Dear Kingdom Builders,

It happened. SpaceX went public this week. And many investors are deciding whether they are in or out.

But should Christians pause before investing?

Before the IPO, Inspire Investing, the world's largest Christian ETF provider, published a screening analysis on SpaceX. It flagged a potential violation of Christian morals but not because of the company’s immediate business. It was actually because of its ownership stake in X (formerly Twitter). You can read about their analysis HERE.

Whether you agree with Inspire's conclusion is beside the point. Their analysis raises a more fundamental question: What activities are you morally supporting through your ownership?

Moral screens are not exclusive to Christians. In fact, the world’s most sophisticated allocators use them regularly. But sometimes even they miss things.

For example, In 2017, the New York City Pension Fund divested $48 million from private prison companies after concluding the ethical concerns outweighed their continued exposure to the industry; concerns that had been present the entire time, just never formally screened for.

By the time they recognized the problem and had to face the public scrutiny, the capital was already invested.

As Christians, we believe our capital is a form of stewardship. That’s why it’s so important for us to perform an additional layer of diligence. I refer to this as Moral Due Diligence.

The reality is, making these decisions is not a simple “yes” or “no.” It requires us to determine the moral implications of an investment decision and, in turn, decide what we are going to do about it.

So over the past few years, I have learned from some of the best Christian investment firms in the world. I have found that most of their processes boil down to a simple three-step framework: Discover, Discern, Decide.

Discover what your money is supporting,
Discern whether it creates a moral conflict.
Decide how to respond before capital is committed, not after.

I go through this process and how many faith-based institutional investors approach moral due diligence in this week’s podcast.

I also created a tool to help you create your own screen that you can use with any AI tool called the Christian Investment Alignment Assessment. It's free, it takes less than five minutes to get a preliminary assessment. All you have to do is customize it to your preferences once, and it gives you a first-pass moral screen you can apply to almost any investment opportunity.

Moral due diligence isn't about finding a reason to reject every opportunity. It isn't about perfection. None of us can know everything about every investment we make. It’s about placing our treasure with where our hearts should be (Mt. 6:21).

It's about asking the right question before your capital is committed: What kind of world am I building with this investment?

Have a blessed week!

Matt

For informational purposes only. This content does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, nor a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

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For informational purposes only. This content does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, nor a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

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For informational purposes only. This content does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, nor a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

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