Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive

"Christian churches are shutting down at a rapid pace. A disproportionate number of these are Black churches. In Forgive Us Our Debts, legal scholar Pamela Foohey explores how some Black churches file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to keep their doors open. Chapter 11-the reorganization chapter of bankruptcy-provides a mechanism for businesses to shed some debt, streamline operations, and come up with a plan to pay lenders going forward. Airlines, department stores, automobile manufacturers, utility companies, and hospitals have used it to survive. And every year, religious congregations across the United States use it when they are on the brink of financial collapse. Of the 1,002 Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed by churches between 2006 and 2021, Black churches filed three times more often than churches with membership from other demographics. As Foohey shows, there is nothing unique about the Black churches that file bankruptcy in terms of denomination, organizational structure, locations, or the financial and operational issues that led them to fall behind on loans and other obligations. To understand why, then, Black churches file for bankruptcy at a disproportionate rate, Foohey draws on detailed case studies of seven Black churches that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and 150 interviews with church leaders and bankruptcy attorneys who assisted churches in filing. Forgive Us Our Debts exposes how Black churches across the United States have faced discriminatory and predatory lending practices and details how Black churches have found refuge and power in the bankruptcy system to fight back"--