I keep remembering more good things that Peter Selby said at Greenbelt. Of course he was promoting a book, it was called Grace and Mortgage:
It reminds me of this story from Benny's Accepting Evangelicals page:
A letter was written, so the story goes, by the evangelical church which had a large number of bankers in the congregation, to the pro-gay church which had a lot of gay people in the congregation.
The letter pointed out the verses in scripture which appear to condemn gay relationships and asked the vicar “In the light of these scriptures, what do you intend to do about your congregation?”
In response, the pro-gay church wrote a letter to the evangelical church pointing out all the scriptures which appear to condemn usury (or the charging of interest on loans) and asked the vicar “In the light of these scriptures, what do you intend to do about yours?”
It certainly seems to me that those of us with Mortgages are more clearly contravening the scriptures than those of us enjoying homosexual sex... (Want to ask which group is having more fun, but that would be very badly behaved).
7 comments:
Good post. Over the past few years I have really been wondering whether Christians should be as comfortable with our current interest-based financial systems as we seem to be. Of course, this comfort only came about at the Reformation. In medieval times it was considered unChristian to lend money (to other Christians) at interest. It was for this reason that the Jewish community became involved in the European economy, as they were the only people from whom it was OK for (gentile) rulers to borrow money to finance wars and other major expenditure. (This of course added fuel to the anti-semitic attitudes prevalent at the time).
I have never quite understood why the Reformation changed this view of interest, and thus laid the foundation for our modern economies, except to redefine what might be classed at "usury". The Hebrew scriptures seem fairly clear on the subject (within the bounds of the Israelite community). And although Jesus tells e.g the parable of the talents, which speak about charging interest, that is not the main point of the stories.
(Hi Lesley, I've read your blog for a wee while now, and I've just been finding my own online voice, so thought I'd give commenting a go :) )
I saw a Commonwealth Bank billboard recently that someone had spraypainted over with 'usury'. I may have shouted 'YES!' in the street at the time!
I've been interested for a while in the philosophy/theology of usury. It's one of the reasons I've moved over to a community credit union and I'm about to nix the credit card.
I know Tom Hodgkinson of The Idler has been advocating bringing back usury as a sin for a while now. I don't know where else it has been suggested. Any ideas?
That said, what this post makes me reflect on is how easily I warm to the idea of usury being bad because it conforms to my idea of how the Bible should speak to contemporary concerns. But I would run a mile from the Bible being used to denounce homosexuality because it is everything that I don't want my Anglo-Catholicism to be. It makes me realise that I read the Bible in a way that speaks to my concerns ... and it makes me realise that other people are doing the same, and not necessarily in the same ways as I do. Hmmm...
Hi Revsimmy, thanks for your thoughts. I was listening to the Jeremy Vine show yesterday and what everyone seemed to agree on was that greed has propagated very bad consequences for our economy and needed regulating against.
Hi Bryonny, and welcome. Hmmm. I feel a bit inadequate because although money and the way we use it is clearly really important, and important to Jesus and the prophets, I just find myself not able to think very deeply about it. I'm glad you feel passionate about it though, and Peter Selby clearly does. Perhaps you should read his book and do a guest post here?
Hi Lesley
I love the last sentence, although I think that the Bible's condemnation is more directed to those who charge interest on the mortgage, rather than those who have to pay.
If you wanted to be even more badly behaved in respect of sexuality vs usury, you could ask "Who's screwing who?"
God Bless
Benny
Hi Benny. Great badly behaved sentence :)I quote you in tomorrow's post
oops that is today. long day.. tired.. going to bed!
yes lets make usury a sin right now and force the bank to let us have our mortgage at face value, with no interest...;)
personally I dont have a huge problem with the bank lending money for interest (although lets not get into the ethical banking debate again...) BUT what does get me is the constant badgering the bank do to get you to take out a loan or extend your overdraft. It's no wonder so many people are in debt for goodness sake, when those that are vulnerable are being targeted left right and centre to borrow more. Now that should be a sin - can we start an official list somewhere of modern sins?!
redx
Post a Comment