The SBA’s Decision To Give Churches And Other Faith-Based Organizations Payroll Protection Loans: ‘We Feel Blessed’

Pastor Bruce Jackson sent me a text when he was approved for a loan from the Small Business Administration: “we feel blessed,” he wrote.  A friend had tipped him off to the loan, the Payment Protection Program, and the fact that churches were eligible.  Pastor Bruce had jumped at the opportunity, despite the fact that religious organizations in Ohio are considered essential businesses, and First Grace Church has seen an uptick financially during the pandemic, because he viewed it as a gift from God.

Through a mixture of political bargaining and entrepreneurship, the business of saving souls, as Pastor Bruce calls it, has been able to mitigate some of the financial hardship devastating many small businesses during this time.  Since churches don’t have to report their finances, it is difficult to know exactly how many have applied for government aid, but the number is estimated to be in the thousands.  In a survey of 659 evangelical churches conducted by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, 59% of evangelical churches had applied for PPP loans as of May 26, according to Vice President Kim Sandretzky. 

For strict separationists of church and state, the pandemic has raised serious questions.  Critics say that the SBA giving money to religious organizations for payroll is the government funding religion while the current administration, and other supporters, have held the position that withholding federal emergency funds would be discriminatory.  The ability of governors to prohibit houses of worship from meeting during the pandemic is being tested in courts.  The Kansas legislature overturned the governor’s executive order that limited religious gatherings to ten people and the Michigan legislature reportedly advised the governor to exempt religious groups from the stay-at-home order.  The Supreme Court ruled yesterday to uphold Governor Gavin Newsom restriction on religious gatherings.   Newsom was one of twelve governors providing no religious exemption in their stay-at-home orders.  In Florida and Louisiana pastors of megachurches have been arrested for defying orders and continuing to conduct mass with large groups.  In Maryland, a dozen houses of worship had been cited by police for violating the stay-at-home order, state police told Religion News Service.  

Ohio is one of fifteen states that hasn’t imposed any restrictions on religious gatherings.  The rest of the country is a patchwork of restrictions, exemptions, and circumventions that regulate religious activity during the pandemic, or avoid the question altogether.  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a fellow Christian, has done “a great job,” according to Pastor Bruce.  He has named religious gatherings “essential,” despite having publicly expressed frustration at churches for continuing to meet.  To be able to continue worshipping in person has been “a majorly comforting experience,” says Pastor Bruce.

I discovered Pastor Bruce through a series of photographs taken by the documentary photographer Megan Jelinger at their Easter worship this year.  It was a drive-in service held in the parking lot of their church, which Pastor Bruce had begun organizing the week before, Palm Sunday, as a socially-distant alternative to meeting inside the church.  Word spread and the crowd grew, such that by Easter over a hundred cars attended.

I spoke with Pastor Bruce on the phone twice to understand what the Easter service was like, because I found it visually striking. Coincidentally, he told me his church had applied for a small business loan.  This story then became about two things, his drive-in service and his federal loan, which are really one thing: what it means to be a small business is changing quickly.

Pastor Bruce has proven himself to be an entrepreneur.  On Easter, volunteers wearing gloves and masks handed out capsules of grape juice and communion wafers, children’s coloring books, dog biscuits, scones and coffee through the rolled-down windows of cars. “It was as fast as a drive-through window at a restaurant,” says Pastor Bruce.  Worshippers were directed to park their cars in the lot and to turn their radio to the same station.  When the service began, it was broadcast through each car’s speakers.

If the cars wanted to say Amen during the worship, Pastor Bruce told them they could honk. If they wanted to clap, they could flash their lights. And if they wanted to express emotion, they could turn on their windshield wipers “to give the effect of tears.”  Preaching to cars “took some getting used to,” he told me, laughing.  “Now,” he says, “I’ve gotten to the place where if I’m driving and someone honks at me, I feel affirmed.”

The sermon on Easter Sunday was meant to speak directly to the crisis. “There is a tremendous spirit of fear,” says Pastor Bruce. The sermon’s message was to overcome fear, and to find hope in Jesus.  “Jesus wants a personal relationship with us, and that’s what helps us get through times of real struggle. I’m hammering that every week,” he says. 

Likely due to the success of drive-in service, First Grace Church has not seen the decline in donations that the majority of churches across the country have seen.  Of the 1,000 churches recently surveyed by Church Law & Tax, a quarter reported that their congregation’s giving had dropped by more than half.  Church Law & Tax, whose readership is predominantly evangelical, saw approximately 12,000 registrations for their introductory webinar on the Payment Protection Program and the CARES Act, and subsequent webinars drew a couple thousand.

The Small Business Administration’s announcement in early April that faith-based organizations were eligible for federal relief is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to expand the legal rights of religious organizations, and particularly churches.  In light of controversy in Mississippi over a church violating a state ban, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest siding with the church.  Attorney General William Barr released a statement the next day affirming the DOJ’s commitment to “religious freedom… if any state or local government, in their response to COVID-19, singles out, targets, or discriminates against any house of worship for special restrictions.”

As of May 23rd, 129,626 loans were approved by the SBA in Ohio, but we can only speculate how many of these loans went to churches.  For evangelicals such as Pastor Bruce, the money comes from Jesus and it all belongs to Jesus.  “When the government said that they want to give us money, we say thank you God. Thank you, Jesus, because you’re providing for us, in a way that is unexpected,” he tells me.

The SBA’s decision to give churches funding is a promising sign for the future, according to Pastor Bruce.  “When the lord gives in abundance he’s about to launch us into something new,” he says.

At the very least, he tells me that next week they’re going to have food trucks.