{"id":22703,"date":"2018-11-05T11:31:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T16:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=22703"},"modified":"2018-12-03T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T20:24:58","slug":"god-calls-his-followers-to-honor-him-with-their-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/god-calls-his-followers-to-honor-him-with-their-finances\/","title":{"rendered":"God Calls His Followers to Honor Him with Their Finances"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to November 2018<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"The ethics of Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) are not new. In fact, they can be traced not only to specific Bible verses but also to Jewish interpretive writing in the Talmud stretching back before Christ.<\/p>\n

For example, the great Middle Ages Rabbi Maimonides (1135-1204 A.D.) forbade \u201cthe sale of weapons to people who may use them for violence or robbery (Mishnah Torah, Laws of Murder 12:12, 14).\u201d And Rabbi Dr. Asher Meier of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0confirms that Jewish tradition requires an ethical approach to investing: \u201cAny economic activity that has special social value can be considered a preferred investment,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Christians also had guidance hundreds of years ago in how to handle the resources with which God had blessed them. In 1524, Christian reformer Martin Luther excoriated businesspeople who left out ethics: \u201cI shall sell my wares as dear as I can \u2026 But it means making room for greed and opening the door and window of hell \u2026 so long as I have my profit and satisfy my greed, of what concern is it to me if it injures my neighbor in ten ways at once? So you see how this motto goes so straight and shamelessly against not only Christian love but also natural law as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, \u201curged his followers to shun profiting at the expense of their neighbors. Consequently, they avoided partnering or investing with those who earned their money through alcohol, tobacco, weapons or gambling\u2014essentially establishing social investment screens,\u201d wrote William Donovan in The Balance.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ratcheting forward to 1928, Philip Carret launched the Fidelity Mutual Trust, which became the Pioneer Fund, one of the first-ever mutual funds. Designed initially to serve church investors, the Fund had a policy of \u201cscreening investments on ethical grounds,\u201d rejecting companies that traded in alcohol or tobacco. With Carret\u2019s guidance, the Fund survived the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression and went on to become one of the largest mutual funds.<\/p>\n

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