The Catholic Church and the Stock Market
What does the Church have to say about responsible stock market behavior and money management?
Jesus Speaks on Growing our Resources
In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the parable of the servants and the talents. He describes the importance of responsibly growing the resources God gives us. As a result, we must responsibly grow our money in the stock market for the glory of God and not for our own.
Biblical Investing Advice
Ecclesiastes 11:2 states, "Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land". The Bible gives investment advice, stating that we ought to diversify our portfolio to defend against any one disaster.
The Catholic Church Today and the Stock Market
The Catholic Church today recognizes investing as an important route to financial stability and prosperity for many people. It does, however, prohibit investing in certain industries, such as a medical company that has begun to offer stem cell treatment.
Overall, the Catholic Church endorses investing as a means of attaining financial stability. In both the Gospels and Old Testament, it is reinforced that this must be done for the glory of God and that we must do so safely. The book of Ecclesiastes even contains advice about diversifying our investments. In conclusion, the Catholic Church approves of investing.
Reasons for Choosing this Topic
Since I was in elementary school, math has been my favorite subject. However, it was not until much later that I realized the true utility of math in many facets of the professional world. Since I could apply the subject I enjoyed to the real world, and the study of making money at that, the world of business became appealing to me. For this specific project, I wanted to study an area of economics and the stock market that I believed was not extensively studied. I also wondered what specific factors that could be scientifically measured caused people to make the seemingly irrational decisions that they did.
Service: Junior Achievement
My Service Project
This summer, I volunteered at Junior Achievement in Charlotte by working at their summer camps for elementary and middle-school aged kids. I helped them learn about personal finance and how to be responsible with their money as they grew up while also watching it grow and achieving financial stability for their family. This helped me see just how few children understand the importance of personal finance and helped me make a true difference.