life beyond debt theological and political context

Life Beyond DebtTheological and political

context

Political setting

‘An economic system that includes the positive feedback of compound interest

can only endure if it also includes a counteracting force such as inflation,

bank failures, confiscatory taxes, robbery, bankruptcy, revolutions or repudiations of debts. Conventional wisdom considers these events are

pathological. Understandable they may be: but at least one such force must be included ... if the system is to endure.’

G. Hardin and C, Bajema, Biology Its Principles and Implications, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1978, 3rd edition,

p. 275

Political setting

Total UK personal debt at the end of December 2008 stood at £1,457bn

0

250000

500000

750000

1000000

1250000

1500000

Apr-93

Apr-95

Apr-97

Apr-99

Apr-01

Apr-03

Apr-05

Apr-07

Total UK personal debt stands at £1,457bn (end Dec’08)

Theological background

‘Did you give to a prosperous person or not?

If he were prosperous then you should not have given it; if he were not, then

you should not ask it back as if he were.’

Jerome; cited in The Church and Usury, P. Cleary, 1914, p.55


‘Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or

anything else that may earn interest.’Deuteronomy 23:19

(see also Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:36-37)


‘Usury’ was a ‘use-charge’ – includes rent on land and hire charges as well

as any charge made for a loan of money

‘Interest’ referred to payments made on a loan of money that acted as

compensation to the lender for making the loan – designed to ensure that the lender suffered no loss for engaging in

the transaction.


At the heart of the interest debate is a moral question:

Is it just for lenders to receive back more than the amount lent simply

because they have been deprived of their property for the duration of the

loan?


‘Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist

that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.’

James 4:13-16


‘A righteous man ... does not lend at usury or take interest.’

Ezekiel 18:8‘He who increases his wealth by

interest and usury gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.’

Proverbs 28:8


‘You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the

LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the

land you are entering to possess.’Deuteronomy 23:20

‘Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants

to borrow from you.’ Matthew 5:42

Theological application

Loans are to be offered to the poor as a means of helping them out of their

predicament The Bible envisages a vital role for interest-free lending between family

and community members as a means of poverty relief

It encourages non-interest charitable lending and risk-sharing business

finance


‘Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.’

Matthew 6:12

‘Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then

revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his

fellowman has fulfilled the law.’ Romans 13:7-8


The Church could model:• interest-free (or inflation-free) grant-making• not just money (e.g. community larder)• establishing credit unions• forgiveness of debts• not borrowing to buy (e.g. building projects)• no debt without relationshipThe Church can provide counselling:• don’t get in debt• how to get out of debt

Further reading From www.jubilee-centre.org > finance &

the economyReports > Interest in Interest: The Old Testament Ban

on Interest and its Implications for Today (October 1989)

Cambridge Papers > The divine economy (December 2000), Investing as a Christian: reaping where you have not sown? (June 1996), The ban on interest:

dead letter or radical solution? (March 1993)Bible Studies > Debt Trap Action: 4 Bible Studies

[Personal attitudes to wealth (Luke 16:1-13), Debt and forgiveness (Matthew 18: 23-34),

Safeguards against the Debt Trap (Deuteronomy 15:1-11), When people fall into Debt (Nehemiah 5:1-13)]

See also: News > Cambridge Papers Open Day, The Economy in Crisis: A Biblical Diagnosis and

Foundation for Recovery, 4th May 2009

life beyond debt theological and political context

Documents