The unrelenting financial depression that hit the black community infected the churches too, linking the fates of the black church and the black bank together, sometimes uncomfortably. Often a preacher advises his parishioners to deposit funds at a black bank. Martin Luther King did this. Black churches in turn borrow money from black banks. These loans, which are meant to further the goals of each institution and of the community, can nevertheless put the bank and the church at cross purposes.
