ECONOMY WATCH : Self-Help, ‘90s Style

Self-help is one of those terms that conjure up images of advice and how-to gurus. Revelation Corp. of America hopes to strip away the New Age connotations and restore the old-fashioned meaning: creating a measure of self-sufficiency.

Five of the nation’s largest African American religious organizations have formed Revelation, a Memphis, Tenn., for-profit company that will offer its members a range of goods and services, including insurance and loans for housing and commercial purposes. It is modeled in part on the American Assn. of Retired Persons but will be open to everyone.

About 30% of the proceeds will be funneled to the communities of member churches. Most of the balance will go into a national fund dedicated primarily to helping African Americans acquire home and commercial loans.

Revelation grows partly out of the historical discrimination that blacks and other minorities have suffered in seeking loans from some major banks. Though some critics perhaps will dismiss the program as economic segregation, it rightly is to be seen as a quest for economic self-determination.

Mutual help is a longtime American tradition. Over the generations, many minority and immigrant communities have informally offered loans from pooled funds, usually in a small, local way. Others have managed to form banks to serve their communities. It should be remembered that the giant Bank of America was born as the Bank of Italy, which served poor immigrants, farmers and wage earners in San Francisco.