BANKING: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE (2)

Pastor Benny Perez

"Charisma reported what it describes as the “ugly details” as follows: 'The Church of South Las Vegas paid $4.5 million for 3.3 acres of Las Vegas Valley land three years ago. In March, that land appraised for $475,000—a 90 percent decline. The church owes a combined $7.7 million on the property and land. It appraised for $2.3 million. So, like many property owners in Las Vegas—one of the hardest hit real estate markets in the nation—Perez is upside down … $5.4 million upside down'.”

The point has been made that the controversy over introduction of Islamic Banking into our financial system has become a kind of “hunch back problem”, which our dear President would need divine guidance to resolve. That is because the rhetoric on both sides has become violent. Also when it is remembered that the President is a Christian, you wonder how he’s going to avoid accusations of partisanship or sell-out as the case may be.  That was why I counselled that we should pray for him.

But as we pray, I had also suggested that we “begin to prayerfully take a close look at banking systems and practices and our place in it, as children of God”.  I also requested you, dear readers to reflect on how your “interface with banking practices, as they are today, (have) helped or hurt your assignment for God here?  

In making this request, I was hoping that we would be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system, how those attributes line up with the way and manner Christians are supposed to conduct their affairs in whatever their hands find to do here on earth.

My preliminary thoughts are that we, in this part of the Christian world, have not had the incentive to give this issue any thought for two reasons. One, real or perceived weaknesses in the financial system have been located mainly within a rotten socio-economic and political milieu, which would be corrected once the operating environment responds to treatment. 

Secondly, it does seem as if interaction between the Church, in this context, the institutions, rather than the congregants, is mutually beneficial. The reason being that many of the major church institutions, which produce leadership of the church associations and groups, are veritable sources of deposits to the banks and can benefit from existing interest regime or even negotiate theirs. In addition, most of them hardly ever have the need to resort to bank funding for their projects. 

This is where the story of the current travails of Benny Perez, senior pastor of the Church of Las Vegas, in the United States comes into the picture. A Charisma News report last week styled the situation as a battle with the “Babylonian system to save its campus from foreclosure.” The church, a 4,000-member charismatic megachurch is located in Henderson, Nevada,   widely recognised as the gambling capital of the world.

Charisma reported what it describes as the “ugly details” as follows: “The Church of South Las Vegas paid $4.5 million for 3.3 acres of Las Vegas Valley land three years ago. In March, that land appraised for $475,000—a 90 percent decline. The church owes a combined $7.7 million on the property and land. It appraised for $2.3 million. So, like many property owners in Las Vegas—one of the hardest hit real estate markets in the nation—Perez is upside down … $5.4 million upside down.” 

The report continued: “Perez says the real battle began when the bank wanted to collect $1.8 million in church offerings earmarked for a building project for the fast-growth church. When Perez tried to negotiate with the bank to reduce the principal of the $7.7 million loan in line with actual property values, the bank refused. 

“After prayer and legal counsel, The Church of South Las Vegas decided a strategic default was the best stewardship move. The church stopped making payments on the loan on May 1. The bank subsequently filed suit against the church on June 17. And in July, the church filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in effort to save its campus. ‘People are asking if it is biblical to do a strategic default and declare bankruptcy,’ Perez says. ‘Our answer is we will leave that to smarter people. All I know is that for us as a church, it is a stewardship issue. Would you keep throwing thousands of dollars into a black hole? The bank wants to milk our savings and everything we have until we can’t pay anymore. Bankruptcy was a business decision.’”

Explaining the church’s strategy, the report said, filing for bankruptcy protection, ensures that the church “doesn’t have to leave the property - at least for now - because foreclosure is stayed”, since the Church has no debt. 

Perez, continues the report, “still hopes to negotiate with the bank. But the reality is that The Church of South Las Vegas could wind up losing its current home .Charisma quoted Perez as saying: “Somebody needs to stand up to this and I am standing up…Other pastors facing foreclosure are calling me asking what they should do. I can’t tell them what to do about the financial situation, but I do tell them not to walk in fear and not to keep throwing money away to these banks. You have rights and hopefully these banks will come to their senses and start working with churches that are helping the communities. This church isn’t a business. This is my life. This is my calling. There are lives at stake.”

Interestingly the pastor, as we are wont to do, had a spiritual angle to the issue. Charisma quoted him as saying: “This is a spiritual battle. The enemy loves to stop churches by using money. We are one building away from feeding and clothing more people, reaching more youth and children, and helping more prostitutes…Our church would probably double in another year if we could get the new building up. It’s been a war for three years. This is not about a bank. It is a principality and a power standing between us and the Promised Land.”

Now, there are a number of issues thrown up by this report. The easiest to deal with, in my opinion, is the spiritual angle as articulated in Pastor Perez’s statement in the immediate last paragraph. Yes, every system serves its originators and operators. The current banking system, whether in the USA or Nigeria, was not established to serve the Kingdom of God on earth. If it ever does help the church, it is accidental, and it’s got to be on its own terms. If those terms hurt us, the system owes us no apology! (CONTINUES)