Investing and Faith Based Funds

Before I write another word I want to make it clear that I am not suggesting that anyone invest in the mutual funds that I am about to describe. Investing, be it in a retirement plan or in a brokerage account is based on personal criteria that varies from person to person. Read prospectuses, get advice and think before you put your money down. I am not advising, so please do not take my words as advice.


I was a young Christian in the mid 1970's when I heard there were Christians raising money to build towers to capture satellite television signals so that The Word Of God could be broadcast around the world.

What an exciting idea I thought. I was young and poor and still relying on my old trusty rabbit ears to pick up free TV. But I could envision people transfixed to their television listening to wonderful teachers and people of God speaking the Good News.

So what did we get in return for our tithes and offerings? The 700 Club, The PTL Club, The Trinity Broadcasting Corporation with Paul and Jan Crouch and so on. It could have been great, but...

So what's the deal with faith based mutual funds. Are they a good thing or will they offer similar returns as those we received from our investment in Gospel Television futures?

Faith based funds are mutual funds comprised of investments in companies that are not necessarily connected with a church or religion, but companies whose principles and standards are recognized by a particular religious group to not go against the tenents of their beliefs.

Sounds to me like an excellent idea. One can invest in a mutual fund, which itself may be made up of hundreds of companies. And you can be assured that you are not investing in a company that would be violating your faith based principles. So let's take a brief look at a few of these funds.

Here are three Christian based funds and their descriptions.

The Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund
Symbol: AVEMX
Category: Mid-cap blend
Description: The fund looks for companies that are believed to be undervalued. As its name suggests, it invests in companies that don't violate the core values and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
Screens: The fund screens for companies that are "anti-family," which includes those that support abortion and pornography.
14.16 is the NAV (net asset value) as of July 25 2008
YTD Return: -9.93%
3 years: - 7.51%
5 years: +26.54%
Expense Ratio: 1.50%
1-Year Return: -20.98
Min Investment: $1000
Net Assets ($mil): 206.3 Fund Status: Open
Morningstar rating - 2 stars
Morningstar Category: Growth
Style: Medium Blend
expense ratio: 1.50%

MMA Praxis International Fund - Mennonite Church
Symbol: MPIAX
Category: Foreign large blend
Description: The fund bets mostly on companies in Europe, Australia, and Asia, with no more than a quarter of its holdings invested in emerging markets. The MMA here stands for Mennonite Mutual Aid, an organization that aims to nurture the practice of biblical-based investing and which is the stewardship agency of Mennonite Church USA.
Screens: The fund focuses heavily on social responsibility and uses six core values to measure corporate behavior, ranging from working toward environmental sustainability to promoting and practicing fair labor practices.
12.75 is the NAV as of Jul 25 2008 †
YTD Return: -12.91%
3 years: +19.27%
5 years: +57.60%
Expense Ratio: 1.72%
1-Year Return: -10.20 Min Investment: $500
Net Assets ($mil): 41.5 Fund Status: Open
Morningstar rating - 1 star
Morningstar Category: Foreign Stock Large Cap Blend

Timothy Plan Aggressive Growth - Protestant Church
Symbol: TAAGX
Category: Mid-cap growth
Description: The aggressive growth fund is focused on long-term growth of capital and invests from a Christian values perspective.
Screens: In addition to screening out alcohol, tobacco and gambling, the Timothy Plan avoids investing in companies that are involved in abortion, pornography and anti-family entertainment.
5.95 is the NAVas of Jul 25 2008 †
YTD Return: -9.57%
Expense Ratio: 1.55%
1-Year Return: -11.47%
3 years: - 15.12%
5 years: + 5.87%
Min Investment: $1000
Net Assets ($mil): 26.0 Fund Status: Open
Morningstar rating - 1 star
Morningstar Category: Aggressive Growth

You can see that the funds have chosen Growth, Mid Cap Blend and Aggressive as their goal, hence are losing money due to the current market volatility. That does not bother me. However the expense ratio of 1.50% to 1.72% is a consideration. The Mennonite fund has an excellent history.

The next fund is interesting since it is an Islamic mutual fund. Over the past year, the Amana funds as a whole outperformed the market; their assets have more than doubled from $400 million in 2003 to $1.3 billion this year. Five years ago, most of Amana's investors were American Muslims. Now, 80 percent of new investors are non-Muslims.


Amana Trust Growth Fund
Symbol: AMAGX
Category: Large growth
Description: The fund invests in stocks focused on long-term growth that are consistent with Islamic principles. It favors mid-sized and smaller companies whose growth is expected to outpace the economy.
Screens: The fund screens for businesses related to liquor, wine, gambling, pornography, insurance and pork processing. Since Islamic principles require that investors receive no interest, the fund also doesn't invest in interest-based banks or other investments that pay interest.

NAV as of July 25, 2008 is $21.44
Total Assets:($mil)738
Expense Ratio 1.35%
Minimum Investment - $250
YTD - 6.78%
3 year + 9.86%
5 year +15.66%
Morningstar rating - 5 stars
Morningstar category Large Cap Growth



How sad is it that much of the trouble in today's stock market is due to the debacle create by the subprime mortgage mess that banks have gotten themselves into forcing consumers to doubt the credibility of the US banking system. Yet the tenents of Islam disallow investments in institutions and funds that pay interest to prevent usuary to another Moslem. This would include mortgage companies, banks and insurance companies. This rule has prevented that Amana Fund from having any debt associated to the current mortgage and banking crisis. Perhaps some of the other funds mentioned could benefit from following this fund's premise. The expense ratio for this fund is lower than the previous three. This fund has been awarded a five star Morningstar rating. Five is the highest rate that Morningstar gives.

The final fund invests most of it's assets in Israeli companies.

The AMIDEX35 Mutual Fund
Symbol: AMDEX
NAV as of July 25 is $15.31
Net Assets*: 16.20MIL
YTD - 4.43%
3 year + 14.03%
5 year + 14.25%
Morningstar rating - 4 stars
Morningstar category - index in Israeli and US based companies.
Expense ratio - 3.40%


It is admirable to invest in the State of Israel. One of the top five companies in this fund is Teva Pharmaceuticals that does cancer research. However the expense ratio is very high.

I like the fact that the funds stick to their convictions by not investing in organizations that go against their ethics. Looking at companies featured "Hall of Shame" from The Timothy Plan Website I fear that I am guilty of being a customer of many of those institutions the Timothy Plan feels are well shameful, such as Pepsicola, Cocacola, Walmarts, Pfizer, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Glaxosmithcline, United Healthcare, Walt Disney, The Newscorporation (Time Warner), Starbucks and I am using Microsoft Word right now and a GE lightbulb lights the lamp over my keyboard. I occasionaly like to visit Borders bookstore. I have eaten Kraft Macaroni which until recently was part of the Altria group. Once or twice a year I drink a beer which is made by Aheuser Busch. And because my kitty scratched me while we were playing I have a Johnson & Johnson bandaid on my arm.

I agree that we who are Christians need to stand up for our beliefs, but come on! I'm not going to quit patronizing Walmarts. Some of the drug manufacturers have certainly kept me going and going and going. Bayer, the German company that discovered asprin was once associated with the Nazi regime. Their past history is not going to cause me to stop taking asprin when I have a headache. But these are my opinions. Other Christians may have different views.

You be the judge. Would you put your money in these funds? As a Christian would you invest in an Islamic fund?

Good-bye Daisy and Bonnie

Today my wife lost her friends Daisy and Bonnie. They were minature Brahma hens that she had raised from chicks. She originally had three. Daisy was a buff hen, Bonnie was a white hen and Cleo was a black speckled hen. Cleo was taken last year by an eagle that swoped down in our back yard and grabbed her right in front of Linny my wife.


Today when Linny when out to feed the cluckers all that was left were their feathers. We believe that a racoon may have got into their pen.

The girls gave my wife a lot of joy over the past two years that we had them. They were a lot of fun to watch. They were also very tame. If they caught sight of you they would crow until you came to see them.

May God bless them and bring peace to my wife.

What makes Christianity such a prime target for judgement and ridicule?

Christianity as been around for over 2000 years and for at least that long the learned and academic folks that live off of educational grants in their ivy covered towers have taken their potshots at those of us who consider Jesus to be the Son of God. These brain boxes consider worship of God, much less His only Son to be demeaning, time wasting and meant for those lacking intelligence.

If you read the New Testament, you will discover things were not much different when Jesus was walking around ol Jerusalem town with His Disciples. The learned and academic of His day were trash talking to Him.

Christianity is one of the world's major religious groups and the scholarly community continually seeks to disprove our tenents. Perhaps this is because most Christians are docile with all that other cheek turning and whatnot. Christians are easy marks.

Hitler and company tried to eliminate the Jews, as did some of the other middle eastern denizens. They all eventually discovered that Jews don't take crap from no one, no how. And Jews fight back and never back down. If you hurt one of them, they'll hurt your whole family. And they do not forget who hurt them. Jews have better memory than any super-computer.

If you have been paying attention to the news you will know that criticism of Muslims to any of the more radical ones with their Kiyafa covered faces will more than likely lead to loss of your head. At the very least criticizing or even mention Islam in a way that your average Mullah might object to may lead to branding as an infidel and a fatwa may be issued. Ask Salman Rushde.

Oh but we Christians do not fight back. We have a great history of tolerance. In fact we are tolerant to the point of martyrdom. And it is not that we choose martyrdom, like all those ignorant suicide bombers that are hoping for 72 new girlfriends. There are plenty of bullies in the global neighborhood that would kill us off just for showing our smiling Christian faces.

So I guess we will continue to be the subject of ridicule and disbelief, as exemplified in my last post regarding the "Dead Sea Tablet."

Who cares when we who are Christians know who is right.

Proof that Christianity is over, done, kaput...Yeah right!

This italized text below is verbatim from a Lebanon newspaper called The Daily Star. Interestingly enough, the byline reads "Occupied Jerusalem" to note their distain for reality.

This same story has cropped up in other news sources. But I selected the Lebanese version since, oddly enough, it was the least biased.

The London Times online blares the headline "Dead Sea Tablet 'cast doubt on death and resurrection". The International Hearld Tribune (an impressive sounding name indeed) trumpets, "Tablet Ignites Debate On Messiah and Resurrection"

I've read all the articles and from what I understand from the article that follow is that a "tablet" or rock with writing upon it gives us a message from the Angel Gabriel that states:

"In three days you will live, I Gabriel command it."

The expert, Israel Knohl, tells us the text was written prior to the birth of Jesus. For this reason they proclaim it to be the missing link between Judiasm and Christianity and announce that this is proof that the resurrection of Jesus is a myth, a folly and we told you so.

My reply is, "Say What? How you figure?"

Of course there is a link between Christianity and Judiasm. His name is Jesus. He was born to a Jewish mother, he was bar mitzvahed and taught in The Law and died as a Jew. He also was raised from the dead by God Almighty, may His Name be ever honored. Mystery solved!


Read the Tenakh (The Jewish Bible). There are numerous references to the Messiah that were written even prior to 1BC.

Could the Jewish sect that followed Jesus have inserted these in the Gospels to prove their case? Possibly. Does that diminish or do away with Christianity. No! We who love the Lord and believe that Jesus died to save us and return us to the presence of God know in our heart this is true. Until you experience God's love and mercy you will not understand.

The tablet was from the banks of the Dead Sea and had been in the holding of a Jordanian art dealer for some time. However the story calls this The Dead Sea Tablet. Why? Is this an attempt to link it ot the Dead Sea Scrolls and make it sound more important of a find than it actually is?

So without further comment, here is the story:

An ancient stone tablet said to date back to the first century BC may shed light on the links between Judaism and Christianity, experts say. Discussed at a conference here on Tuesday, the tablet predicts a Messiah who would rise again after three days.

Israel Knohl, a biblical studies professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said his interpretation of the Hebrew text on the tablet could "overturn the vision we have of the historic personality of Jesus [Christ]".

"This text could be the missing link between Judaism and Christianity in so far as it roots the Christian belief in the resurrection of the Messiah in Jewish tradition," he told AFP, as though this would surprise.

The tablet belongs to a Zurich-based collector who said he "acquired" the object from a Jordanian antiquities dealer. It is believed to have originated from the Jordanian bank of the Dead Sea.

Described as "the revelation of the Angel Gabriel," the text of over 87 lines is inscribed in ink on a 1-meter-long rock, with some letters or entire words wiped out by the passage of time.
Knohl said that a key piece in his theory is based on a word in line 80 of the text that, before he read it last August, was believed to be unintelligible.

"It was written awkwardly with two letters unclear," Knohl said.

Using other examples from that period, he deciphered the word as haye, which meant "you will live." The complete sentence reads: "In three days you will live, I, Gabriel, command you."

Christians mark Easter as the resurrection of Jesus, whom tradition has it rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion.

L. Michael White, a professor of classics and Christian origins at the University of Texas in Austin, said religious scholars had long known that the idea of resurrection existed in Judaism before the Gabriel Revelation.

"But what was interesting," White said, "was the notion of three days." He added that the three-day time period may have been rooted in the view held in ancient medicine that the body did not begin to decompose until the end of three days.

Knohl said that, together with other references in the script to a "suffering messiah," this was a clear reference to the return to life after three days, later depicted in the New Testament with Jesus' resurrection.

"This is evidence that the idea of a suffering messiah, put to death and coming back to life after three days was known to at least a group of Jews," Knohl told the gathering at the Israel Museum in Occupied Jerusalem.

Ada Yardeni, a specialist in ancient languages, does not accept Knohl's conclusions, although he says the faded word in the tablet could mean "lives."

Knohl's "interpretation is plausible even though its spelling is rare," said Yardeni, who was the first to describe the tablet and its text last year in the Israeli historical and archaeological review Cathedra.

An Israeli archeologist who preferred to withhold her name doubted the authenticity.

"It's very strange that such a text was written in ink on a tablet and was preserved until now," she said. "To determine whether it is authentic one would have to know in which condition and exactly where the tablet was discovered, which we do not."

But Yuval Goren, director of the archeology department at Tel Aviv University and a specialist in identifying forgeries, said he could not detect any sign of forgery in the text on the tablet.

Other researchers insisted the exact meaning of the text remained open to interpretation.
Devorah Diamant, a professor at Haifa University, said the script was not sufficient proof of Knohl's theory because some passages he referred to could be connected to other figures from the Bible and not necessarily the messiah. "What he suggested," Diamant said, "is fanciful."

Knohl presented his reading on Tuesday at a seminar in Jerusalem as part of events to mark the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a landmark find that had a huge influence on biblical studies. The tablet itself has been described as a "Dead Sea Scroll on stone."

"If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus," The New York Times claimed. "It suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time."


"For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth"
~The words of Job~

Friendship: On Being Christian

One of my wife's good friends is a witch. Or she as she puts it a wiccan. The subject is usually not discussed, because this lady knows that Linny disapproves. Linny has spoken to her about the Love of God and written to her concerning what God teaches us concerning the occult. Still her friend choses to do her own thing.


What surprises the friend is that Linny will not abandon their friendship. They met through an internet writing group and found out they live close to each other. Both have a fond interest in crafts particularly knitting. So most of the time they knit, talk and drink tea.


Linny is a committed, born again Christian for the past 38 years. She studies the Bible on a daily basis, I have no concerns about their friendship. Perhaps as a younger man I might. I've heard the Scriptures about not being linked with unbelievers and I've also heard those about being in the world, but not of the world.


Though many would alienate those that do not do as I do from our Christian reindeer games, I feel very differently.

Everyone has their own road to travel. I can only hope that I will be a light to those that need it and a friend to those that do not. And though I have my opinions, I was not put here to judge. I have come to appreciate diversity. Family and friendship is a precious gift and is to be dearly valued.


Let your light shine before all men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in Heaven.