PEACE AND GOOD WILL

We're entering the Christmas season, the time when we'll be hearing and offering wishes for "Peace on earth" and good will toward all people -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, and many others. The cards we send one another will convey those messages, and the hymns we sing will also include those words. Even the gift tags on those packages under the tree will often repeat them.

I send you wishes of peace and good will. To them, I add this advice from Mahatma Ghandi: "You must be the change you want to see in the world."

I think Ghandi meant that we must "walk the talk." Once we put the two ideas together, we find we've made a formidable challenge for ourselves: If I wish for peace on earth, how must I "be" to advance that cause? If I wish you good will, how must I act that toward you and all people? How would you do it? Isn't this what Jesus did?

And this is not just about peace with our nearest friends. It's about all the people in the world. If we want to see "peace on earth," peace in the whole world, how must we behave? What must we do? For some of us (like me, I confess), the question is also, "What must we not do?"

Much of what we do in our day-to-day lives we do competitively. We try for the best parking place, the best office location, the best seats in the sanctuary... The rub comes when we lose these little competitions -- how do we treat the winners? Do we respond peacefully, with good will, and showing respect? Or do we respond angrily, or aggressively?

Scale it up. We lose the "perfect" job to another candidate, or worse, we lose the job we've had for a while. Or, we lose a spouse or significant other to another person. Or, we lose our home to the bad economy.... Do we react to the loss peacefully? Do we react with good will toward those whom we blame for the loss?

Bigger still. We lose a child, or a friend, or a fellow citizen, or many fellow citizens in a war or a far-away attack. Do we/Can we react peacefully, with good will? Or do we make war instead?

Jesus taught about this dilemma in Matthew 5 (and 6 and 7): "Blessed are the peacemakers...Blessed are the merciful...Everyone who is angry with [someone] shall be liable to judgment..." Clearly, it is desired that we be makers of peace, purveyors of mercy, free of anger.

But if we look at some of our (my) usual behaviors, we find that we're not really making peace but confrontation, and unhappiness. We're not showing mercy but perhaps contempt. And we might often be angry. In other words, we're not being "blessed."

And I'm including here our behaviors as we support or oppose public policies by our involvement in the public discourse; and as we support or avoid certain companies and industries by our investments in them and purchases from them. Are these behaviors of ours also bringing peace and good will to the world, or are they bringing something else?

So if we really mean what we say in those wishes for peace and good will, let's each try to change our individual and societal behaviors to be that way -- peaceful, and merciful, and of good will toward all people. Merry Christmas now and all year long!

INVESTING FOR GOOD

I've just read Amy Domini's book, SOCIALLY RESONSIBLE INVESTING: Making a Difference and Making Money. (Chicago: Dearborn Trade, 2001) As I understand it, investing in a socially responsible way means earning an acceptable return on our money, without hurting other people or damaging our environment.

Within the faith-based world, socially responsible investing (SRI) dates back more than 200 years, with Quaker immigrants arguing against investing in war and the Methodists managing their money using what is known in modern investment lingo as “social screens.”" Sure enough, Domini begins her discussion of the history of SRI referring to John Wesley's 50th sermon, "The Use of Money," based in Luke 16:9. My Methodist friends frequently remind me of one part of that sermon: "Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." 

But I hadn't heard from them about the limits Wesley placed on how to make those gains. Wesley said:

"We cannot, if we love everyone as ourselves, hurt anyone in his substance. We cannot devour the increase of his lands, and perhaps the lands and houses themselves, by gaming, by overgrown [sic] bills ... or by requiring or taking such interest as even the laws of our country forbid. We cannot, consistent with brotherly love, sell our goods below the market price; we cannot study to ruin our neighbour's trade, in order to advance our own; much less can we entice away or receive any of his servants or workmen whom he has need of.

"Neither may we gain by hurting our neighbour in his body. Therefore we may not sell anything which tends to impair health.

"[Nor should we can gain by] hurting our neighbour in his soul by ministering either directly or indirectly, to his unchastity, or intemperance, which certainly none can do, who has any fear of God, or any real desire of pleasing Him. You can read the entire sermon here.

In Islam, similar principles apply, allowing only ethical investing, and moral purchasing. For example, "Investing in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles is ... sinful and prohibited." These are not acceptable: Transactions exclude those involving alcohol, pork, gambling, etc. or businesses that produce media such as gossip columns or pornography. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking#Islamic_equity_funds.

About gambling: Shariah law prohibits contracts which depend on uncertain future events or other speculative transactions. Both concepts involve excessive risk and are supposed to foster uncertainty and fraudulent behavior. One of the world's leading experts on Islamic finance, Sheikh Hussain Hassan, argues the whole crisis in Western banking could have been avoided if these basic sharia principles had been followed. He said: "$600 trillion were wasted on options, futures and derivatives, all gambling. Sharia prohibited these kind of risks 14 centuries back."

"Within the Jewish community," writes Tamar Snyder, "many investors are re-examining their investment portfolios with an eye toward not only financial gains but also social impact." Snyder reminds us that, "One of every $9 under professional financial management in the United States is involved now in socially responsible investing — investments that take into consideration not just the financial but also the social and environmental consequences of investments."

I urge us all to review our investments, to assure that they reflect the faith we profess. I believe we can earn fair returns on our capital while protecting our neighbors (world-wide), developing our communities, and caring for our environments.