Serving both God and money has long been an aim for fund companies that exclude “sin stocks”. Now the “sin stocks” are of companies that do dealing in tobacco, guns, and gambling. It is because of this that two new exchange traded funds offer a moderate evangelical tilt to that type of investing approach. This is called “biblically responsible”. These funds are saying very clearly in their regulatory filing that they will be avoiding buying shares in companies that have “any degree of participation in activities that do not align with biblical values”. And this would be including what people call the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lifestyle. Ninety-two percent of the Fortune 500 companies include “sexual orientation” in their nondiscrimination policies and 82 percent include “gender identity”. For the first time, some of these Fortune 500 companies are starting to offer transgender-inclusive health care benefits, and they are also including surgical procedures for them. “There are millions of people, including people of faith, for whom discrimination is not a biblical value,” said Mark Snyder, who is the director of communications for the Equality Federation, a national advocacy group. “Businesses have been leading the fight for full equality over the last few years. L.G.B.T. people are part of the fabric of our nation. We have families, we go to work, we simply wish to be treated equally”. “As Christians, we love our neighbors in the L.G.B.T. community and encourage companies to provide equal employee benefits for all,” said the chief executive, Robert Netzly. Roberts is the chief executive of the company that introduced the two new funds, Inspire Investing, and he also says that he has no problem with the companies that are providing benefits to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees, as well as having nondiscrimination policies. Issues investing, some call it “socially responsible investing,” which includes the Environmental, Social, and Governance style of investing or E.S.G., has been a hot business in recent years. Major investors like the pension fund behemoth known as Calpers, have made it a part of their philosophy. Even though this strategy has also had some costs in lost investment opportunity. In this last year, for example, Calpers re-endorsed its ban on tobacco stocks, even though their staff had recommended the opposite. This concept has made its way to Exchange Traded Funds, which are also known as E.T.F.s, which have been popular with mom-and-pop investors because they are a low-cost, tax-efficient way to invest in a broad index. Often, the Standard & Poor’s 500. So, as a result, exchange traded funds have ballooned in recent years, amassing $2.6 trillion. And this also has created the opportunity to create niche products seems to be boundless. There are also the $790 million iShares MSCI KLD 400 Social ETF and the $500 million iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF, which look for stocks of companies with good labor policies or sustainable and renewable products. There are also longstanding mutual funds, such as the $927 million Domini Impact Equity fund. Companies like Amazon that have publicly supported gay marriage also would not pass muster. “Any company that takes a hard-line approach” to the issue would not pass the test, Mr. Netzly said.
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