Manage money in line with Biblical principles

Christian investing is a faith-based approach to managing investment portfolios that align with Christian values and principles. The core idea is to ensure that the companies and funds in which Christians invest do not engage in activities that contradict religious values.

It involves screening out companies involved in activities deemed immoral or unethical according to Christian beliefs — abortion, pornography, gambling, alcohol, human rights violations and other sinful activities. This screening ensures that investment portfolios do not profit from or support practices that contradict Christian values.

Christians often unknowingly support companies involved in these activities. As stewards of God's resources, we can choose not to profit from industries that work against them.

The most common screens cover abortion and abortifacients, pornography, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, predatory lending, weapons, human-rights and labour abuses, and environmental harm — though the exact list, and the revenue thresholds applied, differ between screening providers and traditions.

Faithful Christians draw some of these lines differently. That is why we teach you to define your own convictions first and then check your holdings against them, rather than adopting someone else's list unexamined. Our guide on checking what your 401(k) owns walks through it.

No. Nothing about aligning your money with your convictions requires membership anywhere. Everything we teach is free and open to anyone — though we do encourage the wisdom, accountability and generosity that come from being part of a local church.

Because giving and owning are different acts. A tithe returns a portion of your increase to God's work; your investments quietly deploy the other 90% into companies whose activities you may never have examined.

Scripture treats the whole estate as entrusted, not just the tenth (Psalm 24:1). Generosity and faithful ownership are complementary, not alternatives — our guide to giving and the free course cover both.

They share a method — screening companies against non-financial criteria — but not a standard. ESG and SRI funds are built around environmental, social and governance frameworks that vary by provider and rarely address issues such as abortion, pornography or the sanctity of life.

Christian or Biblically Responsible Investing starts from Scripture and conscience instead. An ESG fund may hold companies a Christian investor would exclude, and exclude companies they would happily own. Read the methodology, not the label.