Christians fight about how to serve God and mammon

Is it possibleesg to manage money successfully and be a virtuous Christian? For 2,000-odd years, followers of the world’s largest religion have debated the issue. Recently the debate has become fractious. The management of Christian money, once farmed out to professionals, is now a moral minefield, the negotiation of which has effects in the here-and-now, not just the hereafter.Christian investors mostly fall into three camps: those willing to forge a partnership with environmental, social and governance () types; those stridently opposed to them; and Roman Catholics. Dave Zellner, who manages $24bn for Wespath, in effect the investment arm of America’s Methodists, is in the first. He calls his job a search for “the intersection between good business practice and church values”. Wespath lends to housing projects for the poor, but at market rates. It teams up with worldly lobby groups for shareholder activism, including a coalition called Climate Action 100+ which encourages energy companies to quit carbon.