It’s publication day for my new book, Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive. If you were to pick up a copy, its back begins, “When American churches face financial difficulties, a disproportionately high number of Black churches reorganize under chapter 11 bankruptcy.” That is true, based on my research of the over 1,000 religious organizations that filed chapter 11 between 2006 and 2021. Over 60% of the churches that filed were Black churches. Forgive Us Our Debts is about why this is so, and why Black churches are so successful in reorganizing. The book weaves together detailed stories of seven churches that filed chapter 11, supplemented with aggregated data. Forgive Us Our Debts tells a story of salvation through the reorganization system, which brings churches’ lenders to the negotiating table. But the salvation is bittersweet because the time and expense of reorganization seemingly should not have needed for many of the churches to get the deals they deserved. In delving into churches’ reorganizations, I found a story of disparities in credit markets, both at loan origination and during times of trouble. At its core, Forgive Us Our Debts is about lending to Black-owned businesses, Black communities, and the attempted extraction of wealth. I wrote the book so that it can be picked up by a pastor or someone who oversees a church, by attorneys, or by anyone interested in lending and race and community development.

Find the book via University of Chicago Press, Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets. I’m always interested in discussing the book!