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Opinion

Consumer protection bureau is a crucial defense for citizens

It is perplexing to pastors like us, who work on the front lines of our communities, how Congressman Jeb Hensarling, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has so harshly and for so long led a charge attacking Cordray.

Richard Cordray has been a loyal defender of the average American family as director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Recently, he announced his intention to step down by the end of this month. We are sad to see him go, but hopeful that his legacy of important successes in ensuring fairness in our financial markets will live on in his replacement. Our churches, families and local economies depend on it.

The CFPB was created in 2011 in the wake of the housing and financial crisis to provide immediate relief to those who were taken advantage of by irresponsible parties in the mortgage banking and financial industries, and to protect our nation’s economy from collapse in the future by ensuring sounder financial practices. Under Cordray’s leadership, the CFPB has built an oversight system that increased fairness and transparency, enforced compliance with the law and provided important financial information for everyday Americans. The CFPB has helped 29 million families recover $11.9 billion that had been wrongfully taken by various financial businesses, including the much-cited levying of a $100 million fine on Wells Fargo last year for creating millions of unauthorized accounts in its customers’ names.

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It is perplexing to pastors like us, who work on the front lines of our communities, how Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has so harshly and for so long led a charge attacking Cordray. The evidence, including our experiences on the ground, shows that families are better off because we have the CFPB. The chair’s vitriol seems at odds with the values of standing up for Main Street.

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The real world needs balanced regulation. We learned that lesson for at least the second time over with the 2007 financial crisis. Though now a decade in the past, the lessons learned are fresh —fresh for neighbors who lost their homes due to mortgage products designed for maximum short-term profit and not for the long-term success of the families who used them. Our communities are about the long term. Greed and exploitation of the unwitting foster mistrust of institutions and lead straightway to yet another crisis taxpayers will be expected to bail us out of. Regulation is also a problem when it thwarts the many virtuous agents on account of a few bad actors. The CFPB may not be a perfect organization, but it has fostered a better and fairer balance in the market between consumers and lenders through independent regulatory oversight.

Proverbs says, “Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them." Christians have a mandate to oppose injustice and care for the less fortunate in our society. The “gate” the proverb refers to is the ancient bar of justice, where disputes were settled between parties by the wise elders of society. We are thus commanded not only not to rob the poor, but also to advocate for them to be treated justly. We cannot do that if we are willfully blind to predatory lending practices.

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As Christian pastors, we have worked to strengthen protections for those who are victimized by extortionary interest and fees on short-term loans from the payday lending industry. The prospect now of rolling back new requirements and weakening fraud protection further undermines the common good. The divisive political climate in our country right now has eroded our trust in each other and in many of our large institutions. Healthy communities should never pit one citizen against another or see neighbors only as opportunities for one-sided profit. If we wish to regain a sense of confidence and community, citizens must insist on accountability from those institutions. Director Cordray and the CFPB have been among the strongest voices for that accountability.

Cordray’s legacy of defending the defenseless should be commended by people of faith. After all, fairness across all of our markets is not a partisan issue. It is a community and a family issue. For our churches, on the front lines, the value of the CFPB to balance the scales for families is very real. We need it to continue as a strong voice. The future is now in the hands of our president and the U.S. Senate. Our communities need a CFPB that upholds and builds on the great legacy of Richard Cordray. We ask you all to put aside the money and influence of Wall Street and lobbyists. Choose a new leader who will be a tireless advocate for fairness and the financial well-being of our families.

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George Mason is the senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Email: gmason@wilshirebc.org

Steve Wells is the senior pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston. Email: steve@smbc.org 

This column was first published in The Dallas Morning News.