The Souls of Shareholders: Faith-Based Investing and the War on Corporate Social Justice

““The Souls of Shareholders: Faith-Based Investing and the War on Corporate Social Justice” examines the powerful conservative campaigns against corporate social justice and environmental policies, and how such efforts have undermined the North American Church’s longstanding commitments to corporate social responsibility. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Joanna Wuest Stony Brook University Contact Me

About this grant for researchers

Since 2021, conservative state governments and the second Trump administration have enacted dozens of new policies restricting the use of “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) investing principles and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. My fellowship project, the Souls of Shareholders: Faith-Based Investing and the War on Corporate Social Justice, is one part of a larger book examining the rise and fall of corporate social justice politics in the twenty-first century. The fellowship project examines how well-funded conservative religious organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and a cohort of “biblically responsible” faith-based investors have used the courts, state laws, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to rollback progressive investment and corporate governance policies. Far from alone, these groups have worked alongside secular business associations like the National Association of Manufacturers and the libertarian Americans for Prosperity to cow socially conscious CEOs and boards of directors. In mapping the contours of this influential coalition, my project reveals the relationship between Christian nationalist beliefs and organized economic interests, and demonstrates how the war on ESG and DEI has undermined other U.S. churches’ longstanding commitments to corporate social responsibility against human rights abuses, climate change, and global poverty.