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Coalition Visits DC to Speak Against Payday Lending

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director · April 9, 2016 · 1 Comment

Remarks by Jennifer E. Copeland to Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, delivered in Washington, DC, as part of a national coalition to address predatory lending. Representatives from 12 states and the District of Columbia met with Director Cordray and delivered letters from 13 states signed by more than 500 organizations representing faith communities, nonprofits, advocacy groups, etc. All were from states that are payday-lending free.

The Old Testament prophetic witness and the New Testament teachings of Jesus have a lot more to say about money than sex, in spite of the fact that many people of faith spend most of their time fretting about sex. The people of faith represented by the NC Council of Churches are, in fact, fretting about sex this week because our bathrooms are now a national cause celebré, but I actually want to talk about money – just like Amos and Jesus would.

Our faith communities, over 6,000 in NC, span urban, suburban, and rural areas from low income, middle income, to the one percent, and all of them would be negatively impacted in different ways by the return of payday lending to North Carolina. We are glad these loans are gone from North Carolina and never want to see them again.

Needy families and individuals rightly see faith communities as a place to receive essential services like food, clothing, and even shelter. But these are short-term solutions for an immediate crisis. These crises will spiral out of control when desperate families rely on high-interest loans to address emergencies such as illness, injury, or job loss. Far better for all of us to help the most vulnerable address their needs than allow them to be preyed upon by immoral lending practices, which will eventually force the poor to the desperate place of begging for food and clothing just to say alive.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Homepage Featured Tagged With: Economic Justice, Good Government, Interfaith, Prophetic Voice, Religion & Society

About The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director

Jennifer is a native of South Carolina and an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church. She loves South Carolina, but has managed to spend all but ten years of her adult life in North Carolina. Those ten years were spent pastoring United Methodist churches across the Upstate. She attended Duke University several times and in the process earned a BA, double majoring in English and Religion, a Master of Divinity, a PhD in religion, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies. Prior to coming to the Council, she spent 16 years as the United Methodist Chaplain at Duke University, where she also taught undergraduate and divinity school classes, served on committees and task forces, and attended lots of basketball games. Jennifer has two children, Nathan, a software developer who lives in Durham, and Hannah, a student at the University of Tampa.

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Comments

  1. sandi velez says

    April 12, 2016 at 7:14 pm

    Thank you for speaking out against these vultures that prey on the vulnerable.

    Reply

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