If you ask ten BRI fund managers to list the sin stock categories they screen out, you will get six answers that mostly line up and a whole lot of disagreement on where the lines sit. The categories are broadly the same. The cutoffs, the revenue thresholds, and the judgment calls are very much not.

Here is the honest version of the six, what each one actually catches, and where the tension points live.

1. Alcohol

The basic screen: companies whose primary business is producing or distributing alcoholic beverages.

What it catches: Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Constellation Brands (STZ), Diageo (DEO), Molson Coors (TAP), Brown Forman (BFB), Boston Beer (SAM), Heineken (HEIA.AS), Asahi, Kirin, Pernod Ricard. Also some smaller distilleries that trade.

What it does not usually catch: Grocery chains that sell alcohol, restaurants with a bar, hotels that run minibars. The logic is that alcohol has to be the core of the business, not a side revenue stream. Most funds use a 5 or 10 percent revenue threshold.

The verse: Proverbs 20:1, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise." Also Ephesians 5:18, "do not get drunk with wine." Note that Scripture is not teetotaling. Jesus turned water into wine at Cana (John 2). The BRI screen is not saying alcohol itself is evil. It is saying the business of producing a substance that causes widespread addiction, family destruction, and death is a different category than growing grapes for a wedding.

The tension: Some Christians think alcohol producers should be owned precisely so shareholders can push for responsible marketing. Others think the scale of alcohol-related deaths (roughly 178,000 in the US annually as of recent CDC data) makes ownership indefensible. BRI funds side with the second view.

2. Tobacco

The basic screen: producers of tobacco products.

What it catches: Philip Morris International (PM), Altria (MO), British American Tobacco (BTI), Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco. Also, in most 2026 screens, the e-cigarette and vape companies like Juul (if they ever IPO again) and Turning Point Brands (TPB).

What it does not catch: Convenience stores that sell cigarettes, even though they make real money on tobacco. Again, the core business test.

The verse: 1 Corinthians 6:19 gets cited, "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." It is a stretch as a tobacco specific verse, but the principle that intentionally destroying your health is not honoring to God holds up. Proverbs 14:30 on physical health also gets used.

The tension: Tobacco stocks have historically been among the best performers in the entire market. MO has returned, over very long stretches, more than the S&P 500. That is partially because BRI and ESG selling pressure keeps them cheap, which keeps their dividend yields high, which pulls in yield investors. Screening them out means giving up that specific edge. BRI funds think that trade is worth it. Some Christian investors disagree.

3. Gambling

The basic screen: casinos, online sports books, slot machine manufacturers, and lottery equipment makers.

What it catches: Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), Wynn Resorts (WYNN), Boyd Gaming (BYD), Caesars Entertainment (CZR), DraftKings (DKNG), Flutter Entertainment (FLUT, parent of FanDuel), International Game Technology (IGT), Scientific Games, Light and Wonder (LNW).

What it does not catch: Hotel chains that happen to have casinos as a small piece. Credit card companies that process gambling payments. State lotteries, obviously, because you can not invest in them.

The verse: Proverbs 13:11, "Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it." Also 1 Timothy 6:9 on the desire to get rich. Gambling is basically the anti-compounding. Every spin is designed to transfer money from you to the house. BRI treats it as a business model that preys on the poor and the addicted.

The tension: DraftKings has been a huge growth story, and some investors feel the BRI screen locks them out of a legitimate entertainment business. BRI funds counter that sports betting addiction rates have exploded since 2018 legalization, and that argument holds up pretty well in the data.

4. Pornography

The basic screen: producers and distributors of pornographic material.

What it catches: Surprisingly few public companies. MindGeek (parent of Pornhub) is private. Most adult content is private equity owned. But the screen does catch hotel chains that stock adult pay-per-view (less of an issue in 2026 than it used to be), some satellite and cable TV providers, and any company that gets meaningful revenue from adult content distribution.

It also catches Amazon (AMZN) in some strict screens because Amazon sells adult videos and magazines through its marketplace, though most BRI funds do not exclude AMZN on this basis alone because the revenue share is tiny. We will unpack AMZN in its own post.

The verse: Matthew 5:28, "everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Job 31:1, "I have made a covenant with my eyes." Ephesians 5:3, "sexual immorality must not even be named among you."

The tension: The screen is hard to apply because the industry is so private. BRI funds do their best, but most of the real enforcement happens through revenue threshold tests on companies that distribute content.

5. Abortion

The basic screen: companies that manufacture abortion drugs, own abortion clinics, or provide the procedure.

What it catches: This is a small list in public markets. Danco Laboratories (the maker of Mifeprex) is private. GenBioPro makes generic mifepristone and is private. The public companies that get caught are pharmacy chains that dispense mifepristone and Plan B (CVS Health (CVS), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Walmart (WMT) pharmacies), and some biotech firms working on abortion-related research.

Beyond direct involvement, many BRI funds extend the screen to companies that fund Planned Parenthood through corporate giving. That list changes year to year but has included Starbucks (SBUX), Microsoft (MSFT), Bank of America (BAC), and many others depending on the year's corporate giving reports.

The verse: Psalm 139:13, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." Exodus 21:22-25, which addresses injury to an unborn child.

The tension: This is the single hardest screen to apply consistently. The pharmacy question is genuinely hard (we will cover CVS in a dedicated post). The corporate giving question opens up basically every Fortune 500 company to scrutiny. Different BRI funds land in very different places here.

6. LGBTQ advocacy

The basic screen: This one has the widest range of interpretations across BRI funds.

Strict version: companies that fund transition procedures for minors, companies that celebrate Pride month with marketing aimed at children, companies that donate to advocacy groups pushing for curriculum changes in schools, companies that require employees to attend DEI training promoting specific gender ideology.

Lenient version: companies whose core business is promoting or producing content celebrating LGBTQ lifestyles in a way that conflicts with biblical teaching.

What it catches, depending on the strictness: Target (TGT) in some screens for the 2023 Pride merchandise controversy. Disney (DIS) for content decisions, corporate advocacy in Florida, and transition benefits. Bud Light's parent BUD for the 2023 Dylan Mulvaney campaign (though BUD was already excluded for alcohol). Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo for corporate giving to advocacy groups. Mattel for some doll product lines.

The verses: Genesis 1:27, "male and female he created them." Romans 1:26-27. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Matthew 19:4-6.

The tension: This is the most controversial screen in all of BRI, and it is where the movement faces its sharpest internal debates. Some BRI funds think the core business test should exclude companies from this category only if the business is directly about LGBTQ advocacy (very few public companies qualify). Others push hard into corporate behavior and donations. The differences are big enough that two BRI funds can have very different holdings on this single issue.

It is also the category most likely to change over the next decade as the broader culture shifts and as funds figure out how they want to handle corporate activism versus actual products and services.

The underlying logic

Zoom out for a second. Why these six? Why not climate change, weapons, sweatshop labor, predatory lending?

The six categories share something in common. They all map to activities that the Bible either explicitly prohibits or treats as forms of harm that damage individuals, families, and communities in repeat, measurable ways. BRI tries to stay on the solid biblical ground rather than venturing into areas where Christians can reasonably disagree about what stewardship looks like.

That said, plenty of BRI funds do also screen for weapons manufacturers, predatory lenders, and companies with egregious labor practices. Those are usually secondary screens, not the core six. Inspire publishes impact scores that weigh many factors. Eventide includes worker treatment and community impact in their Business 360 framework. Timothy Plan is stricter and focuses mostly on the core six.

Why the screens matter even if you do not fully agree

Even if you disagree with one or two of these categories, the exercise of applying screens has a discipline to it. It forces you to actually look at what your money does. Most people who own VOO or SPY have no idea they own a slice of Altria or MGM. The screens make it legible.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Applied to investing, that means the question of what my dollars fund is not a side question. It is part of the main question.

The six sin stock categories are an imperfect attempt to answer it. Better than ignoring the question, not a substitute for ongoing discernment. Use them as a starting point, keep reading, and make the calls that line up with your conscience.

The Six Sin Stock Categories Every BRI Fund Screens Out