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Putting Treasure Where the Heart Is February 12th, 2020
Review by Kirsten Snow Spalding, rector of the Church of the Nativity in San Rafael, CA & senior director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk and Sustainability at Ceres, a non-profit advocacy organization
Fr. Séamus Finn , OMI authors chapter on human dignity, trafficking & investing in newly-released book,” Faithful Investing, The Power of Decisive Action and Incremental Change.”
Faithful Investing, edited by James Murphy, explores a range of perspectives on why and how congregations have used investment practices to address issues important to people of faith, including human rights and human trafficking, tobacco, gun control, climate change, gender diversity, pay equity, poverty, and immigration.
The collection includes essays written by investment professionals; faith leaders with long experience in corporate governance work and investment strategies; and advocates who work with a variety of institutional investors. Unlike many resources on this subject, Murphy’s collection offers alternative approaches, without taking a hard line about one “right way” to address these issues.
Each of the authors uses plain language to explain the rationale behind a particular investment approach — divesting or negative screening; engaging with companies through direct dialogues; collaborative engagements with other investors; filing proxy resolutions and voting on them; incorporating ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors into investment decision-making; taking a “best-in-class” fundamentals approach to building a portfolio or investing for impact in one or multiple asset classes. For someone new to the field, Faithful Investing suggests the critical questions that need to be asked before recommending a particular strategy. Read the full review here.
Book can be purchased online from Amazon.
This unique collaboration of voices from multiple Christian denominations include James W. Murphy, Byrd Bonner, Tim Brennan, Sister Patricia Daly, The Rev. Séamus P. Finn, Bobbi Hannigan, Lisa Hinds, Joseph M. Kinard, Kathryn McCloskey, The Rev. Aimee Moiso, Mark A. Regier, Greg Rousos, Carsten W. Sierck, The Rev. William Somplatsky-Jarman.
