What Would God Think Of the Bankruptcy Bill?
What Would God Think Of the Bankruptcy Bill?
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes about how the U.S. Senate is on the verge of passing a credit-card-industry-backed bankruptcy bill that makes it harder for consumers to pay back their debts, and turns a blind eye to predatory lending practices. He notes that Senators are expected to cynically use values language to justify their support of this bill. (For more on the bill, see this earlier ThinkProgress post).
If that’s the case, maybe Senators should review the Bible before their floor debate. As you can see from these quotes provided by Rep. Bernie Sanders office, the Bible is very clear about God’s views on the evil of usury:
If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.
“In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.
He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
If he has exacted usury Or taken increase — Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.
“If he has not oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing; If he has not exacted usury Nor taken any increase, But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity And executed true judgment between man and man; If he has walked in My statutes And kept My judgments faithfully — He is just; He shall surely live!” Says the Lord God.
One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion gathers it for him who will pity the poor.
Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury.
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
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I was listening to Charles Grassley (R) Iowa on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR this morning and he said that the credit card industry is not part of the problem, he likened them to the brewing industry, if you’re weak, you become an alcoholic, same thing with credit card debt, why should others pay for it?
March 1st, 2005 at 11:47 amYes, but in my America we have safeguards to protect the weak.
I think that part of the BIG DEAL about this bankruptcy thing was the credit industry’s E-Z lending terms. These are the types of credit schemes that get people into trouble.
Now, I’m sure there are plenty of weak people out there that are living loose with the credit cards, but if credit companies are going to give anyone with a pulse a credit card, then they’re going to have to live within the system – not just use their influence to change the laws.
Changing the ability of people to declare bankruptcy without changing the ways the credit companies lend money isn’t solving anything… It’s only protecting the profits of corporations.
March 1st, 2005 at 12:01 pmIt has always been my understanding that the banks charge high interest on higher-risk credit accounts in order to compensate for those bad debts that bankrupt out.
March 1st, 2005 at 1:47 pmBernie could of course have provided Gospel textual examples as well. Didn’t that Jesus dude chase the money lenders out of temple? And, well, we know that our most heinous enemies, the muslims, have very specific edicts against usury in their book, the Koran. They punish it with more serious behaviors, as we well know. So i guess Congress is being good anti-muslims by encouraging loan shark corporations to continue to amass their profits on the tortured backs of US citizens.
March 1st, 2005 at 2:16 pmThis is my dilemma…I welcome moderate voices from religious figures.. It’s ridiculous that most religious people have allowed the rapture right to capture their faith….
Obviously a great number of people’s actions are guided by religious beliefs, and the same people are influnced by the rhetoric of the political leaders who use religion and religious term while making policy.
However, and perhaps this isn’t good strategy right now, when are we going to challenge those who support their arguments not with reason, but with the irrational? I’m saying, when someone makes a reference to, say, the Bible to “prove” his point, why shouldn’t we challenge this?
Is the Bible the word of God? and, thus, infallible? Do we all accept that? Is everything in the Bible of equal value and validity? I’d assume so… we are we to judge?
Then (and I’ve heard this many times), is our nation founded on biblical moral values? Why, for example, homosexuality is condemned? Ok, maybe the Bible says so. But the same book also says that you shouldn’t wear mixed fibers, the non-virgin brides should be stoned, and that slavery is condoned if not approved (at least for 6 years of servitude)! Are these the morals we want?
And, being a man, I’d like to ask those religious people who oppose same-sex marriage, when they’re going to legally define marriage in the US as “a union between a man and his wives”?!!!!
Geeshus
March 1st, 2005 at 2:30 pmThe Bible provides for a year of Jubilee when all debts are forgiven. We don’t need bankruptcy, just a year of Jubilee every seven years. Andros, I’m waiting for someone to say what the religious right is going to do about levirate marriages.
joe
March 1st, 2005 at 4:12 pmI have been on a waiting list for 2 years for help with a pro-bono bankruptcy case. Yesterday had to have been one of the hardest days of my life when I read of this.
For you see, through no fault of my own, I can no longer take care of myself. I have been homeless for over 2 years now – in New England. I have been living in my car and now a van – during snow storms and all. This new law will surely almost gaurantee I will never get back on my feet again – and it breaks my heart. Not only for my own poverty but for others who I see out on the streets who have it even worse than myself.
March 1st, 2005 at 4:49 pmRecommended reading:
“What Would Jesus Do? An Ethical Guide for George W. Bush”
March 1st, 2005 at 10:23 pmThe difference between credit card debt and alcoholism is that we as a society have no control over the biological “wiring” that causes some people to become alcoholics. But we do have control over the socioeconomic “wiring” that creates medical payment crises, no money to pay for college, and the many other reasons that people go bankrupt due to no social safety net.
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