Reprinted by permission from National Review, Inc., 215 Lexington Avenue , New York , NY 10010 . Copyright 1996.

Ever since the 1960s, there have been mutual funds catering to investors who want to put their money to work in socially responsible ways. As you'd expect, "socially responsible" is usually a synonym for "left-wing...." If such funds don't appeal to you,...you now have another choice. A new social fund that can accurately be termed conservative has just completed its first full year....

The Timothy Plan won't invest in "companies that are contributing to our society's moral decline." Specifically forbidden are the stocks of firms that "promote pornography" (broadly defined to include sexy, foul-mouthed, and violent movies and TV shows and the companies that advertise heavily on them), abortion (barred are drug makers, hospital chains, and insurers that facilitate the practice, as well as firms that contribute heavily to Planned Parenthood).... However, Timothy will invest in defense stocks....

It would be nice to be able to say that the Timothy Plan's doubly conservative stock-picking style works well. So far, alas, it has not.... Some Wall Street experts, including those at Lipper, argue that investing is tough enough without eliminating whole groups of stocks. If you buy that line, then a smart approach is to go ahead and invest in Disney and Bally and accumulate all the profits you can so that you can give to charity--or the fight against abortion and pornography, if that's your goal....

But if you have the time and the inclination, putting together your own portfolio along similar lines might be a good idea. Here are five stocks to consider: Corrections Corp. of America..., Reader's Digest..., McDonnell Douglas..., Uranium Resources..., and Philip Morris.... Conservatives, in short, should have no trouble finding stocks that provide a shiver of political pleasure--along with the more conventional joys of capital gains and dividends.

- anonymous author