Investing Your Values
The lead story on the business page of this morning's Tennessean is about PK Values Trade.com, a "values-based investing service." PK Values Trade is a collaboration between Promise Keepers (the evangelical Christian men's group), a Florida-based investment firm, and two Nashville-area companies: Faith Financial Planners and the Research Institute for Corporate Accountability. According to the company's website:
Values-based investing is the attempt to reflect your Christian values in the way that you invest your money. As Christians, we know that our lives are not our own, because they were bought and paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. Consequently, all that we have belongs to Him.
No problems there. PK Values Trade researches seven "major issues" to determine whether a company's policies reflect Christian values:
Abortion; Institutionalization of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Causes; Pornography; Alcohol; Tobacco; Gambling; and Affirmative Values (positive actions that a corporation might do that are congruent with Christian values).
Now I have a problem. As someone who has moral reservations about investing in companies that profit from gamblihg or pornography, I appreciate the idea of values-based investing. However, notably absent from the above list of major values issues are wages, treatment of workers, healthcare benefits for workers, responsible use of God-given resources, and pollution. (From what I can gather from PK Values Trade.com, these concerns are not included under "Affirmative Values.")
I also take issue with what policies and procedures warrant a red flag. Adobe Systems (makers of Photoshop and Acrobat) earned a flag because its matching gift program allows employees to make charitable contributions to any IRS-qualified 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations. Planned Parenthood happens to qualify as such an organization. So, Adobe gets a red flag for supporting abortion. And, unfortunately, companies get the red flag if they provide health andor pension benefits for same-sex domestic partners. So making sure that all employees' families have health coverage gets a red flag, but paying people in developing nations less than one dollar per day to work full time in a sweatshop reflects Christian values. Nice. The Bible says far more about wealth and poverty than about abortion, homosexuality, pornography, alcohol, tobacco, and gambling combined. (Granted, tobacco use was a non-issue in the ancient Near East.) And I would argue that the above-identified "major issues" are minor compared to the issues of health and economic justice.
To clarify, I agree with PK Values Trade that one should not invest in companies whose policies and practices one considers immoral. And I think that a service that holds companies morally accountable is a good idea. However, I feel that PK Values Trade's understanding of "Christian values" is shortsighted and even unbiblical.
Values-based investing is the attempt to reflect your Christian values in the way that you invest your money. As Christians, we know that our lives are not our own, because they were bought and paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. Consequently, all that we have belongs to Him.
No problems there. PK Values Trade researches seven "major issues" to determine whether a company's policies reflect Christian values:
Abortion; Institutionalization of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Causes; Pornography; Alcohol; Tobacco; Gambling; and Affirmative Values (positive actions that a corporation might do that are congruent with Christian values).
Now I have a problem. As someone who has moral reservations about investing in companies that profit from gamblihg or pornography, I appreciate the idea of values-based investing. However, notably absent from the above list of major values issues are wages, treatment of workers, healthcare benefits for workers, responsible use of God-given resources, and pollution. (From what I can gather from PK Values Trade.com, these concerns are not included under "Affirmative Values.")
I also take issue with what policies and procedures warrant a red flag. Adobe Systems (makers of Photoshop and Acrobat) earned a flag because its matching gift program allows employees to make charitable contributions to any IRS-qualified 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations. Planned Parenthood happens to qualify as such an organization. So, Adobe gets a red flag for supporting abortion. And, unfortunately, companies get the red flag if they provide health andor pension benefits for same-sex domestic partners. So making sure that all employees' families have health coverage gets a red flag, but paying people in developing nations less than one dollar per day to work full time in a sweatshop reflects Christian values. Nice. The Bible says far more about wealth and poverty than about abortion, homosexuality, pornography, alcohol, tobacco, and gambling combined. (Granted, tobacco use was a non-issue in the ancient Near East.) And I would argue that the above-identified "major issues" are minor compared to the issues of health and economic justice.
To clarify, I agree with PK Values Trade that one should not invest in companies whose policies and practices one considers immoral. And I think that a service that holds companies morally accountable is a good idea. However, I feel that PK Values Trade's understanding of "Christian values" is shortsighted and even unbiblical.
posted by Tinley | 11:02 AM
1 Comments:
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
Post a Comment
<< Home