Bankers asking preachers to say nice things about Y2K

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Wednesday, August 11, 1999 ABA Tries to Enlist Preachers to Calm Y2K Fears By Alan Kline The American Bankers Association is turning to a higher power to help prevent a year-2000 panic. Amid doomsayers' claims that power grids will shut down and automated teller machines malfunction when the calendar turns to Jan. 1, the trade group has written a sermon aimed at easing fears about the Y2K bug. ABA officials are asking community bankers to pass along the generic, five-page sermon to their priests, ministers, and rabbis. (snip to end) Full article at: http://www.americanbanker.com/PSUser/ABO_Story.htm?NS_adv_search=0&NS_search_set=ahdqvB0l_b1c8518095f7f1&NS_doc_offset=2 Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

Oops, let's try that with formatting.

Wednesday, August 11, 1999

ABA Tries to Enlist Preachers to Calm Y2K Fears

By Alan Kline

The American Bankers Association is turning to a higher power to help prevent a year-2000 panic.

Amid doomsayers' claims that power grids will shut down and automated teller machines malfunction when the calendar turns to Jan. 1, the trade group has written a sermon aimed at easing fears about the Y2K bug.

ABA officials are asking community bankers to pass along the generic, five-page sermon to their priests, ministers, and rabbis.

(snip to end)

Full article at:

http://www.americanbanker.com/PSUser/ABO_Story.htm?NS_adv_sear ch=0&NS_search_set=ahdqvB0l_b1c8518095f7f1&NS_doc_offset=2

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), August 11, 1999.


I had to go to their home page and click on the article, but there it was in all of its pompous glory.

Darn, this does not sit well with me.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), August 11, 1999.


ABA Tries to Enlist Preachers to Calm Y2K Fears By Alan Kline The American Bankers Association is turning to a higher power to help prevent a year-2000 panic.

Amid doomsayers' claims that power grids will shut down and automated teller machines malfunction when the calendar turns to Jan. 1, the trade group has written a sermon aimed at easing fears about the Y2K bug.

ABA officials are asking community bankers to pass along the generic, five-page sermon to their priests, ministers, and rabbis.

"Churches play an important role in most communities, and people put a lot of credence in what they say,'' said Kathleen Murphy, director of the ABA's community bankers council.Drawing comparisons with Orson Welles' famous "War of the Worlds'' broadcast in 1938, the sermon urges consumers to "get the full story'' before going out and buying a year's worth of groceries or burying "your money in the backyard.'' Though it does not promise that there will be no glitches, the text tries to reassure consumers that government and industry - particularly banking - are ready for the millennial change.

"I'm not worried about America's ability to solve the technical problems of Y2K,'' it says. "But there is something that does worry me: misinformation. The kind of misinformation that led some people on the night of Oct. 30, 1938, to panic.''

The ABA faxed its members last week, calling attention to the posting of the sermon on its Web site. The association is not expecting the text to be read verbatim but views it as a "template'' for sermons, said ABA spokesman John Hall.

The banking industry is spending about $8 billion to upgrade computer systems to meet regulators' year-2000 guidelines. At last count, 99% of the nation's banks and thrifts were year-2000 compliant.

Robert B. Fazzini, president of commercial lending at Busey Bank in Bloomington, Ill., said the sermon could help persuade customers that their money will be safe in the bank. "If a minister is saying everything is going to be O.K., you'll tend to believe it more than if I'm saying it,'' Mr. Fazzini said.

ABA officials decided to target religious groups after an article in a Baptist-affiliated publication suggested that people's money would be safer in large banks. The February article in Baptist Press said community banks and credit unions "have dragged their feet'' on upgrading computer systems.

"The bankers were concerned that some portions of the religious community were fanning the flames of Y2K anxiety,'' said Mr. Hall.

Members of the ABA's community bankers council met with leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville last May to assure them that banks of all sizes are prepared. ABA officials and members have already delivered their message on religious radio and television shows in Phoenix, San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities.

The Southern Baptist Convention has since softened its stance on community banks' readiness.

John Gillmartin, pastor at First Baptist Church in La Verne, Calif., said he has told members of his congregation that he believes their money is safe in banks.

The Rev. Gillmartin said it is unlikely he would a use a "canned" sermon. But he said it is not uncommon for members of the clergy to use unsolicited material, especially if they are running low on ideas.

"It seems like preachers are expected to hit a home run every time they come to the plate,'' he said. "But it doesn't always happen.''

-- Super (slfsl@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999.


Jon, I agree. This makes me uncomfortable. They must be very worried indeed and this could backfire. If they are this worried, so am I.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), August 11, 1999.

Let us pray.

Father, we ask that you give our deathmarching gearheads the strength to complete their mission on time and with few errors.

We pray that when the scenes of global financial collapse begin unfolding on CNN we resist the urge to rush down to the bank and withdrawn every nickel of our hard earned life savings.

We ask that you allow the Fixes on Failure to be possible, the clock rollbacks to work, the shoddy workarounds to suffice, the incompatible windowing schemes to somehow interoperate, and the corrupt imported data problems to be minor.

We ask your forgiveness for putting profits over responsible management practices, for deriding our aging coders, for slashing maintenance, training, testing and documentation budgets, and for ignoring the visionaries in the technical trenches who warned us of the impending crisis until it was too late to properly solve.

We ask that come 2000, our lights come on, our water runs, our toilets flush, our telephones work, our factories produce, our governments function, our society copes, and our televisions broadcast Montel. Uh, scratch that last one.

For this Father, we are eternally grateful. Or at least until we know its only a bump in the road. Amen.

-- a (a@a.a), August 11, 1999.



Wow - this confirms their fears of a panic - by everybody who is NOT preprared......

Frightening - lets tell people NOT to prepare, regardless of what else happens, it won't matter just as long as they keep their money in the bank.

___

How did that old quote go? "The only thing we have to fear is people taking their own money out of my bank....."

___

And I have yet to see a bank with a spare generator outside and its own self-contained telephone and satellite system to all the other banks in town.....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 11, 1999.


<<. "If a minister is saying everything is going to be O.K., you'll tend to believe it more than if I'm saying it,'' Mr. Fazzini said. >>

____

But, if the minister says it because the bank says it, is it right?

____

Thought the Baptists criticized us Catholics for "infallibaility"...

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 11, 1999.


The link didn't work for me. Said the article was expired.

-- (pray@for.bankers), August 11, 1999.

What would truly be frightening is if the preachers go along with the ABA.

Will they foresake their followers well being to give the almighty dollar a let up?

I don't like this at all.

Mike

==================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 11, 1999.


Found it!

BTW - When bankers start writing sermons, we're all in trouble!

"My Temple should be... a house of prayer... but you have made it... a den of thieves... Get out, get out!!"

-JC Superstar

-- (pray@for.bankers), August 11, 1999.



What would truly be frightening is if the preachers go along with the ABA.

Will they foresake their followers well being to give the almighty dollar a leg up?

I don't like this at all.

Mike

==================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 11, 1999.


echo? echo? sorry for the double post...wow that server is quick sometimes... Mike


-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 11, 1999.

http://www.americanbanker.com/PSUser/ABO_Story.htm?NS_adv_sear ch=0&NS_search_set=ahdqvB0l_b1c8518095f7f1&NS_doc_offset=2

If this link does not work, you might try going to their home page and selecting the link there.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), August 11, 1999.


LINK

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), August 11, 1999.

Went out to the ABA website to see what they included in their "sermon". (http://www.aba.com/aba/AboutABA/homepage.asp is the main page, then linked to press releases. Then tried a search.

Did a search on "y2k sermon" at the ABA site and got one hit:

1.Y2K Sermon for Religious Outreach listed as a hot link which then took me to a member's only section, and evidently a bank's membership (as opposed to individual membership) required.

Anyone out there who can get the text?

As a different aside, I personally find the comments by Rev. Gillmartin to be very, very sad:

"The Rev. Gillmartin said it is unlikely he would a use a "canned" sermon. But he said it is not uncommon for members of the clergy to use unsolicited material, especially if they are running low on ideas."

Running low on ideas, indeed.

-- where are we headed? (my@emailisnotreal.com), August 11, 1999.



Still no luck getting a working direct link, even though the story is still there and reachable via their home page. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), August 11, 1999.


Any and every authority which participates in this fiasco of deception will be completely discredited in the eyes of their constituencies. This will lead to a very, very deep level of mistrust and even hatrid for government or authority of any kind. It can get much worse than it already is. Anarchy is nothing to hope for.

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), August 11, 1999.

Church of the Almighty Dollar and Trust Co.

nuff said...

scratchin at the door...

The Dog

-- Dog (Desert Dog@-sand.com), August 11, 1999.


There's a bank in our area that is advertising for church's to come do business with them. Like "do you need money for a building project?" Banks are trying to tap into the pew warmers pocket! The banks pet project name for it is called "Shearing the Sheeple," sung to the tune of Shearing the Sheeves.

-- heretic (heretic@heretic.com), August 11, 1999.

On the one hand, they're both in the "faith" business, aren't they?

On the other hand, Matthew 6:24 - "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Webster: mammon - material wealth having a debasing influence)

Oh, the irony.

-- Nathan (nospam@all.com), August 11, 1999.


That song is called "Bringing in the Sheaves," but what's the difference? Once I was lost but then I found the truth, what a scam!

-- heretic (heretic@heretic.com), August 11, 1999.

Calm down, guys. You're ignoring the beginnings of a brand new trend: church as infomercial.

I mean, just imagine the potential! Nike sales are slow -- and a quick generic sermon about "standing on one's own feet (in Nikes)" goes out to a million churches.....

Or, how about a little something for Oreo cookies -- say, a generic sermon about how "you can't judge a book by its cover", or "the richness within".....

Guys, this could be the big gold mine of the future!

Of course, it would also result in the total debasement of all churches -- but small price to pay for a sound economy, eh?

Anita Evangelista

PS I hope you realize I am NOT serious, here. This whole situation is beyond belief.....

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), August 11, 1999.


Rock was over here to work on our old station wagon again today. Rock is a great guy, got a football scholarship, injured first year, almost killed him, dropped out of college. Since then he's been working pretty menial jobs, But the guy has more dignity and honor than these damn bankers, a gentle, well-spoken giant of a man.

Now, for the shaft of sunlight. Rock's second cousin is a pastor. She's telling her flock to set aside food, water and cash for Y2K, and Rock's doing that for himself and his family. That's why after regular work he does things like put in a new alternator, change the oil and tune up our old car. That extra money goes to his Y2K stash. It really feels good to pay this guy, knowing the money is being used for prudent security for his family.

Now what was that about the moneychangers and the temple? Are we going to see ATMs in church lobbies, just like we do now in supermarkets? It's not that big of a stretch--just coming full circle, that's all.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), August 11, 1999.


I really thought this was a joke, or written by a troll, untill I followed the links. I wonder if the banker newsletter folk are switching the url often to make it tough for us to make a link work.

Try this. It worked at 7:45 central time, Wednesday.

Bankers and preachers

Bankers and Preachers

-- Alexi (Alexi@not-in-the-dark.com), August 11, 1999.

That says expired too, Alexi. Going to try a search.

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), August 11, 1999.

Oh I see what the problem is. It's because when you click on the article headline, the site uses it's own search engine to retrieve it from it's directories, much like Yahoo! etc. do and the search results expire after a short time. Sites that update their info regularly use that method, easier to maintain a large site this way. This perticular article is still on the "front page" of the site, so it's still easily accessible. Eventually it should be retrievable by doing a search on their "Archive" section.

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), August 11, 1999.

Old Git--Your friend Rock WORK's for a living, that's the difference. And his second cousin is preaching the EOTWAWKI (every preacher has done that, nothing new here). But the key word is WORK! Pay your own way. Most pastor's I know suck off the teat of their congregation. They get up into the pulpit one day a week, preach what you already know and what you can read for yourself, and then turn around and ask you for more of your hard earned money. If religion isn't socialistic welfare I don't know what is! By the way, why do people pay a preacher to preach guilt to them? I don't get it! Bible thumpers are a sick society! then I don't know what is.

-- heretic.com (heretic@heretic.com), August 11, 1999.

FYI--For those still looking for the article Found it today on their Recent Issue page. It reads exactly like what "Super" has posted above..

Recent Issues page shows "Community/Regional" as a subsection: ABA Tries to Enlist Preachers to Calm Y2K Fears http://www.americanbanker.com/PSUser/ABO_Recent.htm

Took me here: http://www.americanbanker.com/PSUser/ABO_Story.htm?NS_adv_search=0&NS_ search_set=jjjuoshv_b324bf8095f7f1&NS_doc_offset=12

Many thanks to all for directing me to this article.

-- LCJ (lcjohnson@geocities.com), August 12, 1999.


The sermon "template" has been posted to the ABA has gone too far thread.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), August 17, 1999.

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