Investing without loosing your soul?

January 3, 2009

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One of my assignments before PhD classes start up in a couple weeks is to figure out where Alecia and I’s retirement money from church is going to go.  I have been looking around the internet and reading articles on just what choices we have to make and such, but the tenor of most ‘investment’ talk makes me suspicious.  It is as if the entire goal is simply profit, even if it is at the expense of other people’s well-being.

As a minister I would hate to find out that I invested people’s tithe in sweat shops, child labor violations, slash and burn farming, or some other human or ecological nightmare just to make sure I visit Europe a few more times in retirement.  It is weird thinking that most of us invest in all kinds of companies who may be diametrically opposed to our ethical sensibilities and religious convictions, but it appears that there isn’t many options for the ethical investor.  Daniel Radosh pointed me to some more disturbing news, the real money makers are the vice-based stocks.  Ugh.

Who knows if I will be spending extra time in purgatory for my retirement investments, but considering the time I have already racked up for my taxed income that went to our most recent military debacle I guess I should do my best and hope God weaves something redemptive out of my portfolio.

The best resource I have found for ethical investing is the Social Fund web page (Thanks Ed).  Hit me up with more if you got’em.

Posted in life