“Do any of us really want to be in the position where our retirement account grows in sync with the cancer ward?”

That’s the question posed by Robin John about tobacco, responsible for 100 million deaths in the last 100 years. Naturally all of us would say no, we don’t want to benefit from other people dying. Yet as Robin points out in his new book, The Good Investor: How Your Work Can Confront Injustice, Love Your Neighbor, and Bring Healing to the World, many of us do hold mutual funds that invest in tobacco companies. We just don’t know it. Come to think of it, how much do we know about any of our investments, especially in long-term retirement accounts?

Robin John is the cofounder and CEO of Eventide, an asset management firm dedicated to honoring God and investing in companies that create compelling value for the common good. His vision for Eventide's values-based investing shows how our work can benefit everyone and not just bolster the bottom line for a fortunate few. I’d go so far as to say our world can be a much better place if investors—and employees of all kinds—will learn from his example and prioritize what really matters now, and in eternity.

In This Episode
0:00 – Joy, purpose, and God’s design for everyday work
1:49 – Why The Good Investor is ultimately a book about joy
2:48 – Growing up in Kerala, India, and immigrating to the U.S.
4:42 – Community, individualism, and caring for the vulnerable
7:41 – Returning to India and confronting workplace injustice
10:49 – Rethinking success, profit, and the purpose of work
11:53 – Why Christians must examine their investments
14:33 – What does it mean to “root for” a company’s success?
15:36 – Discernment, gray areas, and biblical values in investing
18:07 – Avoiding evil and actively pursuing the common good
19:43 – Weaponry, conscience, and consistency at Eventide
20:13 – The cautionary story of Bill Hwang and ill-gotten gain
23:19 – The false divide between faith and work
25:07 – How investing has changed since 2008
27:14 – What ESG investing is—and where it diverges from Christianity
31:19 – Mission alignment vs. values alignment
32:23 – Encouragement for ordinary, faithful work
34:44 – Legacy, goodness, and hearing “well done”

Resources Mentioned

• The Good Investor by Robin John

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Here in Birmingham, Alabama, I often teach about the civil-rights movement as the most effective faith-based movement for social change in American history. We have a bitter heritage of violent segregation. But the same city produced the heroes of the struggle, the ordinary men and women (especially children) who stared down the police dogs and fire hoses in the march for their freedom.

Justin Giboney honors such heroes as pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and commends their example for today in an informative, provocative book, Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church’s Public Witness Leads Us Out of the Culture War, published by IVP. Justin is the cofounder and president of the AND Campaign. The endorsement of this book by Bob Roberts calls Justin a “strange mix of Tim Keller and Martin Luther King Jr. wrapped up in his own personality and voice.” High praise!

In This Episode
00:00 – Jesus, truth, and critiquing our own side
00:33 – Birmingham, civil rights, and faith-based social change
01:00 – Introducing Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around
01:40 – The burden behind writing the book
03:07 – Family history and the Black church tradition
04:05 – Why Fred Shuttlesworth matters
05:14 – “Biblicist and actionist”: faith and public courage
06:05 – Nonviolence, moral discipline, and leadership
07:11 – Shuttlesworth and King: contrasts and complements
09:23 – Why moral progress isn’t inevitable
12:10 – Moral imagination and Christian hope
15:57 – What is the culture war? 18:44 – Humility, self-critique, and redeemable opponents
21:29 – Justice, moral order, and refusing false binaries
22:51 – King, the late 1960s, and the cost of a “third way”
25:26 – Militancy, frustration, and historical context
28:01 – Why Christians can’t abandon character
31:12 – Tyranny, violence, and ending debate by force
33:18 – Advice for young activists
35:19 – Frederick Douglass and critiquing your own movement
38:37 – Accountability, power, and political humility
43:36 – Christian nationalism and historical amnesia
47:24 – Final encouragement: civility, faithfulness, and hope

Resources Mentioned

• Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church's Public Witness Leads Us out of the Culture War by Justin Giboney

— — —

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🎁 Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at https://www.tgc.org/together

🎧 Don’t miss an episode of Gospelbound with Collin Hansen

▫ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gospelbound/id1499898207

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