As a minister and servant of Christ's church, most Sunday mornings find me awake early and at the office preparing for and leading worship services and helping out with our Christian education classes. The morning ends with the benediction at the concluding worship service which sends us out into the world with the words of the Apostle Paul, "rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit" to love and serve the Lord by holding on, with courage, to what is good and just by helping the suffering, supporting the weak and strengthening the fainthearted. Sunday afternoon is often filled with youth activities and the occasional nap, a good book or an exciting sports event on television.
Recently, I took a Sunday off from my usual duties at church and rode for 15hrs on a charter bus with 45 other clergy and lay leaders from IL People's Action to the National People's Action conference in Washington, DC. On Sunday morning I helped lead an 8AM workshop on NPA's Hold Banks Accountable Campaign highlighted by the presence of officers from three Federal Regulatory Agencies who, after more than a year of traditional meetings, agreed to work with NPA and our affiliates across the country to increase transparency in mortgage lending practices and to modernize community reinvestment programs to help rebuild our local economies that have been devastated once again by the current economic crisis and the abusive policies of the largest banks in America. Did I mention that those traditional meetings were granted through previous direct actions on regulators?
The morning workshop was followed by an afternoon call to action - a powerful benediction - calling on roughly 1000 leaders to direct action! We were called to respond to the voices of despair crying out in our neighborhoods as millions lose their homes to foreclosure, joblessness impoverishes already depressed cities and towns, and all the while Wall Street and the big banks turn record profits handing out huge bonuses. The direct action, for which I had a major leadership role, was the result of dozens of attempts by local and national affiliates to have our voices heard, our painful stories of loss, fear and frustration, and our solutions to the problems that led us into economic disaster in the first place, by those who have the power to make significant changes in policy at the corporate level and in government. We boarded 14 buses and went to the home of Bank of America's Deputy General Counsel for Corporate law, Greg Baer to ask that he arrange for a meeting with NPA and his boss Brian Moynihan. A meeting we have been denied too many times following the typical channels of requests. We have even asked our Federal regulators directly to help us get a meeting with this most protected CEO to no avail. We also went to the home of Peter Scher, a lobbyist for JP Morgan Chase, who has been working hard to derail financial reform efforts in Congress, reforms designed to protect the very folks we represented. We visited Mr. Scher to request a meeting with his boss Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase.
Direct action is an uncomfortable thing for most people to do. Confronting people in positions of authority is not most people's idea of a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We would much rather spend our time at the decision making tables, sharing our stories and solutions with those who make the policies that are currently crushing our neighborhoods. We would be glad to sit down in the very comfortable leather board room chairs of the largest banks rather than ride on less than comfortable school buses into quiet upscale neighborhoods placing ourselves at the mercy of law enforcement and slightly agitated neighbors. And yet, when the voices of those who have already lost so much are completely ignored, when Bank of America continues to come to our homes everyday, too often to take them away, we run out of alternatives. Five million families have lost their homes since 2008 and during this crisis the largest banks have given average Americans the run around as folks sought to modify their mortgages in an effort to pay for and keep their homes. Thousands of families live in unacceptable conditions in foreclosed apartment buildings that have not been maintained by the banks that hold trusteeship of the properties. Daily, residents live in fear in rat infested buildings where trash is not collected and power is turned off to hallway lighting and elevators. All of this is a direct result of the failed policies and greed of big banks who are not responding to the human tragedy playing out in our midst. Neighborhoods are bleeding with foreclosures, driving down property values and bankrupting municipalities and state governments. Big bank profits on the other hand continue to reach record levels despite the erosion they are causing in our communities. Big banks are spending $1.4 million a day on lobbying to kill financial reforms that would grant increased transparency designed to thwart racial discrimination in lending practices and provide for an independent consumer financial protection agency that would guard our communities from predatory lending practices, such as Pay Day Lending, which is capitalized by the big banks including Bank of America. Enough is enough!
When I joined with National People's Action through my local affiliate IL People's Action, a faith-based organization working for justice, I was immediately impressed by the care that was taken in organizing all direct actions. Safety and respect are at the top of the list for preparation. In 38 years we have had no arrests, because we have always respected our brave women and men of law enforcement, the property of the subject of the direct action and we are always led by highly prepared leadership teams. Last Sunday was no exception. Yes, the neighborhood wasn't quiet for the twenty to thirty minutes we were there. Yes, we snarled neighborhood traffic for a few minutes while we boarded our buses. And, yes we left peaceably after we shared our painful testimony and made our request without incident.
As a person of faith, I am called by God to have courage, to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). I am confident that we did just that on a sunny Sunday in our nation's capitol. And, I know that we walked with God who strengthened our voices and gave us hearts willing to get a bit uncomfortable for justice!
