In the first full week of June 2023, Faith and Money Network hosted a trip with Hope Credit Union. The purpose of this trip was to show Hope investors firsthand the impact that their deposits are making in the Deep South, particularly for low-income and rural Black families. This is a reflection from participant Sara Loving, who runs a project centered around ethical banking practices called   [Read More …]

A week ago, as I write this, we visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. It’s also known as the "Lynching Memorial," which gives a clearer idea of the emotional impact of time spent there. The main part of the memorial is a covered square area surrounding an open courtyard. Walking through the space, you are surrounded by hundreds of six-foot-long steel   [Read More …]

Faith and Money Network Trips of Perspective have taken members to countries and communities with vibrant cultures, including Haiti, India, and Bosnia. In recent years, the network has focused on domestic trips, visiting Wise County, Virginia originally in 2011 and since taking groups to experience Southern Appalachia nearly a dozen times.  Ahead of our fall 2023 trip to visit our friends   [Read More …]

I had factored in human greed and destruction, but I had not factored in the human goodness and systemic creativity that we met throughout the trip. I had not anticipated hope.  “Mountaintop removal coal mining? My heart can’t take it.” That thought kept me from going to Wise County, VA, with Faith and Money Network’s Trip of Perspective for several years.  In part, I was right.   [Read More …]

Founded in 2005, Geez magazine is a publication about social justice, art, and activism. It proudly claims that it’s "for the over-churched, out-churched, un-churched and maybe even the un-churchable." Started by Aiden Enns in Winnipeg, the magazine has been run since 2018 by a staff based in Detroit, who embrace the fierce independence of the magazine’s mission and are deeply devoted to living   [Read More …]

The members of SAMS we met were welcoming and dynamic — and also very patient in disabusing us of some ideas we may have had about the challenges of living and working in coal country. Our merry band of explorers arrived in Big Stone Gap, Virginia on October 20, 2022. Some of us had been to this far southwestern region of Virginia before and had looked forward to meeting friends from prior   [Read More …]