The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) enters the courts to advance its predatory lending advocacy. Founded in 1991, CBF recently “….requested to join litigation to defend…” the most recent payday lending rule that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued in October 2017. The litigation request responds to two payday lending associations suit against the CFPB. […]
EPI Endorses the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Ecumenical Poverty Initiative is proud to announce that we have endorsed the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. In state capitols and Washington, D.C., policies that promote systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation are threatening our democracy and decaying our national morality. We refuse to be silent in the face […]
A Hope-Filled Prayer for the Poor on the Eve of Election Day 2016
Offered by Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland-Tune, EPI Director Gracious and Merciful God, Our Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer, On this eve of Election Day in the United States, we lift up those living in poverty before You for whom the outcome of this election will make a real difference. So often those living in poverty are treated […]
Faith Leaders Urge CFPB to Strengthen Final Rule Against Predatory Lending
The Ecumenical Poverty Initiative (EPI) was joined by more than 20 faith partners from national denominations, state ecumenical bodies and individual faith and church leaders, representing millions of Christians in the U.S., to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue a strong rule against the predatory practices of payday and auto title lenders. Predatory lenders use […]
Major Ecumenical Bodies Raise Concerns About House Republicans Poverty Plan
Leaders of faith-based organizations are responding to the plan released by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the House Republican Poverty, Opportunity and Upward Mobility Task Force with appreciation for the effort made to alleviate poverty but with deep concerns about the negative impacts some of the plan’s policy recommendations would have on the nation’s […]
EPI Co-Sponsors Senate Hearing on CFPB’s Proposed Payday Lending Rule
The Ecumenical Poverty Initiative was a co-sponsor of a briefing for Senate staff on small-dollar loans, including payday, auto title, deposit advance products, and installment loans. Rev. Sekinah Hamlin, EPI’s director, was one of the speakers at the briefing, which was held on Monday, June 13 in the Dirksen Senate Building. EPI is urging […]
EPI Calls on CFPB to Strengthen Payday Lending Rule
Washington, D.C., June 14, 2016—The Ecumenical Poverty Initiative (EPI) has applauded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) release of a rule that would govern payday lending and curtail predatory practices that have resulted in a vicious cycle of debt for low-income borrowers. In a briefing for Senate staffers yesterday about the proposed rule, EPI […]
A Gift for Low-Wage Capitol Workers
EPI Director Rev. Sekinah Hamlin and Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness Director Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson co-authored asking for justice for Capitol workers and an hourly wage of $15, fair working conditions and the right to engage in collective bargaining. Click here to read the op-ed.
Remembering The Unpopular MLK Jr.
Today will be largely dedicated to remembering the popular Martin Luther King Jr., the one that everyone supports as a national hero. This revisionist history is unfortunate, because it obscures the deeper vision of King, a vision that remains unpopular to this day. First, to the polling data from Gallup: From 1963-1965, King was, at […]
Frequent Flyers Move the Hearts of Congress.
Many have already begun to experience the harsh impacts of the foolish Budget Sequester that set in motion indiscriminate slashes to government funding on Friday, March 1, 2013. Budget experts said it would be very difficult to reverse the sequester, and most did not have insight into how to help the 600,000 women and young […]
