Yesterday we started a conversation about the tough questions that are asked about Biblically Responsible Investing. For the most part, the questions focused around investing in stocks. Today I’d like to talk about a few more questions that apply.

Ok, if buying a stock is buying ownership in a company, then I can see why Christians would want to avoid buying stock in certain companies. But what about bonds?

First of all, let’s cover exactly what a bond is. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a bond as “an interest-bearing certificate of public or private indebtedness”.  Basically, a bond is a type of IOU issued by a government or company that says that if you lend them money, they will repay you what you lent, with interest, by a certain date (the maturity date).  With that taken into consideration, you can see how some of the conflicts with owning stocks in immoral companies would also apply to owning bonds. With a stock, you profit the company by buying a portion of the company for a set price, with a bond; you simply lend the company money with interest. You can see why we would want to avoid buying bonds from the same companies that we would want to avoid buying stock from.

For the sake of explanation, I’m going to give a very cut-and-dried example for both to make it clear where the conflict lies.

Say for a moment, that you were looking to financially invest in a movie studio that produces children’s movies. We’ll call it “Studio KID”. Studio KID has both stock and bonds available for purchase.  Upon closer examination you realize that the Studio KID has a branch (called “Adult Filmz”) that produces only hard-core adult entertainment on DVD and the internet. Even though it goes by a different name, Adult Filmz is owned by Studio KID and Studio KID manages and runs Adult Filmz. As a Christian, is it a biblically sound investment to buy stock in Studio KID? If you read yesterdays post then you know that the money you use to buy the stock will either directly or indirectly profit Studio KID (and therefore Adult Filmz) and not only that but you will also be an owner of Studio KID (and therefore Adult Filmz) and you profits will be made primarily due to the actions of that company. This is a problem (see Ephesians 5:11)

But what about bonds? If you buy bonds from Studio KID then you will be lending them money to use at their discretion.  The money would benefit both Studio KID and Adult Filmz, and the interest that is earned on the bonds is made from the sales and advertising profits of both studios. The same scripture that applied to profiting from immoral stocks yesterday, applies to bonds today (Deuteronomy 23:18, Ephesians 5:11).

So after breaking it down we can see that stocks and bonds pretty much go together in the sense that if it would be wrong to invest in a company’s stock, then we should probably avoid buying that companies bonds as well. But there are some circumstances where that rule won’t work. I’m talking about government bonds.  The U.S Government does not sell stock to the American people, but it can raise money by issuing bonds. This goes for state and municipal governments as well.. Most governments would never pass a moral screening. They give money to support abortion clinics, manufacture weapons of mass destruction, and profit from the actions of every company in America, good or bad (taxes). Some would say that any financial investment in any U.S. government would violate everything that the bible says about stewardship and honoring God with our finances. In some cases, that may be true. While the government does use bonds to raise money for unspecified uses (such as treasury bonds) they also issue bonds for specific projects. These bonds make it much easier to ensure that the money you lend is not going to make its way into Planned Parenthood’s yearly government grant. One of the key questions we need to ask before buying these bonds is what is the money going to be used for. Bonds for road projects or to build a state park could be considered morally neutral (depending on the details) and could be a good financial investment. But it’s important to know the details before making your decision.

Once you have the information you need, you only need to be sure that the money that our master has entrusted you with is being handled according to his orders. If you’re unsure if a company is involved in immoral actions, then your best bet is to either contact someone who can find the information for you, or play it safe and avoid investing in that company. Also, if you hire an investor to choose stocks for you, be sure to ask what software or information he uses for moral screenings and what all he is screening the companies for. If you not confident that he is investing with your Christian convictions in mind, then be sure to find someone who will. Remember, it’s not your money that your having invested. It’s the Lords,(Deu 10:14, Hag 2:8, Psa 50:10-12)  and he’s entrusted it to you to be faithful with (Corinthians 4:2, Luke 16:12).