{"id":78,"date":"2007-08-01T17:02:29","date_gmt":"2007-08-01T17:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2007\/08\/religious-investing-gains-more.php"},"modified":"2007-08-01T17:02:29","modified_gmt":"2007-08-01T17:02:29","slug":"religious-investing-gains-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/religious-investing-gains-more","title":{"rendered":"Religious Investing Gains More Clout"},"content":{"rendered":"

RNS
\nBy G. Jeffrey MacDonald
\nReligious activists with a moral agenda for corporate
\nAmerica used to rely primarily on consumer boycotts and sympathetic
\nlawmakers to get the attention of Wall Street.
\nBut now their toolbox is growing — and there’s a lot more money it.
\nOver the past decade, America’s market for religious investment
\nproducts has grown by more than 3,500 percent, according to data from
\nfund tracker Morningstar.
\nDuring the same period, faith-based mutual funds, which routinely
\nagitate for social change in corporate board rooms or shun stocks they
\ndeem immoral, grew from about $500 million to more than $17 billion.
\nWhat’s emerging, observers say, is a market-based response to
\npopular demand for ways that people of faith can make their voices heard
\non issues closest to their hearts. And people of faith — especially
\nsocial conservatives — are seizing what they see as a new opportunity
\nto make a difference.
\n“It’s just a matter of growing up” and adding more sophisticated
\ntools for advancing an agenda, says Ron Simkins, director of the Kripke
\nCenter for the Study of Religion & Society at Creighton University in
\nOmaha, Neb. “Now, instead of boycotting Disney, they’ll be investing in
\nFox Family Films.”
\nReligious conservatives are mobilizing to attach a voice to the cash
\nthey already have on Wall Street. For example, the Tupelo, Miss.-based
\nAmerican Family Association is for the first time urging its 2.8 million
\nonline members to purge their investment portfolios of companies that
\nsupport a “gay agenda” or “anti-family” practices.
\nYet, as social conservatives increasingly tether their agendas to
\ntheir investments, they’re hardly walking in lockstep. On the contrary,
\nthey’re choosing among a range of religious financial products —
\nincluding 16 families of faith-based mutual funds — that vary in how
\nthey define corporate responsibility.
\nEvangelicals, for instance, are getting behind more than one vision.
\nSome have contributed to the $600 million Timothy Plan, a family of
\nmutual funds with evangelical roots and a pledge to avoid “securities of
\nany company that is actively contributing to the moral decline of our
\nsociety.” Translation: screening out companies — including many in the
\nbenchmark S&P 500 Index — affiliated with pornography, abortion,
\ngambling, tobacco, alcohol and non-married lifestyles.
\nHowever, evangelicals are also behind much of the $900 million
\ninvested with the politically enigmatic Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA)
\nPraxis Funds. This group avoids companies such as Pfizer, which fund
\nmanagers regard as manufacturers of abortion products. But MMA Praxis
\nalso lobbies on behalf of shareholders for eco-friendly corporate
\npolicies, and its pacifist orientation screens out stocks in defense
\ncontractors and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury.
\nMMA hears evangelicals saying “`I want more,”‘ says Mark Regier, the
\nMMA’s stewardship investing services manager. “`As an evangelical or
\nconservative Christian, I do care about the environment. I do care about
\nhuman rights. I do see the sense in being engaged with companies and
\nencouraging them to move to more positive positions on social issues.”‘
\nRoman Catholics, too, are taking their faith in different directions
\non Wall Street. For instance, the KLD Catholic Values 400 Index attracts
\ninvestors concerned not only about abortion but also environmental
\nprotection and discouraging overseas sweatshops. AHA Socially
\nResponsible Funds claims to embrace the teachings of the U.S. Conference
\nof Catholic Bishops. Ave Maria Funds, with about $550 million in assets,
\nsticks with just three criteria that it regards as paramount: no
\nabortion products or services; no pornography production or distribution
\n(including hotels where room TVs offer adult programming); and no
\nemployee benefits for unmarried couples.
\nIn some cases, faith-based funds seem to be accruing assets both
\nbecause of, and in spite of, their moral goals. The Amana Funds, which
\nspecialize in investing according to Islamic principles, has grown from
\n$30 million under management in 2003 to more than $700 million this
\nyear. A major reason, according to Deputy Portfolio Manager Monem Salam,
\nis the funds’ strong financial returns, which he says have attracted
\nmany new, non-Muslim investors.
\nStill, promoters of what’s known as “morally responsible” or
\n“biblically responsible” investing are expecting the values component to
\nbe a powerful drawing card.
\nKingdom Advisors, a nationwide network of more than 1,200 Christian
\nfinancial advisers, this year created a subgroup of those who offer
\nbiblically responsible investment products. Centurion Funds, named after
\na faithful figure in the Gospel of Luke, launched less than a year ago
\nwith a pledge from company President David Lenoir to “not just avoid the
\n`sin stocks’ but to look for the good in companies.”
\nAnd more than 600 investors, each committing at least $100,000 to
\nprivate money management with Stewardship Partners in Matthews, N.C.,
\nhave demonstrated there’s a market for customizing equity portfolios
\naccording to what CEO Rusty Leonard calls “red state Christian values.”
\n“Red state Christians (who tend to vote Republican in national
\nelections) give money to Christian ministries that try to sway the
\npolitical process,” Leonard says. “They got their people elected, but
\nthey didn’t see their issues advanced to any great degree … .
\nMeanwhile, their opponents in the culture wars were coming around the
\nleft flank and going into the corporate sector, which red state
\nChristians have ignored. We’re hoping to change that.”
\nCopyright 2007 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
\nthis transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
\npermission.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RNS By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Religious activists with a moral agenda for corporate America used to rely primarily on consumer boycotts and sympathetic lawmakers to get the attention of Wall Street. But now their toolbox is growing — and there’s a lot more money it. Over the past decade, America’s market for religious investment products…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious Investing Gains More Clout<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/religious-investing-gains-more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious Investing Gains More Clout\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RNS By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Religious activists with a moral agenda for corporate America used to rely primarily on consumer boycotts and sympathetic lawmakers to get the attention of Wall Street. But now their toolbox is growing — and there’s a lot more money it. 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