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Jesus warns that tithing our spices is insufficient if we remain blind to the more important matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23). Yet stewardship teaching in the church tends to begin and end with giving 10 percent. If God owns it all (Ps. 50:12), is he not intimately concerned with the other 90 percent? A full understanding of stewardship considers justice, mercy, and faithfulness in 100 percent of all that God has entrusted to us.

Today ethical investing is most often associated with portfolio screening, the inclusion of moral (nonfinancial) criteria when choosing investments. I can choose to avoid or "screen out" porn-subsidizer General Motors, because a portion of its profits is accumulated through the exploitation of others.

Too often, this valuable expression of faith and values has been overlooked, mistakenly earmarked only for barefoot, tie-dye-wearing tree-huggers. Yet the modern movement, more commonly identified as Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has experienced phenomenal growth across all segments of investors and institutions. Universities (Harvard), nonprofit organizations (the American Medical Association), and public and private pension funds (TIA-CREFF) have all adopted at least one "screen" against an industry in their massive investments.

Very conservative estimates are that more than $1.49 trillion—or almost $1 of every $10—of the roughly $16.3 trillion under professional management in the United States is screened, most often for tobacco, gambling, and/or alcohol stocks.

Most evangelicals have slept through the SRI movement of the past 30 years (the first evangelical book on the subject wasn't published until 1990). We are now awakening from our slumber. Mildly concerned when corporate profit maximizing resulted in environmental pollution, we are startled to discover the same philosophy leading to moral and cultural pollution.

Some of the contaminants are obvious. In addition to pornography, a few corporations have identified ways of making money from abortions. Hospitals such as The Healthcare Co. perform the procedure for profit. And biotech firm Geron Corp. destroys the most defenseless in its unapologetic use of human em bryos for research.

Entertainment has also undergone a huge transformation over the last decade, with content moving from Cosby's "Father knows best" to Ally McBeal's "Now let's undress." Viacom (owner of MTV and Showtime), General Electric (owner of NBC), and other media conglomerates stand accused of promoting anti-theistic, morally destructive worldviews around the globe.

In response to these harmful corporate activities of the 1990s, "morally conservative" investors have emerged with Values-Based Investing (VBI) to distinguish the new "life-ethics" issues of abortion, pornography, and entertainment (though tobacco, gambling, and alcohol screens are also often included in VBI):

• Florida, 1988. Gary Moore started writing The Thoughtful Christian's Guide to Investing, the first book outlining a comprehensive scriptural basis for an evangelical embrace of ethical investing.

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September 3 2001, Vol. 45, No. 11