IIs it possible manage money successfully and be a virtuous Christian? Followers of the world’s largest religion have been discussing this topic for around 2,000 years. Recently the debate has become ambiguous. The management of Christian money, once leased to professionals, is now a moral minefield whose negotiation has ramifications in the here and now, not just the hereafter.
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Christian investors tend to fall into three camps: those willing to partner with environmental, social and governance leaders (it G) types; those who resolutely oppose them; and Catholics. Dave Zellner, who manages $24 billion for Wespath, effectively the American Methodist investment arm, is in the first group. He calls his job a search for “the intersection between good business practice and church values.” Wespath lends to housing projects for the poor, but on market terms. She works with secular shareholder activism lobby groups, including a coalition called Climate Action 100+, which encourages energy companies to give up carbon.
Robert Netzly, an American evangelical, is Mr. Zellner’s reflection. His company, Inspire Investing, has $2 billion under management. It attempts to apply “biblical principles” to all decisions. Last year, Mr. Netzly waived the it G label, saying it was “weaponized by liberal activists to advance their … social-Marxist agenda.” But he agrees it G argues that non-financial criteria should be used to consider investments – he just uses other criteria, such as whether companies support abortions, for example by funding travel for employee procedures. He also engages in shareholder activism, urging banks to accept business from religious conservatives. Properly mobilized, he says, the Christian investment industry could be powerful. He puts the stock and bond holdings of America’s Catholics and Protestants at around $21 trillion.
Across that gulf lies the Roman Catholic Church. In November, Cardinal Peter Turkson made the Vatican’s highest-level statement on where funds should go. The list of 24 things to avoid if possible is broad: addictive substances and pornography; embryo research that conservatives hate; and genetically engineered seeds, opposed by environmental leftists. In America, where Catholic bishops have issued their own rules, some conservative scholars have called the paper muddled.
Dylan Pahman of the Acton Institute, a religious thinker, argues that churches delve too deeply into economics. For example, although it is right to value the planet, energy policy involves trade-offs and calculating them is not a matter for theology, he says. Given the fury of today’s debate, he’s likely to remain a voice in the wilderness.
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