CHURCHES LEAVING BIG BANKS FOR LENT

A while back I wrote about the "Move Your Money Movement" which is a way that we can as individuals tell the big banks we don't like their policies and politics.   I have also been ranting of late about the attacks on women, education and policies by churches.  This week I found out that churches have been very active in moving their money from big banks.

Before Thanksgiving, churches moved $55 million away from Wall Street banks and pledged to move at least $100 million more. In late February, a San Francisco coalition moved $10 million from Wells Fargo. More churches are now joining the movement as a way to observe Lent. As congregations across the country observe the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter by sacrificing and repenting, religious leaders are asking big banks that have wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners and exacerbated the pain of the housing crisis to do the same, the New York Times reports:

Rev. Ryan Bell  is withdrawing the church’s money, several hundred thousand dollars, from its account with the Bank of America. By the April weekend when Christians mourn Jesus’ crucifixion and celebrate his resurrection, Mr. Bell said, he will have moved the assets to a local bank as a protest against Bank of America’s role in mass foreclosures and to issue a call for its repentance.

“To right the wrongs of the world is as much a part of the Lenten experience as to repent ourselves,” Mr. Bell, 40, the pastor of Hollywood Adventist Church near Los Angeles said in a phone interview this week. “During this season, when we individually are examining our lives, we think it’s appropriate for the institutions that affect us to examine theirs.”

I must give credit where it is due.  I am so happy to see so many churches being thoughtful about how they can positively impact and benefit society as a whole.