principium 101

I confess, I stole this from swissmiss.

So I was listening to my Planet Money economics podcast as they talked to a historian about the history of banking. What I heard reminded me of something I've been wondering about for about a decade: doesn't the Bible condemn the act of selling interest bearing loans?

Interesting podcast, but the real answer doesn't come from NPR, so I've turned to the Bible:

Nehemiah 5:9-11 "So I continued, 'What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain, but let the exacting of usury stop! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them - the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil.' "

I'm still having a hard time getting my head around the implications. Namely, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the business model of modern day banks is fundamentally immoral for a Christian to participate in. That would mean going into every church and telling the bankers, real estate investors, furniture salesmen, car dealers, etc. to quit their job or fear God's judgment. Sounds like a popular sermon series. You could title it, "Our church is too big and we've got too much money." It's understandably not happening, but is there another reason besides the fear of people and circumstances instead of God?

Even the NIV Study Bible avoids the argument. Its commentary on a similar passage in Ezekial it says, "Ezekiel condemns usury. (Interest on modern commercial loans is a different matter.)" No further explanation. In other words, don't worry your little head about that, just let the bankers do what they want. At least it could condemn payday loans as evil (which they definitely are and should be shut down).

Granted, the Old Testament does allow for the charging of interest to foreigners (thus the classic stereotype about rich, money-lending Jews), and also at times condemns "excessive interest" alongside usury, perhaps setting the standard below the blanket condemnation of all loans. But the verse specifically talks about the "hundredth part of the money". Sounds like less interest than most loans I've heard of.

So maybe Christians could loan money at interest to people in other religions, like mormons or something. Maybe we could lend to Catholics too because they like Mary. But if the story of the Good Samaritan is any indicator, I doubt it meets the standard. If we love our neighbor, and everyone's our neighbor, it pretty much rules out that option.

Our economy has been on the brink of collapse for a year now because of our willingness to accept debt as normal. I understand that if we removed commercial and private loans from the world system that the global economy would grind to a halt. But isn't the point of being a Christian that we don't conform to the world system?

The point of these verses is to condemn the taking of poor people's homes because they can't pay back a loan on time because the interest is the bulk of the payment (see any credit card statement). The fact is that that is happening everyday, all around us, and we just shake our heads and act like it's the poor person's fault they're poor so whatever people do to take advantage of them is fine. I'm sorry, but that's stupid.

I had a thought today that's related to my recent post about racism. If racism is simply a tribal desire to prefer those similar to us (and demonize others), than political divisiveness is arguably an offshoot of racism.

This is a pretty broad statement, I know. The thought came to mind after hearing a story about the holocaust museum. Whenever I hear about the atrocities of Hitler's regime, I find myself comparing the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis to the 50-100 million killed by communism in Russia and China since then. There are no movies or TV specials about them, and the politics that created those deaths is often promoted as ideal for our country.

Our nation has become more polarized than ever in the last few decades, but especially after the last president. There is a lot of concern over racism and a lot of good work being done to promote reconciliation. I wonder if similar efforts are needed to heal the rift among conservatives and progressives, Christians and the culture at large.

I was reading a book by Rick Joyner about spiritual strongholds within the church. At the same time I was taking a class at UO about social justice issues in education. It was interesting to see the different perspectives on why problems come up in society and what the solutions to those problems look like. Though I'm not against government programs designed to counteract the effects of racial and social inequality, I don't put my hope in those programs to effect any lasting change.

The subject continued to pique my interest after the rather boring class was over and the chapter of the book was read. Here's the idea I'm walking away with: racism is the source of most of the atrocities committed in the course of human history. It has fueled wars, oppression, slavery, genocide, and created a seemingly permanent underclass of black (and now hispanic?) people in my country. Yet for most of my life I've considered it to be a non-issue. If racism has indeed been such a force for evil, I doubt American culture has somehow risen above it.

This is hard for me to say, because even as I write this, I don't see strong evidence in my daily life for the power of evil working to divide me from people of other races. I'm not suspicious of incoming Mexicans or Latinos in my culture. I don't get nervous if black people walk by my house. At the same time, I don't really have close friends whose culture is significantly different from my own. I know a lot of diverse people, sure, but my real friends are like me. I see this as a fault of my own, but I struggle for a means of repairing it.

Many people will write off racism as an issue that's somewhere else. I'm coming to think that that's really ridiculous and only serves to stoke the personal pride of culture that fuels the racism they deny. I know I've encountered both overt and covert racism here in Oregon, but being the privileged majority makes this an easy thing to overlook.

Racism is present in church. Churches are more segregated that schools, and schools have never been more segregated than they are right now. In every region of the US, whether there is a history of racism or not, there are separate church meetings for different cultures/races. In fact, I've personally chosen not to join a congregation whose music was more gospel (read African American if you like) than I was comfortable with. I knew at the time that it was shallow of me, but I still feel that I can't connect on a spiritual basis to music that's not what I consider "good worship". I'm sure many other people have made similar choices.

There are people making strides to change this. I visited a church in Portland that did an elder exchange with a church in Africa. Instead of sending their teenagers to teach the natives about the depth of their experience with Jesus, they asked a local church leader to go and learn from their leaders how to better serve. I think this goes a long way toward dismantling the condescending attitude of most missionary work. The catch is, that that church is still 95% white in a city with huge minority populations.

What would it look like to have a church with bilingual services for the general population, rather than a separate service in Spanish? Could a church still grow among upper-middle class white people if they varied the worship styles to include other cultural influences (please do not read as suburban white kids playing hip hop worship)? Would a missions trip still get off the ground if instead of sending spoiled kids to Mexico via Disneyland, we brought a Mexican pastor to teach us something about humility, service, and the love of Christ? I think it would be fun to find out.