Taking the Showdown to the Texas Senate

One of the efforts for economic justice of which I have been a part in recent months goes by the name Showdown in America.  On February 22, the showdown made its way to a committee hearing in the Capitol of Texas.  An overflow crowd packed into the Committee on Business and Commerce of the Texas Senate, lining up to give public comment on legislation designed to eliminate a loophole in the Texas credit laws which has allowed payday lenders and car title lenders to avoid regulation and charge "fees" and interest rates amounting to APRs of 300%, 395%, 529%, 740%.  It is almost a reverse limbo dance: "How high can you go?  It's the payday lending rock."

Things got pretty hot when the CEO of a national payday lending business testified, and in the process was unwilling to go beyond the party line:  if Texas applies any new controls or interest caps on the "short-term, small principle" lending business, we will all go out of business.  The senators finally had their fill of this vague, undocumented scare tactic.  They demanded that credible documentation and good faith negotiation had better come fast from this industry if they want to have a say in how this legislation turns out.  It was a sight to see.

After a break for the Senate to do some business, the committee reconvened in the afternoon.  Suddenly, more forthcoming witnesses discussed a path toward mutual interest in regulating these businesses.  Forced to admit that their businesses are profitable in many states where regulations are much more strict, industry representatives offered to dialogue further on the kinds of regulation that would allow them to stay in business.

A friend of Shaw University and a well-known leader among Baptists had opportunity to speak in the morning about the effects of predatory lending where their church ministers, Rev. Freddy Haynes of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas.  He said, "Instead of throwing them a lifeline, we're throwing them shackles."  Rev. Chad Chaddick, pastor of Northeast Baptist Church in San Antonio told of predatory lending affecting his church's ministries.  Bishop Joe Vasquez of the Catholic Diocese of Austin, addressed both the tradition of Catholic social teaching and the ways that it had become clear that the diocese's funds were indirectly subsidizing profits of payday lenders when desperate borrowers came seeking charity from the churches.  Suzii Paynter of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission laid out extensive information on the way the business operates, then made an impassioned plea to the senators that they owed as much concern and compassion toward families harmed by predatory lenders as they seemed willing to show toward business owners trying to make a buck.

I hit a few key points that have been recurring themes of my public work on usury in the past year.  Below see my remarks and a video of my testimony that was broadcast live on the Texas legislative television coverage.

Remarks presented to the Texas State Senate

Committee on Business and Commerce

February 22, 2011

Rev. Dr. Mikael Broadway, Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics, Shaw University Divinity School, resident of Bell County, TX, http://mbway.blogspot.com

My name is Dr. Mike Broadway, and I am a Baptist minister and theological professor living in Salado.  I am representing myself as a citizen. 

For the past year and a half I have been working with a wide range of church people, including pastors and seminary professors, to address economic injustices which have become increasingly acute in the wake of the mortgage security debacle and the burst housing bubble.

Along with other leaders, I have met with the top credit and mortgage executives of Bank of America and Wells Fargo/Wachovia to address usury and  justice issues.  I have also joined leaders from around the nation to meet with Attorney General Tom Miller of Iowa to articulate our concerns for justice pertaining to a national investigation of foreclosure fraud perpetrated by major national and regional banks, of which he is the lead investigator.  Only last week we sent a letter to all the state attorneys general, including Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, to outline a path toward economic justice in housing.

I give you this background because I want to emphasize that the struggle against usurious lending is not only a Texas struggle, but a nationwide struggle.  In many states, legislators like you have worked diligently with citizen leaders to try to clean up the predatory lending practices that continue to spring up in our cities, towns, and neighborhoods. 

All of you can agree with me that lenders and borrowers need to operate in a system built on fairness.  That is what the millennia of historical usury laws has been about.  Under this assumption, for four thousand years financial institutions have been able to succeed and flourish under the careful regulation of interest rates to protect people from usury.  Yet for some reason we now find ourselves, because of laws made in 1979, 1980, and 1987, operating with few legal protections from usury.  Perhaps contemporary humans have overestimated our maturity in failing to listen to the wisdom of four millennia, which recommends strong usury laws.

Of course, there have always been people who believe they should be able to charge as much as they want to lend money.  In saner times, we knew what to call them:  loan sharks.  Nowadays, they pass as respectable business operators.  When a legislature musters enough moral courage to try to prevent the worst forms of usury, these predators search the fine print and locate every loophole in the letter of the law.  Exploiting these loopholes, they find new and creative ways to abuse borrowers and scoff at the spirit of the law.  The latest way is to pretend that interest is not interest by calling it a fee.  The current abuse of payday lending and car title lending is an egregious example of this bald-faced lie.

If I borrow money from you, and you charge me for borrowing that money, then that is interest.  The ancient text of Deuteronomy makes it very clear that usury is usury, whether you collect a fee up front, you charge it along the way, or you claim it at the end.  The heart of the legal tradition’s bias against usury is that it is wrong to victimize the poor and weaker members of the community by creating lending practices which prey upon their weakness. 

Payday lenders may claim that closing this loophole will make it impossible to do business.  It will make it impossible to do business the way they do it.  But from my observations around the country, let me say that it will not make it impossible to operate a fair lending business among people of low and moderate income.  Numerous workable business models exist, from non-profits like Grace Period of Pittsburgh, PA, to microlending banks, to community banks and credit unions.  These businesses can make fair, non-usurious loans to fill the need of people who patronize payday lenders.

One of the shameful practices of the recent past in our nation was known as sharecropping.  Theoretically, it was a way for people to apply their labor to improve themselves and benefit the landowner, whose land they farmed, at the same time.  In reality, it was often a trap to keep people in debt to the landowner, living as debt slaves, perpetually indebted.  The biblical tradition opposing usury has at its core the assumption that no society can be just if it creates and maintains a permanent debtor class.  There must be a way out of debt.  Payday lending as we have it now is debt sharecropping . . . debt sharecropping.  Its business plan is perpetual indebtedness of its borrowers.  Please close this loophole and help our state take another step toward economic justice in consumer credit.

Fresh-Ground Coffee

Thanks to my infinitely lovable brother-in-law Jim Lowder for the gift of a Capresso coffee grinder.  I had burned out and fixed and burned out again my coffee grinder almost a year ago, so I was back to depending on getting my coffee ground before I brought it home.  I was a bit perturbed by reading opinions and reviews of coffee grinders and had given up on getting one.

Jim has had long experience grinding his beans for coffee, and he had the kindness to solve my dilemma with a Christmas gift.  I've used up my ground coffee stocks, so I started a couple of weeks ago grinding beans with a bag of Larry's Beans Holiday Blend.  One way I know the coffee is really good (which means really strong) is that no one else in the house can stand it.

Thanks, Jim, for just the right gift.

Foreclosure Fraud 4: Reigning in the Imbalance of Power

Anyone who has negotiated a price for a car knows what happens next.  Having agreed upon a price, the salesperson or clerk starts filling out an invoice and adding more fees, charges, and items over and above the agreement.  A whole new round of negotiations starts, and unless the buyer is willing to walk away from the car, she or he may be stuck with paying these "mandatory" fees.

Banks and other lenders have taken a page from the car dealer's book, and they must have entire departments devoted to thinking up charges and fees with fancy and official-sounding names.  With the passage of reforms for the credit card business and other consumer credit, these fee inventors have redoubled their efforts to replace outlaws charges with new ones.

If there is any fairness in the consumer credit industry, then this ability to arbitrarily and independently add fees and charges has to be reigned in.  Borrowers need to be able to enter discussions on modifications with at least the presumption that the process has their interest as a concern along with the lender's interest.  We want the attorneys general to enforce procedures which help maintain a balance of power in the loan modification and foreclosure process.

Problem: Servicers take unfair advantage of borrowers in default by charging multiple fees, sometimes for services that are unnecessary, and sometimes for costs that are disproportionate to the service being performed (in some cases by affiliated companies).

Solution:

All Fees Must Be Reasonable and Transparent

All servicer fees must be bona fide and reasonable and fully disclosed to the borrower.  Lender attorneys fees charged to borrowers may not exceed bona fide and reasonable fees for work.  Fees may only be collected for services actually rendered or for work actually performed.

Forced-place Insurance Severely Limited

The use afforce-placed insurance must be limited to reasonable application, affordable payments and only after other options, including borrower's option to purchase on open market, have been exhausted.

Problem: For any requirements (including those already in place), adequate enforcement provisions and staff must be put in place so servicers are not able to ignore the requirements with impunity.

Solution:

• Each settlement should contain the creation of an ombuds-office under the AG that will investigate violations of the agreement. Fines should be imposed for violations of the agreement if servicer refuses to cure. Also, the AGs should have the right to issue a "cease and desist" letter to halt foreclosure activity during the investigation.
• A portion of any monetary funds from the settlement should be directed to legal aid and housing counseling groups to assist with modifications and enforcement of agreement including foreclosure prevention litigation.
• In addition to assigning each borrower a single case manager, a single team should be created in house at each servicer as part of the settlement to oversee loan modification activity under the settlement.

The next post will deal with which people should have relief and recourse in dealing with foreclosure fairness and foreclosure fraud.

It's a Nationwide Fight Against Predatory Payday Lending

For numerous years, a fight has been going on from state to state and on a national level to curb and stop usurious payday lending.  This loan-sharking business exists by finding the cracks in the laws.  They hire sophisticated lawyers to find the legal loopholes, and slick PR firms to explain why they fill a need in the credit market.  They prey on desperate people and pretend to be a friend of the people who need credit.  The real nature of their business, however, is to be debt sharecroppers.  They gain an interest and claim on a person's future income in perpetuity.  It is a business designed to entrap borrowers so that they can never get out of debt.

I'll get a chance to speak about this predatory business at a public hearing on Tuesday, February 22, at the Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce.  I am impressed with the work of Texas Faith for Fair Lending, at whose invitation I will be speaking.  Some of these folks are the ones I used to work with as a wet-behind-the-ears seminary graduate in the mid-1980s.  In those days, these organizations were working to protect and provide for children in poverty and trying to hold off the tsunami of state-sponsored victimization through gambling businesses.  Suzii Paynter of the Texas Baptists Christian Life Commission will be part of the fight, and I am proud to get to work with such a distinguished drum major for justice.  The quoted material below comes from the Texas Faith for Fair Lending web site.  You can read the original at this link.

Payday Lenders and Car Title Lenders Evade Existing Texas Lending Laws

Although Texas lending laws provide generous regulatory and fee structures, payday lenders and car title lenders sidestep these provisions by posing as credit services organizations (CSOs), giving them an unfair advantage in the lending landscape.  As CSOs, payday and car title lenders operate outside of the bounds of the rules set for all other consumer lenders in the state and exploit a state law designed to protect consumers from seeking credit repair help. Both payday and auto title lenders could operate under Ch. 342.  For the smaller loans, auto title lenders could use the rate computations under 342F (or 342E).  For larger loans, they could operate under 342E.ⁱ

Below is a comparison of Texas's existing lending law which payday and car title lenders evade, and a snapshot of their abusive practices permitted by the CSO loophole.

It's Time to Level the Playing Field. 

The state's CSO statute was designed to protect consumers from abuse when seeking credit repair help, not as a vehicle for loans that result in long term indebtedness.  After more than 5 years of permitting this evasion of state law to continue, it is time for legislators to close this loophole, and ensure that these lenders operate under the Texas lending laws in place for all other consumer lenders.  It's time to close the loophole.

__________________

ⁱ The maximum loan under subchapter F is $1,240.  Under subchapter E, loans of up to $15,000 may be made.

ⁱⁱ Under existing Texas lending laws, finance charges for payday loans are set by the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner (OCCC).  Texas OCCC's authority to set these rates comes from TFC § 342.007, which allows the finance commission to establish rules for payday loans, and in TAC § 83.604(c) which incorporates the fees by reference.  For current Texas OCCC rates, see http://www.occc.state.tx.us/pages/int_rates/Index.html and click on the link for “Deferred Presentment Transaction Rate Charts.”  However, instead of complying with this law intended for them, payday lenders operate as CSOs, for whom there is no limit on finance charges, and rates reach upward of 500% APR (and higher) fur a loan that typically has a 14-day term.

ⁱⁱⁱ Under existing Texas lending laws, car title loans can carry finance charges consisting of a $10 set fee, plus $4 per $100 a month installment charge.  Car title loan finance charges are authorized under TFC § 342.253, which incorporates the fees permitted by TFC § 342.252 (3).  In addition to these finance charges, under existing Texas lending law, TFC § 342.502 (b) (5) expressly permits a “fee for recording a lien on or transferring certificate of title to a motor vehicle offered as a security for a loan.”  (The recording fee is not included in APR calculations because they are excludable from inclusion in the finance charge under the federal Truth in Lending, Act, Reg. Z § 226(e) (l).)  However, instead of complying with these state lending laws intended for them, car title lenders operate as CSOs, for whom there is no limit on finance charges, and rates reach upwards 300% APR fur a loan that typically has a 30-day term.

^iv Regardless if the cost is classified as "interest” or “fees” under state law, the cost to the borrower is the same.  The federal Truth in Lending Act requires that both interest and fees be combined and disclosed to borrowers as an Annual Percentage Rate (APR).  Federal law requires the cost of the all credit to be disclosed in terms APR, regardless of whether the loan is for two weeks or two years.

^v Existing Texas laws expressly permit payday loans to use a borrower's post-dated check as collateral for the loan, and expressly permits car title loans to use a borrower’s title to her car as collateral.  For payday loans, see TAC § 83.604 (b) (“The check given in the [payday loan] transaction may serve as security for the payment of the loan.”).  For car title loans, car title as security is not expressly prohibited under TFC § 342.503 and is stated as a permitted practice for authorized fees in TFC § 352.502 (b) (5).  However, even though the CSO statute does not expressly allow any of these collaterals, these payday and car title lenders operating as CSOs use checks and car titles as collateral respectively, as well as electronic access to a borrower’s debit account and a letter of credit issued by the CSO.

^vi Under existing Texas lending law, payday lenders and car title lenders, just like all other consumer lenders and brokers, are subject to oversight by the Texas OCCC.  Although CSOs are subject to private litigation and oversight of the Attorney General, these provisions have proven insufficient to protect consumers against abusive high cost lending.  CSOs are the only entities engaged in consumer lending transactions that escape oversight and compliance requirements of the OCCC.

I'll let you know how it goes.  This will be a first for me.

Foreclosure Fraud 3: Clear and Unequivocal Communication

When a bank working on a possible mortgage modification tells a borrower to stop making payments in order to allow the modification to proceed, usually in another office of the bank a red flag flies up to say that the foreclosure clock must start ticking.  One mouth says stop making payments and become delinquent in order to get paperwork moving.  Another says don't stop payments unless you want another set of paperwork to start moving.  Case after case in the past year has found homeowners receiving notification of a modification offer almost simultaneously with notification of a foreclosure sale.  By now you are all thinking about an old saying having to do with a left hand and a right hand.

This kind of carelessness and lack of concern for customers has characterized the current foreclosure crisis.  Admittedly, banks do not traditionally have enough staff to handle the current volume of potential loan modifications or the current volume of potential foreclosures.  In trying to ramp up while also keeping staffing numbers down, the result has been libraries of lost paperwork, constant restarting of the process, and a different answer from the servicer every time a homeowner makes contact.  Getting the banks to clean this up would seem to be in their interest, but when banks are as large as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, there is also a kind of internal struggle over which departments get to do what they should and which ones just do what they can.  We think that it is more than reasonable for homeowners to expect better.  What follows is a second part of what we are asking the Attorneys General to do.

Problem: Servicers proceed with the foreclosure process at the same time as they are conducting a loss mitigation process. This leads to borrower confusion and further complicates the process and the communication between borrower and servicer. It also leads to unjust foreclosures before due diligence is completed in the loan modification process.

Solution:

Mandatory and Standard Loan Modification Review

Foreclosures should not be initiated until the servicer does a complete review of a borrower's file. If the borrower is already in foreclosure when he or she requests a review, the foreclosure process (and not just the final sale) must be suspended until the review is completed.

a. This review must include the complete payment history; the contact log; and any other relevant information to determine whether the borrower is actually in arrears.

b. This review must include a determination that all loss mitigation requirements (as set out by HAMP, investors, FHA, GSE's, etc.) have been met, and the servicer must disclose to the customer all inputs and calculations done to establish qualification for a loan modification (see NPV transparency above).

c. Servicers must develop a protocol for evaluating Pooling and Servicing Agreements for investor restrictions and must seek a waiver if necessary.

Written Confirmation of Review to Borrower

If a borrower is not offered a loan modification, the servicer must provide a sworn affidavit to the borrower, disclosing the reasons for denial, including

a. any calculations done to determine loan modification eligibility; and

b. if the denial is due to investor-imposed restrictions, the specific language in the PSA prohibiting the modification, instructions on how the borrower can view the full PSA, and a written log of the servicer's efforts to obtain a waiver of this restriction.

Borrower Appeals Process

The denial letter must provide the borrower with an opportunity to appeal this determination to a neutral party. Foreclosure can only be resumed after written denial has been provided and time for an appeal has passed. If an appeal is pending, no foreclosure can be resumed.

No Legal Foreclosure Without Proof of Due Diligence

Servicers should be required to file a certification of loan modification procedures as a precondition to a foreclosure sale. In the case of a non-judicial foreclosure, the government official responsible for recording deeds and other transfers of property in the jurisdiction in which the property is located shall not permit the recordation of a deed transferring title after a foreclosure without certifying that the party conducting the sale has demonstrated that the requirements of this section have been met. A sale of property in violation of this subsection is void.

Consistent Communication with Consistent Staff

Upon contacting the servicer, the borrower must be assigned a case manager that will remain with that borrower throughout their loss mitigation experience. This case manager will have decision-making authority and access to the highest levels of management in the company. It is permissible for additional line staff to assist the case manager, as long as the case manager is always accessible to the borrower.  If a servicer is temporarily incapable of providing this adequate staffing level, the servicer must refer to a licensed special servicer until adequate staffing levels are reached.

The next post will deal with the imbalance of power that leads banks to multiply additional fees and get by with ignoring the law.

Ecclesia Houston--What Would Dad Think?

I worshiped at Ecclesia on Taft St. in Houston today.  It has some of the expected features of emergent-type congregations: 

• a repurposed building, 
• a coffee shop and coffee drinking in the service, 
• people worshiping in casual clothes, 
• a worship band and large-screens for lyrics and video, 
• a slight techie feel combined with functional furnishings, 
• a sense that the setting is an impermanent stop on a longer journey, 
• an ambivalent relationship with popular culture, 
• one foot in the ancient Christian tradition, 
• a fair share of small beards and goatees, and 
• conversational worship leadership and preaching.

My dad (Rev. Dr. W. D. Broadway), aged 80 and a Texas Baptist preacher for over 60 years, would call this type of church a "Rock Church."  I'm sure that is language harking back to my teen years when a youth movement of evangelical Jesus Freaks and Catholic folk masses were challenging the fixed norms of worship practice across many denominations.  Dad still uses the term to refer to most "praise and worship" style worship services with a worship band, especially those that sing unfamiliar songs with indeterminate melodies, led by CCM wannabe soloists that seem to be imagining they are performing to ticket-purchasing fans rather than leading congregational singing (I agree that he is right to be disgusted by that kind of deformed church service).  But the latter does not describe the worship at Ecclesia.  Dad would probably have found this kind of Rock Church worshipful.

The first thing I noticed was that the worship band and read-along screens were leading the congregation in singing traditional hymns.  It was not just one hymn thrown in as a token for the old fogeys.  Both of the first two songs were hymns folks would recognize from baptist or other protestant hymnals, if not beyond.  Later, they introduced more contemporary songs, of a different type of lyrical and musical style.  What I noticed, however, was that plenty of people were singing along.  It was not a soloist blasting us out.  I suspect the songs were familiar to regular attenders.  Moreover, there was some theological depth to these songs rather than merely repeating statements of personal feeling ad infinitum.  So I suspect Dad would think that part of the service was acceptable.

The conversational preaching probably would have gotten Dad's blessing as well.  Chris Seay, the pastor, indicated that he was continuing a series of reflections on heaven in this sermon.  His opening discussion revealed that people in the congregation are perhaps wary of what heaven might be.  One of the great comments he made pertained to his 8-year-old son's reticence about growing up, since he loves playing with Lego's so much, but his dad is so busy with so many other things.  By comparison, adults who love what they are doing and people they share their lives with may not be so eager to change it for the unknown joys of heaven.

He focused a good deal around Jesus' words from Matthew 25, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  However, the text analyzed more carefully came from Hebrews 11:32-12:2.  His concern was to emphasize that heaven as a state of existence and a state of affairs is not some kind of narrowly religious place and activity, as much contemporary Christianity might portray it to be, but a place and activity of joyously sharing in the justice and mercy of God that Jesus proclaimed as the Reign of God.

To illustrate his argument, he showed a video clip relating to The Advent Conspiracy and their work to fund clean water for the people of Mt. Barclay, Liberia.  Many of the people, especially children, had been dying of water-borne diseases, gathering their water from a stream.  Clean water from wells turned around the health conditions of the community.  The ministers and others from Mt. Barclay who reflected on the work of God in their community included one who said that the clean water had brought heaven down to earth for them.  You would not be surprised, considering the name of this blog, that I agreed with Bro. Seay that those words will preach.

Finally, I should remark that although it is clearly a young adult dominated congregation, they are not merely detached and carefree.  I could go into a number of ways in which they show signs of taking their place in the struggles of human existence, but I will focus on only one thing here.  This sermon followed a day in which one of the young women of the congregation had been buried.  Without telling us a lot of details, it was clear that she had been facing a life-threatening disease and that her expected time to continue fighting the condition had been cut dramatically short. 

Under these conditions, Bro. Seay offered a hopeful reflection on heaven, in which those who have gone before us are watching and pulling for us in the struggles we face.  Heaven is not the same as our lives here, nor is it a locus of complete wish fulfillment.  It will take some adjusting to the differences, he said, but it will be better than we can imagine.  That is a pretty good riff on the biblical language, as I see it.  Dad knows good preaching when he hears it, and I think he would be passing on some things he heard if he had been there today.  Thanks to Curtis Freeman for telling me about these folks.

Foreclosure Fraud 2: Loan Modifications First

The agenda for stopping foreclosure fraud has to address many aspects of the process.  One of the first problems is convincing banks to see that their best interest, rather than robotically following a set of foreclosure procedures, is often to renegotiate mortgages with homeowners.  The following is an excerpt from our detailed proposals to the Attorneys General.

TO:  Attorney General Tom Miller

FROM:  PICO, NPA, SElU, AJS, ACCE, SE IAF

RE:  Problems in U.S. Mortgage Servicing & Needed Solutions

DATE:  February 9,2011 (REVISED)

CC:  Other 49 State Attorneys General

Problem: Servicers are not making affordable loan modifications that benefit both homeowners and the housing market, even when modification would provide a greater return to investors than a foreclosure.

Mandatory Loan Modification

When a loan becomes delinquent or when a borrower provides their servicer with notice that default is imminent, the servicer must review the mortgage loan to see if an affordable loan modification can be made. If a loan modification is in the best interest of the homeowner and investor, then the servicer is compelled to offer a modification.

Mandatory Principal Reduction
If the balance on a loan exceeds the current market value of the house the first step must be to reduce the principal to 100%. Recapture of forgiven amount may not exceed 50% of the increase in market value as determined by a third party appraisal.

Junior Liens Extinguished or Reduced
For any junior lien that is entirely underwater, even if it is not in default, the servicer must extinguish that lien according to the payoff schedule. For other junior liens, all liens must be reduced proportionately to meet the CLTV cap.

Transparent, Fair, Appealable Net Present Value (NPV) Calculation
Each servicer must provide public access to the NPV Test that it uses in making a loan modification determination. Inputs of general applicability (default rate for a community, locally specific appraisal, foreclosure costs, etc.) must also be made public. NPV calculation must be appealable by the homeowner for errors and misinformation.
     The servicer must disclose the property value of the home that it has used for purposes of determining the terms of the modification and the methodology used to determine the property value. If the homeowner disputes the property value and can give basis for the dispute and show that disputed difference is material, the servicer must conduct an independent appraisal of the property at servicer's expense.

Fair Application of Fees

All foreclosure and default related fees and costs must be waived in determining the new principal balance for the loan modification.

Reasonable Debt-to Income and Residual Income Calculations

Affordability should be based on a debt-to-income ratio range and a residual income test. The front-end debt-to-income ratio for modifications should be between 25-31%. The back end ratio, which should include all other secured and unsecured debts and medical expenses, should not exceed 46-60% based on circumstances. A residual income schedule that accounts for geographical differences in cost of living shall be set to ensure that borrowers have sufficient residual to pay other necessary living expenses regardless of front or back-end ratio calculations.

All Modifications Permanent

All modifications must be at a fixed interest rate for the life of the loan.

No Release of Liability

No modification can include a waiver of any legal claims of the homeowner.

Affirmative Outreach

Affirmative outreach provisions should be put in place requiring servicers to alert borrowers of the terms of the settlement, search for and reach out to eligible borrowers with proposed loan modifications, including door to door contact in heavily impacted census tracts.

The next post will deal with the conflicting internal operations of mortgage servicers and banks who simultaneously start foreclosure procedings and negotiate potential modifications with homeowners.

Foreclosure Fraud 1

A letter went out this week to Attorneys General of all fifty states:  it is time to get tough on the fraudulent, unjust practices of banks and other financial institutions foreclosing on the homes of hardworking people.  Already banks have had to admit they have not followed legal requirements in processing foreclosures.  What needs to be uncovered is the full extent of the carelessness, fraud, and predation by the financially powerful institutions who believe they can get by with it because they can afford the lawyers that most of us cannot.

But each state has an Attorney General who works for us.  They already have initiated action on foreclosure fraud.  The lead investigator, AG Tom Miller of Iowa, has agreed to work with us in pushing this agenda forward.  The letter below is the first page of our expanded agenda to deal with key aspects of the foreclosure crisis, "The Homeowner's Bottom Line."  The letter was cc'ed to AGs from all 50 states.

For more information and to find out how to get involved, check out Showdown in America.

Remembering the Incarnational Vocation

Rev. Noel Castellanos, the executive of the Christian Community Development Association, recently sent a note that I thought worth sharing here.  In our time of economic crisis, we may be inclined to turn selfward, whether as families, individuals, or churches.  We see so many challenges and fear we cannot do anything but survive. 

But turning in on ourselves is the opposite of what to do in this crisis.  We have to continue to realize that God's calling to us, all the way back to the calling of Abraham, is a calling to be a blessing to others.  God blesses us, that we may bless others.  The incarnation reveals the superabundant love of God, shared among the three persons of the Trinity, turning outward toward blessing all humanity.  As followers of Jesus, we get to join him in that incarnational work.  Thanks, Noel, for the words here.

This past Sunday during my church's prayer time, a long-time member stood up to give a testimony before his church family that after two hard, long years, he had finally found a new job. Not just a job, but the perfect job, provided by God. This encouraging testimony came after "Coach" Wayne Gordon's Biblical teaching from the book of Job, which reminded us that bad things often happen to good people.

I am reminded that our core ministry is to live with and among men and women who know this lesson all too well. Violence, unemployment, kids struggling in bad schools, and overall difficult lives are not the exception, but the norm in our most of our neighborhoods, even for those who love God are serving Him diligently.

While sitting in a White House briefing tasked with developing the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I caught myself reflecting on my friend's two-year struggle to find a job. It struck me that families are vulnerable to making bad financial decisions and falling victim to fraud when faced with these kinds of employment challenges. With so many of our families struggling, it is easy to feel overwhelmed!

As we approach Lent, let us take the time to re-examine our commitment to follow the God who left the comfort of heaven to enter the hurt and pain of our sin-filled world. Moreover, let us root our lives and our neighborhood work in a deep, daily walk with Christ. Let us be empowered to be agents of hope and justice wherever we see someone’s God-given dignity compromised.

Some leaders from the MetroIAF were at this meeting with Noel, Jim Wallis, and others.  Our national organizing work on the economy is one part of the bigger picture.  But Noel reminds us that nothing short of blending our lives into the lives of the world will move us toward the calling to let God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Banks Sucker Punch Military Families

As part of the work on resetting the economy, North Carolina United Power and the IAF-SE have been pressing for banks to obey the law in dealing with loans to military personnel.  The law, revised in the past decade, says that when soldiers are on active duty, all of their loans must be capped at 6%, and any existing interest above that level must be forgiven.  Moreover, when they are on active duty and three months beyond, a bank cannot start foreclosure proceedings or other debt recovery strong-arm tactics. 

We took up this cause because we were hearing many stories about how banks were not following these laws.  And that does not even take into account all of the predatory lenders, loan sharks, and such who open for business just outside the gates of military bases.

We made good progress in these negotiations with big banks and with NC government officials.  Bank of America was especially responsive, offering unilaterally to extend the grace period law demands from three months to nine months.  By doing so, they give room for the new shape of military deployment which relies heavily on National Guard and Reserves and which has led to numerous sequential tours of duty.  The law did not anticipate this change, and it has hurt many military personnel whose cases have not been handled correctly.

In case anyone wondered whether this is a real problem, a recent news article points out that at least one major bank, has admitted to breaking the law in dealing with military families.  J.P. Morgan Chase was foreclosing on military families while they were bearing the weight of active deployment.  The article names only a few cases.  I suspect that a committed investigative reporter would find many, many more at all major banks, in regional and local banks, and an explosion of cases among payday lenders, car title lenders, and other criminally conceived businesses trying to fly under the radar.

Let me again acknowledge Bank of America for its promises to improve services and go beyond the letter of the law in working with military families.  We have had some hopeful conversations with Wachovia-Wells Fargo who has had experience operating a specialized military bank out of San Antonio, TX, but they have not made any commitments in response to our requests.  Obviously, J.P. Morgan Chase has had to come clean on a few cases.  I hope some other groups working toward economic justice will raise these questions locally to stop the sucker punching on these families who already face stress and problems beyond what anyone should have to face.

A Prayer for the Foreclosure Crisis

I gave the invocation for a gathering of homeowners and organizers from fifteen states who met with Attorney General Tom Miller of Iowa.  Miller is leading a task force of the fifty state attorneys general who are investigating fraud and abuse in the foreclosure process.  Here is the prayer I offered.

God of all,

We come today with hearts that are heavy, yet hopeful.
Our hearts are heavy because
Your people cry out for the lack of justice.
Still, we come with hope because
We know the God who is a Waymaker.

Give us the clarity of your servant Isaiah
Who named the causes of economic collapse
Twenty-eight centuries ago--
The failed economy of Jerusalem caused by
The treachery of the powerful
Who had lavishly furnished their multiple homes
With the spoils of the poor.

May there be some like that prophet
Who will arise now,
Even from among this gathering,
To call on misleaders to repent
And do justice.

As you called Isaiah long ago,
We now listen to your calling:
"Come, let us argue it out," says the Lord.
Inspire our conversation,
And guide our feet.

Amen.

References:  Isaiah 3:14-15; Isaiah 5:8-9; Isaiah 1:16-18

Overheard in Des Moines

Here are a few things I heard while working on the foreclosure issue in Des Moines this week.

Gina Gates of San Jose, CA, said that her banker said she could get her home out of the foreclosure process if she would give them another $40,000.  When she asked for the agreement in writing, they said, "We don't put anything in writing."  Then they withdrew the agreement on the spot.

Peggy Mears of Los Angeles said, "When Bernie Madoff stole from rich people, he got 150 years on prison.  When bankers steal the homes of working people, they get millions of dollars in bonuses."

Ken Kelley of Antioch, CA, said, "If homeowners make a mistake on their mortgages, we lose everything.  But if banks make a mistake on our mortgages, we still lose everything."

Attorney General Tom Miller of Iowa responded to a question about criminal prosecution of fraud and other crimes in mortgage foreclosures, "We will put people in jail."

Push the Reset Button on Housing

That's what Gerald Taylor of North Carolina United Power keeps saying:  "We need to push the reset button on the housing market."  The economy got thoroughly messed up by the speculative, reckless practices of the mortgage industry.  The government responded by bailing them out.  They got their derivative market reset.  They get to borrow money for virtually zero per cent interest.  AIG got to push the reset button.  GM got to push the reset button.

But the banks don't want to give the rest of us a chance.  In a mess they willingly helped to make, they got off the hook.  The winners got to buy up their competitors for cents on the dollar.  They were allowed to voluntarily find ways to help homeowners, unemployed workers, pensioners whose incomes evaporated, and other victims of the economic crisis.  But they don't want to do it.

They string families along with delays and lost paperwork, offering loan modifications while simultaneously working full steam, even fraudulently, to move the foreclosure process forward.  Attorney General Tom Miller of Iowa says that this dual-track process of promising modifications while fast-tracking foreclosure is "insane."  What sense does it make for a family to get a loan modification proposal from the bank on the same day that the bank sold their house?

Give homeowners the same chance.  Reduce mortgage principal across the board to current market values.  That's right--we need across-the-board principal reductions for homeowners underwater, whether they are behind in their payments or not.  Push the reset button.  Make a market correction.  Why?

1.  Unemployed and laid-off workers, retirees depending on pensions, and many homeowners who bought market-rate homes with the assurance that the market was operating in a rational manner (when almost no one--not even the revered Alan Greenspan--recognized the housing bubble) did not come into financial misfortune because of carelessness, greed, or risky behavior.  They were overwhelmed by the economic tsunami from the collapse of the derivative house of cards.  Getting them on their feet and keeping them in their homes will help stabilize the economy.

2.  Foreclosing on one family, then selling the same house for half-price to another family is pure stupidity.  Without all the human trauma and with less paperwork and financial loss, banks could renegotiate reasonable mortgages for the people who are at risk of foreclosure. 

3.  Neighborhoods and communities where many foreclosures have happened become depressed, forcing down the value of other homes.  This puts more homeowners underwater and creates new risks for foreclosures.  Stabilizing neighborhoods by keeping families in their homes and paying modified mortgages is good for all of us.

4.  The so-called moral hazard of adjusting loans in a way that is beneficial to the borrower is a smoke screen.  If banks were being swindled into letting people off the hook who never intended to pay their mortgages, that would be a moral hazard.  But the true moral hazard came when the mortgage industry turned into the anything-goes-mortgage-derivatives orgy.  Even admitting that some homeowners took stupid risks or failed to do due diligence before borrowing, the risks and benefits of mortgage finance have to be shared.  Letting the banks off the hook for their bad debts while holding small borrowers accountable for their debts is an unjust financial system.

So set the reset button for homeowners.

Pillars of the Home Mortgage Business: Fraud, Lies, Theft, and Greed

I know everyone in the home mortgage business is not a thief and liar.  Let me make that plain.

Yet it is clearly the case that the ongoing foreclosure explosion has become a money-and-power-grab by banking executives and major shareholders who will stop at nothing to make sure they don't lose a dime on their crappy mortgages, no matter how many families they have to put out on the street.  First it seemed they were simply unprepared for such a large number of mortgages going underwater.  Then it seemed they were disorganized and careless about people's paperwork.  Of course there was the disingenuous worry about "moral hazard," as if the real moral hazard had not been perpetrated by the financial system that speculated and cast away all standards in order to create more and more billions of mortgage backed securities.  Eventually it became clear that even the mortgage foreclosure cases that were progressing were not undergoing due diligence.  Then cases of "mistaken" foreclosures began to pop up more and more.  Finally, banks began to admit the ways they have been breaking the law in order to prevent loan modifications and recourse against foreclosure proceedings.  What is emerging is a coordinated and willful theft of homes from average homeowners.

So this week organizers from all over the country have converged in Des Moines, Iowa, for a summit on ending the ongoing bank misconduct and lawlessness in home foreclosures.  Gerald Taylor and I represent North Carolina United Power at this meeting, along with people from coast to coast who are fed up with the impunity of banks in the current financial crisis.  Like me, you may wonder, "Why Iowa?"

There are two reasons to meet in Des Moines.  First, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement have a long history of making a difference for working people who are being abused by the powerful.  They are hosting our gathering.  Second, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is the lead lawyer for the national investigation into illegal banking activity in the foreclosure crisis.  He will meet with our group to discuss the ongoing investigation and the possibilities for working together toward a just resolution of this crisis for all parties.

We want three major elements for a just solution. 

1. Hold banks accountable for real, transparent loan modifications with borrowers before any foreclosure proceedings, including lowering rates, to keep families in their homes.
2. Mandate principal reduction for owner-occupied homes as a first-line modification tool.
3. Include remedies for homeowners who have lost their homes to be reinstated as homeowners or financially compensated for the effects of this unlawful, corrupt system.

 We will not solve it with one meeting, but we hope to see another vital step this week.

Family at Thanksgiving

We have had a great Thanksgiving visit this week.  We went to Port Neches to visit the Estes clan at Ruth and Nathan Reynolds' house.  Cousin Gary Reynolds came from Seattle with Paula, his wife, and Dylan his son.  We have not seen them in many years.  Nephew Kenny had a great time talking the music business with Gary, who has a band and a recording studio.  Cousin Buddy Reynolds, Cindy, his wife, Buddy's son Kevin, and grandson Charlie were there, too.  Ruth and Nathan were doing great.

Herb, Marie, John, Ruth, Emily, and Ken joined our family in the drive.  Last night we stayed at Herb and Marie's place in Pearland.  They have put their townhome on the market, and they are planning to relocate to Austin soon.  Follow the link if you want to live on a golf course 15 minutes from the Medical Center.

The chance to get together with family in this way is one of the great blessings of moving to Texas.  This afternoon we go to Salado to be with W.D. and Hugh Delle.  We'll be cooking Thanksgiving dinner with them on Saturday.

We could only talk with Jerene and Jim on the phone.  Thanksgiving without them this year is the sad side of moving to Texas.

Writing in New Places

Spring and summer were hectic with preparations to relocate.  I am going to be living in Austin, Texas (sort of).  Everly, my wife, is now changing the world in Austin.  I am overjoyed to finally be joining her.  I will still, however, be teaching at Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, NC.  And we are not buying a house yet, so I'm fulfilling my parents' nightmare by moving back in with them at 53.

Education is changing, and graduate education is no exception.  I will be teaching in a hybrid format.  Five times each semester, I will be present in the classroom in Raleigh with students.  The rest of the time will be online, group sessions in my absence, teleconferences, and guest speakers.  I like it better than purely online teaching, which I did this past year with only minimal satisfaction.  There is much to learn to get the right habits to teach students online.  I'm still learning it.

So the truck is loaded, the house here for me to stay in when I travel back to teach, and I'm full of memories, hopes, and wondering about what is coming.  I'll be writing from Austin, Salado, Durham, Raleigh, and who knows where in the coming year.

Not What You Show, But What You Sow

(Preached at Mount Level Missionary Baptist Church on July 4, 2010)

Galatians 6:7-16

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.  If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.  So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

(See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!)

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised--only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!

As for those who will follow this rule--peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

   

         When the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in the Galatian region, he did not bother with many of the usual formalities and politeness.  It was not a model of careful diplomatic language geared to avoid insult or hurt feelings.  He starts out calling them deserters; then, he moves on to call down a curse from God.  He accuses them of being people pleasers.  After reminding them that he is not afraid to get all up on someone’s face, no matter what kind of big shot that person may be, the he calls them a bunch of fools who are acting like someone has cast a spell on them and turned them stupid.  And he does all of that by the first verse of the third chapter, in what we might call his introduction.  If a preacher had come and said that kind of stuff in her church, my momma would likely have said that she couldn’t believe he had the “gall” to talk that way.  I can hear the whispering as people leave the service, “Of all the nerve!”

         Apparently the Apostle Paul thought there was something seriously at stake in the problems the Galatian churches were struggling with.  Something was going on that could doom their whole existence as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Somehow they had gotten off track so dangerously that they might end up on the wrong road.

         The symbolic issue at the center of the argument was circumcision. For Israel, the people of the covenant, circumcision was a central mark of their identity and faithfulness.  Paul, an heir of the covenant both by birth and by training, was among the circumcised.  Yet he had learned from the gospel of Jesus Christ that he was a chief among sinners, that his righteousness symbolized in his circumcision was as filthy rags when compared to the surpassing greatness of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.  He was struck down by the power of the gospel, shaken and awakened to the new creation revealed in the government-sanctioned murder of Jesus Christ.  The most pious of the circumcised plotted and shared the ugly deed of putting that kind and loving man to death, and this apostle had previously approved of their agenda one hundred percent.

         In chapter two he wrote of this new creation in words dear to many of us.  “For through works of the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God.  I have been crucified (I have been executed) with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  (I in him, and he in me.)  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faithfulness to the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  In a new creation, all of us creatures take on a new identity.  Uniting with Jesus relocates our origin, our purpose, and our destiny in the story of God’s redeeming love.

In the new creation, our messed-up order and structures get replaced by a way we did not envision.  It is a way that does not legislate according to bloodline or property or skin color or language or pants or dresses or what is inside them.  Because of our baptism into Jesus, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, not male and female.”  In so many ways we try to make it seem that some are better than others, some more deserving, some more beautiful, some more inherently good, some more dignified, some more valuable.  We want to believe that something about us makes us superior and others inferior.  If we don’t feel comfortable just coming out and saying it, we figure out a way to say it in code.

In Galatia, the church people had let circumcision become a code for superiority.  In that kind of thinking, men who had obeyed the law to be circumcised had reached a higher level of being God’s people.  This focus on circumcision encoded all kinds of political structures into a distorted and perverted gospel.  Since it was primarily those born into Jewish families who would have been circumcised, the Galatian church politics divided them by nationality.  Greeks, who were unlikely to have been circumcised, could be seen as residing at a lower level of the faith. 

From Paul’s description, the fascination with circumcision as a sign of faithfulness in Galatian churches clearly was linked to status.  A group who had a reputation as “pillars of the church” were known as sticklers for the legalism when it came to the law.  When others were envious or overly impressed by these pillars, they aspired to be like them in order to share their rank or status.  If they could get the approval of the pillars, get accepted into the in-group, join the popular crowd, then people would look up to them, too.  The confusion brought on by such political thinking is that getting into the popular crowd means for some people that God ranks them above someone else.  They encoded status and rank onto circumcision.

Finally, because the law prescribed circumcision for males only, the politics of gender relations got mixed up in these churches.  As an aside, let me note that these cultures did not practice female genital mutilation, a tradition wrongly labeled as circumcision with very different effects on health and the quality of life.  The circumcision of which Paul is writing about was a mark on the flesh of a man.  Since they had encoded it with bloodline and rank, by implication women could not achieve the higher rank of the circumcised. 

I think Paul was right to see how the controversy over circumcision had become a ticking time bomb, ready to destroy the churches in Galatia, and perhaps elsewhere.  In the new creation, Paul had come to see that things like circumcision and its political meanings had been unmasked as mere showiness, smoke and mirrors, false pretenses of superiority or blessedness.  He wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faithfulness working through love.”

That is why in this closing section of the letter, Paul has tried to sum it up by saying that it is not what you show, but what you sow.  Showing off your skin color, your language, your gender power, your conspicuous consumption, or even your pretentious piosity amounts to nothing.  Actually it is worse than nothing because it is a false gospel leading us to ruin and degradation.  Putting on a show of faith leads to a dead end.  As Jesus said, “Everyone who cries ‘Lord!  Lord!’ will not enter the Kingdom of God.”  The pretentious Pharisee did not leave his loud and self-important prayer justified.  By contrast, he widow who quietly deposited her two pennies gave the greatest offering, drawing forth praise from our Lord.  Paul was suspicious of people in the church “who were reputed to be pillars.”  He suspected that they went about their lives promoting the idea of their own piety and importance rather than giving the glory to God.

Paul was addressing a problem in his time in which circumcision had become a code word for claiming superiority in the eyes of God.  In our day, circumcision is not a very comfortable subject for polite conversation since it brings our attention to private matters concerning genital organs and painful surgery.  Frankly, circumcision is not something churches in our time and place get in big arguments about.  Maybe that means we can just put the Letter to the Galatians aside and not mess with it anymore.  In that case, I guess I must be finished.

Just kidding!  Although we may not be arguing about circumcision does not mean that we are not still finding coded ways of trying to prove ourselves superior to one another and create a false gospel.  What better day than July 4^th to talk about a false gospel?  Frederick Douglass famously called out the white folks in Rochester, NY, in 1852 when they invited him to be their Independence Day speaker.  He pointed out to them the way that the idea of independence and liberty had become empty code for white supremacy.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?

I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

Douglass could see the idolatry that permeated the celebration of the 4^th.  The idea of the United States as the beacon of liberty and the hope for all the nations was an empty idol.  Salvation built on violent domination is a false gospel.

The Apostle Paul claimed that circumcision had become an idol.  Making a “good showing in the flesh” did not amount to anything else than a big show, just like an idol is nothing but a dressed-up piece of wood, metal, or clay.  Nowadays we make our own kinds of idols.  The flag can become an idol.  I first began to recognize this a twenty years ago when there was a public controversy about burning the flag.  Men who were usually stoically unemotional in church became agitated and passionate to the point of weeping over the flag.  More recently, a citizen questioned a presidential candidate’s loyalty to the nation based on whether the candidate made it a habit to wear a flag-shaped lapel pin.  Making a good showing of loyalty to the flag can easily come to substitute for true love of God.

But making a show will not cut it.  Paul says it is like sowing to your own flesh.  It will be good to remind ourselves what Paul means when he compares flesh and spirit.  “Flesh” here does not mean the body.  In this case, flesh means turning away from what God would have us do, as opposed to Spirit which means turning toward what God would have us do.  Sowing to the flesh is devoting ourselves to something less than God’s purposes for us. 

No national emblem, no nation-state and its pretensions as the means of human salvation, deserves our highest loyalty.  The United States of America cannot save us, nor can the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Liberia, or any other throne, dominion, principality or power.  No pumped up image of a nation can give us what we long for. 

Sowing to the Spirit, on the other hand, devoting our whole selves and highest loyalties to God and God’s purposes, will save us.  When we try to rise above others by claiming superiority over them, it is just an empty show.  When we sow to the Spirit we follow in the way of Jesus by bearing one another’s burdens, by not growing weary in doing what is right, by living in faithfulness that works itself out in love.  Instead of greed, licentiousness, hatred, dissension, jealousy, and factions, sowing to the Spirit replaces these vices with the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Trying to hide our unrighteousness and vice behind a code of self-importance will not make it anything else but filthy rags.  In our day, image has become everything.  Trademarks and brands sell an image as much as they sell a product.  People choose clothing that advertises a brand, announcing to the world, “I’m a Coca-Cola person.” Or I’m an Old Navy, or Abercrombee, or Hollister person.  I’m a Chevy or Ford or Honda person.  I’m an Eagle or an Aggie.  I’m for Duke or Carolina.  We secretly hope that by identifying with a brand we will prove ourselves better than others.  We hold contempt for those who will not come and try to be like us. 

So to be unamerican becomes a grave sin in the eyes of those who sow to the flesh.  Those who speak another language are looked upon with disdain.  Any other nation which would claim for itself a measure of autonomy and dignity that might raise the price of a gallon of gas becomes an enemy.  But “do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.”  Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind.  Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.  Violence begets violence in a never-ending chain of destruction.  Eventually, the chickens come home to roost.

On this day we may appropriately honor the good done by our foremothers and forefathers.  We may honor ideals of a people without putting our trust in nations and empires.  But more importantly, we may love one another, live in peace with one another, share the joy of human fellowship, be patient with one another’s shortcomings, show kindness rather than claiming superiority, continue doing good to one another without demanding a reward, be faithful to God when the going gets tough, be gentle rather than pushing and shoving our way around, and always keep from elevating ourselves into the place of God.  If we can continue in well-doing, in doing what is right, we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.

May our prayer today be the prayer of the Apostle Paul as he closed out his letter in his own handwriting.  “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”  In praying this prayer, we turn away from the enclosures of race, of nation, of language, of gender domination, and we open ourselves to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.  Following this rule, we promote the peace of God’s people and we allow ourselves to be united to, yea to be grafted into, the Israel of God, beyond all national borders and boundaries, the true humanity.  “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!”  It is the pearl of great price, worth all that we have.  May we sow our lives to the Spirit.  May the fruit of God’s Spirit grow in us.  Not what we show, but what we sow.

        

Isaiah and Economic Justice 12: The Peaceable Household (Oikos)

Isaiah 11:1-11

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of counsel and might,
    the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
    and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

    On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
    On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

In another familiar text from Advent, Isaiah 11 speaks of a shoot growing from a stump.  It is a familiar image for anyone who has had a tree cut down in the yard.  Unless it suffered from disease and died all the way down to the roots, it usually keeps sending up new growth every spring.  If you did not want the tree, then you have to keep cutting it back, maybe even digging it out.

Isaiah says that this is the nature of God's judgment.  It is like pruning.  The damaged, diseased, dead, unbalanced, or otherwise problematic parts are cut back to reshape and revitalize the tree.  Christians have long seen this as a Messianic text linking Jesus to the promises God made to Israel.  The Messiah brings a new beginning from the same root of God's love in calling Israel to be a holy nation.

Even without Christological interpretation, the text describes a ruler who is wise, pious, righteous, equitable, faithful, and just.  The ruler will provide justice to the poor and to the meek.  All who would abuse and oppress them will receive swift and harsh judgment.  It is a promise of a different kind of world than the one that has brought the prophetic oracles delivered by Isaiah against Judah.

The lines which follow have inspired the imagination of writers, painters, musicians, and everyday folks through the centuries.  In classic poetic parallelism of Hebrew literature, line after line names a vulnerable animal and a dangerous predator.  The vulnerable are lambs, kids, calves, cows, oxen, and human infants and toddlers.  The predators are wolves, leopards, lions, bears, asps, and adders.  They appear in pairs, perhaps echoing the pairs going into the ark, but this time shockingly from different species who are not usually at peace.  The multiple species also echo the story of Eden, in which the various species lived in harmony.  To reinforce that allusion, it says that lions will eat straw like oxen.

The juxtaposition of the weak alongside the predators reminds the reader of how things have been in Judah.  The powerful have preyed on the vulnerable.  Often, when people describe themselves as powerful, whether it be kings, bankers, day-traders, generals, senators, and such, they compare themselves to predators.  Sport teams prefer mascots like lions, tigers, hawks, eagles, vipers, bears, wolves, and panthers.  It was true long ago as well.  Kings liked to be called lions.  Biblical language reflects this, for example the term "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah" can refer to a king from David's descent.  Chapter 10 refers to the king of Assyria as a "Bull."  But these lines challenge that kind of language.  They speak of a transformation of nature.

These poetic lines provide a restatement in different language of what the shoot from Jesse will bring.  Lions, bears, and adders will become known for their gentleness.  Lambs will have no reason to fear wolves.  Human babies need not scream or run from the presence of poisonous snakes.  The change from business as usual, what the powerful thought of as "natural," will be complete under the plan of God.  Those who were previously predators and those who were previously prey can now live together harmoniously because there must be no oppression of the poor, no twisting of the laws to favor the wealthy, no double standard shaped by money.  When everyone listens and learns the ways of God, it will become clearly rational that together they must make sure there is no one in need among them.  When everyone loves God and the goodness of God's creation more than private control, status, power, and luxury, then finding the way to live together in harmony will again be revealed as the purpose for living.

Clive Rainey, one of the originals from Habitat for Humanity, uses a term that makes some sense here for thinking about economic life.  He says that part of the benefit of Habitat's approach to housing comes from "rooftop moments."  Rainey is referring to those moments when a Habitat homeowner, putting in sweat equity on the home she is going to buy, finds herself alone working on the roof with a church-going banker, manager, or business owner.  As often as not, the pair are of different skin colors.  In those minutes or hours spent working, eventually people who come from groups who almost never have occasion to speak with one another strike up a conversation.  They almost inevitably find their presuppositions about one another shattered.  As they tell their stories to one another, they begin to imagine a world not so divided into the successful and the failures, the rich and the poor, the hard-working and the lazy, the smart and the stupid, the deserving and the undeserving.  I think this is what the wolf and the lamb lying together is supposed to tell us about the household of God.

The Greek word for household is oikos, the same Greek root from which we get our word economy.  An economy, if it is like a household, is a system of provision through interdependence and mutuality.  Everyone is not exactly alike.  All have distinct gifts.  Some may excel beyond others.  But at base, all contribute and all benefit.  When needed, all sacrifice, but as the Apostle Paul says, they do so in proportion to what they have.  Some must contribute and sacrifice more in a commitment to care for each person.  The Peaceable Kingdom is also a Peaceable Household.  They are both Beloved Community.

Isaiah and Economic Justice 11: All People and Nations Standing Before a Just God

Isaiah 10:5-7, 11-15, 33-34

Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger—
     the club in their hands is my fury!
Against a godless nation I send him,
     and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
     and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
But this is not what he intends,
     nor does he have this in mind;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
     and to cut off nations not a few.

"Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
     what I have done to Samaria and her images?”

     When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride. For he says:

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
     and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
     and have plundered their treasures;
     like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.
My hand has found, like a nest,
     the wealth of the peoples;
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
     so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing,
     or opened its mouth, or chirped.”

Shall the ax vaunt itself over the one who wields it,
     or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?
As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up,
     or as if a staff should lift the one who is not wood!

Look, the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
     will lop the boughs with terrifying power;
the tallest trees will be cut down,
     and the lofty will be brought low.
He will hack down the thickets of the forest with an ax,
     and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.

The Assyrian imperialism and its widespread destruction of cities, villages, farms, and people, raises theological questions for the Isaiah and the people.  First, the Assyrians are not examples of obedience to Yahweh.  They see the gods of other peoples, including Judah, as idols, as weak deities who will fall before their divine mission.  They pursue greed through conquest.  Assyria and its leaders are also guilty of economic injustice.  Why would God allow Assyria to succeed while judging the sins of Judah and Israel?

Isaiah declares that Assyria's time will come.  They also stand under the judgment of God.  In the meantime, God allows the cycle of violence and greed to work itself out, sowing and reaping destruction.  Assyria does not march across the continent with an understanding of its conquest as the judgment of Yahweh.  For Assyria, it is the demonstration of the greatness of their generals and armies.  Thanks to their own greatness, Assyrian leaders believe they will grasp and carry away the wealth of the nations.  They will plunder all the treasures of the continent and claim it for themselves.  This is the very same sinfulness of the leaders and elite of Judah, expanded to an even more violent dominance and an even more vast landscape.  But God is not "blessing" Assyria.  Assyria will quickly sow the seeds of its own destruction.

Second, in the process of Assyrian conquest, the widows and orphans, the weak and the vulnerable, will also suffer, as stated in chapter nine.  Here in chapter ten, Isaiah offers more insight into this theological problem about the suffering of innocents.  Assyria, while serving as an instrument of judgment, does not act in accord with the will of God.  Imperialistic war, violence, plunder, killing and maiming--these are not the ways of God.  They are the ways of sin.  God is not endorsing violence, but allowing sin to work out its terrible consequences.  Violence comes into the world, not by the will of God, but by the freedom to be greedy, self-aggrandizing, possessive, and hateful that God has allowed to humanity.  This same violence led to the organized use of power to execute the sinless one, Jesus.  God is not pleased to see this violence, but God is willing to endure the violence to which humanity finds itself in bondage.  The struggle of righteousness and justice is to push back the powers formed in violence in the name of those formed in peace and justice.

So Assyria will have its day of judgment as well.  As Dr. King said, “Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.”  That is what seeking economic justice is about.  Someone has to have the sense to say enough is enough in exploiting workers and the poor.  Someone has to stop the destruction, stand in the gap, speak truth to power, lift as we climb.  That is why the prophecies of the Old Testament are always conditional.  There is another way that leads to peace.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem's failure to find that way.  But if the unjust structures stand, the road will lead to a downward spiral of violence.  Pray that the Lord will send workers into the harvest, workers who know the good news of the way of Jesus.

Isaiah and Economic Justice 10: Failing as Public Servants

Isaiah 10:1-4

Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,
    who write oppressive statutes,
to turn aside the needy from justice
    and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
    and that you may make the orphans your prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment,
    in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
    and where will you leave your wealth,
so as not to crouch among the prisoners
    or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
    his hand is stretched out still.

In the last few postings, I've written about chapters which don't give much specific mention of the economy.  They speak more broadly of unrighteousness and injustice, of unfaithfulness and sin.  Therefore, I had to keep pointing back to earlier chapters in which the specific sinfulness of the leaders, the wealthy, the elite, even the priests and prophets, focused on foreclosures, usury, unfair wages, violence, and such.  Some of you may have begun to doubt that I was accurately portraying the message by overemphasizing the economy.  Just in time, we turn to chapter ten.

One of the important features of economic oppression is the cooperation of public officials.  Sometimes, they just look the other way and don't enforce the laws that would protect the weak and honest.  Often, they write laws which fail at equity.  One of the favorite tricks of lobbyists and lawmakers is to advocate reforming the law, only to use the pretense of reform as a way to give benefits to the economically powerful.  A regulatory board may be established to oversee chemical companies, but then the chemical company executives and their lobbyists get appointed to the board.  Farm bills may promise to help the family farmer, but almost all of the financial benefits goes to large industrial factory farms.  The new Medicare prescription drug benefit included a provision that the government would not regulate the price of the drugs, a huge benefit to the pharmaceutical companies.

Isaiah charges head on into this very problem occurring in his day.  He calls the laws themselves "iniquitous decrees."  He says the rulers are writing "oppressive statutes."  What is the result?  They are robbing the poor, turning aside justice, despoiling widows, and preying on orphans.  The laws are stacked against the vulnerable.  For this reason, the rulers will face judgment.  They will have to run from their palaces and offices to hide among the prisoners and the dead, hoping no one recognizes them.  God will not hold back the invaders.  How the mighty have fallen!

They will have to leave their plunder behind.  Someone else will claim it.  Even if they try to hide it, they will not have it to use.  An unjustly structured economy is abhorrent to God.

Throughout the long history of the church, even back to the apostolic era, the issue of just and unjust laws has been a critical matter for Christian ethics.  Whether it be Peter before the Sanhedrin, Tertullian, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, or many others, it was clear that Christians must not obey unjust laws.  In fact, they must disobey them.  At times in the modern age, it seems that a new hermeneutic of divine right of regimes has replaced the discernment process concerning just and unjust laws.  In the U.S., which has always had a self-image as God's Country, the commitment of church people to always obey the civil laws has been powerful.  The confusion between Christian ethics and the ethics of American culture have been so intertwined that most people cannot name the difference.

It was a critic of the church, Henry David Thoreau, who revived the tradition of resisting unjust laws during the Mexican War, when he argued for civil disobedience because the war tax was supporting an unjust war.  Martin Luther King, Jr., and others revived the discernment process of identifying just and unjust laws, and he advocated with Thoreau, the Bible, and the Christian theological tradition the duty  to disobey unjust laws.

When unjust economic structures oppress the poor and impoverish the vulnerable, Christians have a duty to rise up and seek to change those structures.  The laws which support those structures must be repealed, revised, and reformed.  Working outside the system and with the system are both legitimate paths by which the church seeks to establish a Jubilee economics under the guidance of God.