The BCC is committed to the guarantee of economic justice for impoverished and non-white communities and advocating for the creation of new, sustainable economic arrangements in America. The economic sufficiency of America depends on the redistribution of wealth and realizing alternative approaches to the nature, creation and function of money.
Safety Net Defense Campaign
Conservatives in Congress and Statehouses continue to wage a war on the poor by their strategy attempts to defund the social safety net in the US. Millions of Americans could lose access to affordable housing, health care and food. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs, Medicare and Medicaid, Section 8 Housing and the Affordable Care Act prevent dozens of millions of Americans from slouching into abject poverty in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. The Safety Net Defense campaign serves as watchdog of congressional and judiciary assaults on these anti-hunger programs and mobilizes Black church constituencies to advocate for protecting and expanding the safety net.
Our Money Movement
Our Money Movement is a financial education and policy initiative designed to educate the public about the structure and social consequences of the nation’s monetary system, and advocates for monetary reforms that lead to an economic system that works for the benefit of all people. A foundational principle of the campaign is that “in order to have a just society, we (as a nation) must have a just monetary system.”
With so many misconceptions about the nature, creation, and function of money in our society, the campaign seeks to educate policymakers, economists, thought leaders, and the general public about the negative impacts of our debt-based money system on economic sustainability, employment, mass incarceration, health care, public education, social security, the environment, race relations, high taxation, and a range of other social and economic issues plaguing our nation.
The campaign proposes an alternative theory of change that reclaims the right and power to issue the nation’s money to the government of the people for the benefit of the American people. By democratizing the nation’s money system, the Our Money aims to end social and economic despair, poverty, excessive taxation, underinvestment in public education, affordable housing, health care, social security, and the environment by making the American people and not private banks the beneficiaries of the extraordinary power to issue the nation’s money.
Access our position paper here.
The BCC:
- Hosts online town halls—the #BlackChurchAgenda—on a range of issues related to economic justice
- Facilitates training sessions on messaging, grassroots organizing and advocacy on economic policy
- Assists clergy in preparation for media engagement and opinion editorializing
- Develops user-friendly toolkits for sermon preparation, social media engagement and direct action.