for 30 years, I never gave a thought to morally screening my clients (God's) investments. When I discovered that it was possible to do so and that there were alternative screened investments available, Scripture required that our firm get the "Word" out and develop a system to provide them for our clients. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Eph. 5:11. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin. James 4:17.

As a Christian, you express your faith-based values every day within your family, in your church, at work, and through your politics. Now you can express them in the way you invest as well. It is "the right thing to do." Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2a.

Here is the bottom line. Unless you specify otherwise, your money will likely find its way into many businesses that may be offensive to your values.

If you would like to sleep better at night, knowing that your money is not invested in this way, please contact our office for a free evaluation.

We don't know what the future holds but we do know who holds the future.

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Ps. 37:7b

It is the blessing of the Lord, that makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it. Prov. 10:22