When money is a force for good

Ethical finance can help poor people reclaim their dignity, says ECLOF
International’s Executive Director Irene Banda Mutalima. Here she introduces
the views of two leading experts on the new trend for faith-based finance. Read full article

Truth In Investment

The world has never been fully created. Judaism teaches that each human being is God’s partner in the continuing work of creation, through the concept of Tikkun Olam, our responsibility to repair the world in order that it can achieve the perfection that was intended for it. In his 1967 Encyclical Populorum Progressio Pope Paul VI stated the Christian parallel to this doctrine: “Everyone who works is a creator”. Many quotations from Populorum Progressio are included in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Truth in Charity) published on July 7 by Pope Benedict XVI, which is the latest statement of Catholic social teaching for today.

Human work is never morally neutral. We always do it within the context of the economy of the time and place. Decisions need to be made about how people are treated in our common enterprise, how we will relate to the natural environment in which we work and how we will share the proceeds of our work. As Pope Benedict writes, “justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity ... locating resources, financing production, consumption and all the other phases of the economic cycle inevitable have moral implications.” Read Full Article

Money, God, morals?
What advice do the world faiths give on ethical investment?

Is it possible to do good while making money? And if so, how?

That was the question 130 of us – Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus, met to discuss a week today at Faith in Capitalism, a conference at the London Central Mosque. Our number included bankers, investment managers, the trustees of faith-based charities, treasurers for religious groups, and academics expert on faith and finance.

Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and John Battle, the Prime Minister's envoy on interfaith affairs came too.

The day was co-organised by the Three Faiths Forum and the group I represent 3iG, an international, interfaith investment group that advises on how best faith groups may invest their holdings. Read full article

There's more than money at stake
"Few of us own an ox these days, let alone one with a violent disposition. So the verses in the Torah advising us what to do should we possess a goring ox probably don't command a great deal of our attention on an everyday basis. But this passage of the Torah contains an important principle with much wider application. The principle is that we are all responsible for what we own — and thus we are liable for making good any damage that might be caused by anything under our ownership. This crucial point is emphasised by Rabbi Dr Daniel Sperber, who is a distinguished Torah scholar at Israel's Bar-Ilan University."

From "There’s more than money at stake" by Simon Rocker. Jewish Chronicle, April 22 2005 Read full article

Religions pray at the altar of pristine profit
"The search for pristine profit is seeking a new and potentially colossal convert: the world's religions… Their aim is to formalise their current ad-hoc collection of socially responsible investment policies under the aegis of a new organisation, the International Interfaith Investment Group, contracted to 3iG. The potential shift is massive: the plan envisages religions not only changing their own investment behaviour but encouraging their followers to do likewise."

From "Religions pray at the altar of pristine profit" by Alan Beattie. Financial Times, June 19 2002

Using God's wealth
"A group of 23 religious organisations, with access to assets worth $7,000 billion (£4,400bn) are joining forces to launch an ethical investment strategy, putting their money where their consciences are…The total sum available for ethical investment could be $20,000 bn, more than the value of all companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq combined."

From "Using God's Wealth" by Jason Nissé and Cole Moreton. The Independent on Sunday, November 17 2002. Business Section, page 1

How to do business for good
"Was this pie in the sky – or in the heavens at any rate? The big beasts of the commercial banking world didn't think so. "We can tell you how many shares you'd need in any particular firm before they'd be forced to take notice of you," said the man from the biggest bank who could sense that here was something that would be good for his bank balance as well as his soul. This was a world away from the old days when church activists simply boycotted companies of which they didn't approve. When big money goes into a company, it must take notice of the moral agenda of such a large shareholder. In the United States, the Churches (through ICCR) are increasingly urging firms to look to a "triple bottom line" in which "people, planet, profit" is the slogan."

From "How to do business for good" by Paul Vallely. Church Times, November 22 2002, page 1 Read full article

Spiritual capital across the divide
"For the believers, trashing God's creation is a sin; for the pragmatists destroying the life-support system on which we all depend is criminally unwise. Different spurs, same result. Blessed are the poor, and blessed are the resources on which they depend. Ah yes, resources. The main faiths control investments amounting to about 10 per cent of the world's equities. That gives them a mighty lever for change, and it's one which they are just beginning to wield. An "interfaith investment group" is poised to shift $7 trillion into ethical and environmental funds. Seven trillion dollars. It gives a whole meaning to spiritual capital. Did somebody mention the bottom line?"

From the lead editorial article by Martin Wright in Green Futures Magazine, March/April 2003 Read full article