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  • Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive by Pamela Foohey book cover
  • Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive by Pamela Foohey book cover
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Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive

by Pamela Foohey

Bankruptcy, lending, and Black church finances

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Bankruptcy, lending, and Black church finances

Pamela Foohey examines why Black churches make up a disproportionate share of congregations filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The study draws on case studies of six Black churches and one white church, alongside interviews with church leaders, members, and attorneys. It connects these filings to a history of predatory lending and considers how bankruptcy proceedings can give congregations leverage when negotiating with lenders. The account links church finances to broader questions of wealth, community stability, and structural discrimination, while focusing on the legal system as a tool these churches use to seek concessions and protect their resources.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Black church history and institutions.
  • Those studying bankruptcy, lending, or the intersection of law and religion.
  • Readers exploring the effects of structural discrimination on community wealth.

Themes

Black churches and financial hardshipPredatory lendingChapter 11 bankruptcyStructural discriminationCommunity wealth and stability

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A revelatory study of how Black churches turn the financial system back against predatory lenders.

When American churches face financial difficulties, a disproportionately high number of Black churches reorganize under chapter 11 bankruptcy. There are no easy explanations for this distinction: not location, denomination, leadership structure, or the reasons for the loans. In Forgive Us Our Debts, legal scholar Pamela Foohey asks why, then, Black churches account for two-thirds of all congregations that file for chapter 11 bankruptcy every year.

Drawing on case studies of six Black churches and one white church, and 150 interviews with church leaders, members, and attorneys, Foohey finds answers in a long history of predatory lending. Unable to negotiate with recalcitrant loan officers, Black churches turn to the legal system to force reasonable concessions from lenders to prevent the stripping of their wealth and the destruction of their communities. While the structural discrimination remains, these churches have found in the bankruptcy system a refuge and some power to fight back.

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