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S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) launched the S&P 500^® Christian Values Screened Index in September 2025. This milestone reflects S&P DJI’s philosophy as an independent index provider: offering choices to market participants while maintaining the objectivity and governance required by institutional investors.

Values-based investment can be traced back to 18^th-century Christians in the U.S. and Europe who avoided slavery-related investments,¹ establishing exclusion-based practices. However, Protestant Christian frameworks faced challenges in developing institutional-grade solutions due to diverse theological interpretations that necessitated specialized expertise. Bountiful Financial, a pioneer in faith-based investing, changed this through their newly available Evangelical Christian Investment Framework.

Using structured advisory councils, Bountiful incorporates authentic faith community insights into its Evangelical Christian Framework. This governance-driven approach strives to adhere to expressions of Christian values while maintaining institutional rigor. The Evangelical Christian Framework enables S&P DJI to more confidently meet market participant demand for specific faith-aligned solutions.

Methodology Overview

The S&P 500 Christian Values Screened Index uses a rules-based approach to screen the S&P 500 and exclude constituents in accordance with business activities aligned to Bountiful’s Evangelical Christian Framework. The index seeks to maintain similar sector weights to The 500™ as of the rebalancing reference date.²

Using Bountiful’s Religious Framework as a foundation for Evangelical Christian values and standards, S&P DJI mapped the framework against S&P Global Sustainable1’s revenue-based business involvement screens to create a precise exclusion methodology that integrates the key tenets of Christianity (see Exhibit 1).³

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Historical back-testing reveals that on average, 93% of S&P 500 companies are retained (see Exhibit 2).

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During the June 2025 rebalance, the index excluded only 34 companies representing 6.54% of The 500, with stem cell research being the largest exclusion category (see Exhibit 3).

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The index maintains similar market weights as its benchmark through sector neutrality, using weight factors that proportionally adjust each stock based on free float market capitalization and sector representation. This approach helps to enable market participants to align with their Christian values while preserving comparable sector weighting and performance to the underlying index (see Exhibit 4). Historical back-testing indicates that the index has retained approximately 93% of companies from The 500. It exhibited a tracking error of 51-78 bps annually, with risk-adjusted returns comparable to The 500 (see Exhibit 5).

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The index rebalances quarterly, effective after the close on the third Friday of March, June, September and December, aligning with the S&P 500 Catholic Values Index methodology and ensuring compliance with business activity thresholds as revenue percentages shift and market movements alter sector neutrality.

The S&P 500 Christian Values Screened Index helps to enable faith-based market participants to align their decisions with their Christian values without sacrificing rigor, coverage or performance. The index joins our comprehensive suite of values-based benchmarks, reinforcing our commitment to serving the evolving needs of global market participants and providing options to the market.

For more information about S&P DJI’s values-based index solutions, visit spglobal.com/spdji

Back-tested results are based on criteria applied retroactively with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of factors that may have positively affected its performance. It cannot account for all financial risks that may affect actual results, and the actual performance of the index may vary significantly from the back-tested historical data.

¹ Arkapretim, Roy. “The evolution of responsible investing.” Davy. June 6, 2025

² The rebalancing reference dates are after the close of the third Friday of February, May, August and November.

³ For specific S&P Global category of involvement and description and S&P DJI level of involvement thresholds please review the S&P 500 Christian Values Screened Index Methodology.

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