{"id":266,"date":"2014-05-30T14:13:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T18:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/?p=266"},"modified":"2014-06-03T15:58:55","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T19:58:55","slug":"lobbying-for-morally-responsible-investing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLobbying\u201d for Morally Responsible Investing"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an embarrassing time for Hobby Lobby, the retail store chain that had most of us cheering when they took their case against the Obamacare mandate all the way to the Supreme Court. Regardless if Hobby Lobby wins in court what promises to be a landmark case exempting it from abiding by the HHS mandate, the company has other issues to address internally.<\/p>\n

\"HobbyAfter a little digging into Hobby Lobby\u2019s 401(k) plan, Mother Jones, a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting<\/span> uncovered that the closely-held company\u2019s 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes matching contributions to their company-sponsored 401(k).<\/p>\n

Considering the investment the Green family has made fighting the mandate, the story is likely more unfortunate than hypocritical. It didn\u2019t need to happen! And what\u2019s worse, other pro-life companies and ordinary pro-life investors all have an easy choice \u2013 there are pro-life investment funds that screen out stocks of companies that may be engaged in Planned Parenthood, certain abortion drugs, or embryonic stem cell research. If this news about Hobby Lobby has made you uncomfortable about your retirement plan choices, you are not alone. Fortunately, we have a policy of preventing our investors from making morally objectionable investments.<\/p>\n

The Stewardship Foundation is adamant about carefully selecting our investment portfolios. We guide our donors and partner nonprofit organizations to practice morally responsible investing that matches the foundation\u2019s call to Christian conscience. And we do this with no sacrifice in investment returns. If you or your organization is unsure whether or not your portfolio matches your morals, we are happy to assist you make that determination.<\/p>\n

The following is a summation of the companies behind the Hobby Lobby debacle:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes\u00a0Plan B\u00a0and\u00a0ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis, which makes\u00a0a generic version\u00a0of Plan B and distributes\u00a0Ella. Other stock holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer, the maker of\u00a0Cytotec\u00a0and\u00a0Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer, which manufactures the hormonal IUDs\u00a0Skyla\u00a0and Mirena;\u00a0AstraZeneca, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures\u00a0Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes\u00a0Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions. Several funds in the Hobby Lobby retirement plan also invested in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mother Jones Article \u2018Hobby Lobby’s Hypocrisy: The Company’s Retirement Plan Invests in Contraception Manufacturers\u2019<\/em>, April 1, 2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014\u00a0Patrick Finneran<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an embarrassing time for Hobby Lobby, the retail store chain that had most of us cheering when they took their case against the Obamacare mandate all the way to the Supreme Court. Regardless if Hobby Lobby wins in court what promises to be a landmark case exempting it from abiding by the HHS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,3,33,4],"tags":[6,30,5,70,55],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moral-values","category-stewardship","category-tax-planning","category-the-foundation","tag-charitable-giving","tag-donor-advised-fund","tag-financial-stewardship","tag-hobby-lobby","tag-stewardship-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}