BRI Needs Its Vanguard Moment

I have a proposal for the biblically responsible investing industry: Please create a product that may make you less money. Admittedly, this is not how most financial-product pitches begin.

Wall Street generally prefers something closer to, “Here is an exciting new strategy with multiple revenue streams, proprietary analytics, and an expense ratio you should probably not examine too closely.”

My proposal is simpler. Build a family of broadly diversified, passively managed, biblically responsible funds with expense ratios approaching those of the lowest-cost conventional index funds.

Call it whatever you like. For now, I will call it the Virtuous Forerunner Family of Funds. BRI needs its Vanguard moment.

BRI Has Solved One Problem

The BRI industry has accomplished something important. It has forced Christian investors to ask a question that conventional investing often ignores: What exactly do I own?

BRI firms have developed sophisticated screening systems, research databases, mutual funds, ETFs, proxy-voting policies, and corporate-engagement programs. They have helped Christians recognize that stewardship involves more than maximizing return.

That is real progress. But another question remains: Can Christian investors build broadly diversified BRI portfolios at costs approaching those available to secular investors?

Today, the answer is often: not quite.

A conventional investor can obtain remarkably inexpensive exposure to large-cap stocks, small-cap stocks, international equities, bonds, value stocks, growth stocks, and almost anything else that can be placed inside an ETF wrapper.

The BRI investor often faces higher expense ratios, fewer choices, more active management, or some combination of all three.

That matters. Fees compound too. Unfortunately, they compound in the wrong direction.

Imagine the Virtuous Forerunner

Suppose a BRI firm created ten or twelve simple index funds.

· Large-cap value, blend, and growth.

· Mid-cap value, blend, and growth.

· Small-cap value, blend, and growth.

· International equities.

· A few corporate bond funds

Each would employ transparent biblical screens. Each would seek broad diversification. Each would track a recognizable market segment. No heroic forecasts would be required.

AI has also changed the economics of this proposal. Many of the costly back-office tasks involved in research, screening, compliance support, reporting, data management, and portfolio administration can now be performed far more efficiently, significantly reducing the financial plumbing costs. Imagine if those cost savings were passed on to Christian stewards.

No portfolio manager would need to predict where interest rates are headed next Tuesday. No investment committee would need to identify the next Nvidia before breakfast.

The funds would simply provide disciplined, low-cost market exposure while excluding companies whose primary business activities conflict with clearly articulated biblical principles.

And the target expense ratio? Less than 0.10% or 10 basis points.

The marketing brochure could be refreshingly short.

There Is One Small Problem

This may not be very profitable. At least not initially. Nine basis points on $100 million of assets produces only $90,000 of annual management fees.

That does not buy much compliance, administration, research, technology, staff, legal work, distribution, or coffee.

Even $1 billion generates only $900,000. So, the Virtuous Forerunner would require something the investment industry does not always enjoy discussing: patience.

Perhaps an established BRI firm could subsidize the funds during their early years. Perhaps Christian foundations, family offices, institutions, or wealthy families could provide patient seed capital.

The objective would not be charity. The enterprise must eventually sustain itself.

Employees still need salaries. Lawyers continue their stubborn refusal to work for free. Computer equipment companies, regrettably, do not accept payment in good intentions.

But the organizing principle would be different. Rather than asking, “How much revenue can we extract from every dollar invested?” the firm might ask: “How efficiently can we provide faithful stewardship tools at scale?”

That sounds remarkably consistent with Christian economics.

What If the Money Actually Came?

Now imagine the idea works. Christians increasingly recognize that stewardship includes considering not merely how much their investments earn, but also what enterprises their capital supports.

At the same time, someone removes one of the largest practical objections to BRI: cost.

Suddenly the decision becomes easier. A Christian investor no longer must choose between broadly diversified, extremely inexpensive conventional indexing and substantially more expensive biblical screening.

The gap narrows. Assets begin to migrate. First millions. Then billions. Retirement accounts. IRAs. Brokerage accounts. Christian universities. Ministries. Foundations. Family offices. Endowments.

Could the amounts eventually become much larger? Certainly.

Christians collectively control vast amounts of investment capital. Much of it presently sits in conventional index funds simply because those funds are cheap, diversified, familiar, and easy to use.

Build a genuinely competitive BRI alternative and some of that capital may move. The irony is wonderful. The BRI firm that intentionally earns less on every dollar might someday manage vastly more dollars.

Screening Is Only Half the Story

And then something even more interesting happens. The Virtuous Forerunner does not merely avoid companies. It becomes a significant owner of companies.

That means voting proxies, communicating with boards, meeting with executives, joining shareholder coalitions, and engaging corporations on matters consistent with biblical principles.

BRI then develops beyond: “We will not own that company.”

It begins asking: “How should we behave toward the companies we do own?”

Scale changes the conversation. A $50 million Christian fund can call a corporation. A $50 billion Christian fund has a much better chance of having the call returned.

That influence should not become merely a Christianized version of secular ESG activism. Corporations are not churches, and shareholders are not pastors.

But Christian investors can reasonably encourage honest reporting, sound governance, protection of human dignity, respect for conscience, wise capital allocation, responsible treatment of employees, and business models that do not depend heavily upon exploiting human vice.

That is not political domination. That is ownership. But wait! Might it be the case when companies migrate toward the timeless best practices found in the Bible actually better enhance shareholder value? Whew! Now vast sums may pursue BRI.

An Invitation to the BRI Industry

This is not criticism of existing BRI firms. Quite the opposite. They have done the pioneering work.

They built the screens. Developed the research. Navigated regulation. Educated investors. Created distribution channels. Established funds when many people thought biblically responsible investing was too small a niche to matter.

Perhaps the next stage requires something different. Perhaps one of these firms must willingly cannibalize some of its existing economics. Christianity, after all, has never taught that maximizing one’s own revenue is the highest conceivable good.

Profit matters. Sustainability matters. Excellence matters. But stewardship matters too.

So, to my friends in the BRI industry: Build the Virtuous Forerunner. Call it something better if you wish.

Charge as little as you reasonably can. Build a comprehensive family of simple index funds. Give economies of scale back to investors. Engage faithfully with the companies you own.

It may be the least profitable idea on your whiteboard. It might also become one of the most consequential things you ever build. The goal is not merely to create a Christian Vanguard.

The goal is to help Christian capital become better-stewarded capital. And if companies transition away from destructive naturalist-based management approaches toward timeless best practices found in the Bible, it may be more enjoyable for everyone to engage in the marketplace.