Proxy Voting: Making the Christian Voice Heard in the Marketplace

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commanded his followers:

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 (CSB)

At GuideStone^®, we believe that part of letting our light shine means advocating for values and actions that reflect Christ and opposing those that do not. Making our collective voice heard in the financial marketplace is one way Christians can do this.

Generally, companies are not morally neutral. Their products and services can help or hinder the flourishment of God’s image on earth. As investors and shareholders, we have the right and responsibility to advocate for just business practices that honor human dignity and creation.

Proxy Voting

Shareholders have the right to decide on corporate matters, such as board elections and shareholder resolutions, at the company’s annual meetings.

Proxy voting enables shareholders who can’t attend those meetings in person to exercise their voting rights.

For Christian investors, proxy voting is an essential tool for steering corporate policies into alignment with our faith and principles. We can be responsible stewards of the companies we own shares in by directly supporting initiatives that align with biblical values and opposing those that do not.

GuideStone and Proxy Voting

Until recently, we delegated our proxy voting responsibilities to our mutual fund sub-advisers. Though these sub-advisers operated under our faith-based investing mandate, we wanted a more proactive way to steward our voting privileges. To that end, we began consulting with a leading proxy advisory firm to develop comprehensive proprietary voting guidelines that reflect our desire to see a world transformed by Christian investing.

In July 2023, we brought proxy voting in-house. Since then, we have scrutinized and acted on every proxy ballot we’ve received to diligently exercise our shareholder voting power, calling corporations to accountability.

Through our proxy voting initiatives, we’ve asked companies to report on the risks of discrimination against individuals based on religious and political views and the risks of omitting viewpoint and ideological diversity from Equal Employment Opportunity policies.

We’ve taken steps to make the world safer for children by asking for an assessment and mitigation of child labor in corporate supply chains and requesting social media companies evaluate their child safety policies and harm reduction strategies.

We’ve continued to stand against abortion by requesting corporations to report on the risks of opposing state abortion regulations via their employee benefits packages. We’ve also voted against any proposal that asked companies to avoid complying with law enforcement data requests regarding illegal abortion access.

As Christians, participating in the financial markets is an opportunity to reflect our faith and advance God’s Kingdom. Rather than being passive investors, we are called to be faithful stewards, using our voices to shape and influence the marketplace for Christ.

To learn more about how GuideStone multiplies Kingdom impact through Christian investment solutions, contact your advisor consultant today.