Among religious congregations across the country, a new calling is emerging: Don't just give money to the poor. Invest it in financial programs that will help them.

Sometimes called "Sabbath Economics," the movement pushes people of faith to reject the capitalist model of economics in favor of the biblical one. That biblical model, outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament, views God's creation as abundant, but also requires that community members distribute it justly and not try to accumulate it all for themselves.

Sabbath Economics encourages people to move their money from Wall Street to Main Street. Advocates say the capitalist model -- in which people are driven by self-interest to build personal wealth -- is contrary to the ways of God.

"Churches have ignored the central role that the economy plays in the Bible," said Ched Myers, a California activist who is one of the leaders in the Sabbath Economics initiative. "In Scriptures, the world has material abundance. The only requirement is that we constrain ourselves so it's fairly distributed."

Slowly, these ideas are beginning to make headway. Last week, a Bangladeshi economist won the Nobel Peace Prize for founding a bank that lends money to poor people. Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank offers loans as small as $12 to widows, sweepers and beggars -- people commercial banks would never lend to. And on Saturday, in Durham, 120 people participated in a workshop designed to help them use their money in ways that honor their religious convictions.

At a concluding event Monday night in Durham, the Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP's North Carolina chapter, said people should use money in ways that "point you back to what you believe."

Already some religious organizations in the Triangle are doing just that. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh invests $100,000 in Self-Help Credit Union, a Durham nonprofit community lender; $100,000 in the Latino Community Credit Union; and another $100,000 in Mechanics and Farmers, a bank founded by African-Americans in Durham.

"I'm always interested in how we can leverage the assets of the church to make a difference in the community," said Russ Elmayan, the chancellor of the diocese.

Recently, the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina devoted its clergy retreat to Sabbath Economics. Now it's forming a team to rethink the diocese's investment strategies.

"When we put our money where our mouth is, we're having a big impact in bringing about the reign of God here on Earth," said the Rev. Heather McCain, the team leader on this issue and a vicar at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Greensboro.

McCain herself opened a savings account at Self Help recently, and has directed her retirement savings into mutual funds and stocks that support her religious convictions.

Biblical basis

The term Sabbath Economics refers to the practice of taking a day off from economic activity for rest. In the Hebrew Scriptures, sabbath is part of a larger social justice framework that includes the "jubilee year." During the jubilee, which falls every 50 years, slaves were freed, land was returned to its original owners and debts were forgiven.

Leviticus 25 reads: "For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards."

Sabbath Economics was born out of the socially responsible investing movement of the 1970s and '80s, when investors began screening companies not just on their financial performance, but on their social and environmental records, too. Companies that didn't make the cut are those that make money from the military and industrial complex, tobacco, alcohol, gambling or sweatshops. Also excluded are companies with poor environmental records.

More recently, people of faith have turned their attention to community investing. In community investing, people can invest in nonprofits or small businesses that are working directly with the poor to provide affordable housing, health services and day-care centers.

"Community investing is the fastest-growing part of social investments as a whole," said Andy Loving, a Baptist minister in Louisville, Ky. who now serves as a financial advisor specializing in socially responsible investing.

Finding a way

Locally, Self Help is the most popular investment option, followed by the Latino Community Credit Union and Generations Community Credit Union, which serves the African-American community.

Nationally, there's ShoreBank and the Calvert Foundation -- financial institutions that use investor deposits to fund loans for disadvantaged communities, mostly in the United States. Internationally, Oikocredit does the same thing for communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

While some of these institutions, such as Durham's Self Help, offer market rate investment returns, others are slightly below comparable commercial banks.

Kristin Posson, a stay-at-home mother of two who attended last week's seminar on Sabbath Economics, said she has been speaking to her husband about how to take it further.

"Like many folks, I wasn't interested in economic things," said Posson, a Methodist who lives in Cary. "It opened my eyes to reading Scripture in the cultural context of being just and fair, as God is just and fair."

Although she hasn't acted yet, Posson said she has some ideas.

"If we get out of our greedy accumulative culture and get back to the important things -- human beings -- the vision of enough for everyone is really beautiful and right."