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| Usury and Profiteering by Albrect Dürer |
The changes that the social teaching on usury has undergone compound the problem of teaching effectively on proper lending practices. The one constant has been concern for the welfare of the poor. The primary reason that some kinds of low-interest loans are permissible is because, in the current economic system, these can actually help the poor directly, rather than hindering or enslaving them. Other high-interest loans practiced in this economy remain usurious – even sinful in their oppression of the poor – and pastors should again condemn these practices forcefully. Radically, loans should exist primarily for the benefit of the borrower, not the lender. The Church must constantly seek economic justice and condemn economic injustice on behalf of the poor. In the present economic situation, that may no longer mean a unilateral condemnation of all kinds of interest taking, but it must still mean condemning usurious interest.
2 comments:
You wrote:
"The primary reason that some kinds of low-interest loans are permissible is because, in the current economic system, these can actually help the poor directly, rather than hindering or enslaving them. Other high-interest loans practiced in this economy remain usurious – even sinful in their oppression of the poor – and pastors should again condemn these practices forcefully. Radically, loans should exist primarily for the benefit of the borrower, not the lender. The Church must constantly seek economic justice and condemn economic injustice on behalf of the poor. In the present economic situation, that may no longer mean a unilateral condemnation of all kinds of interest taking, but it must still mean condemning usurious interest.”
Perhaps you do not realize the extent to which what you are advocating here is a branch of situation ethics. You have used the situation of modernity to claim that the eternal law against interest on loans of money may be abrogated for the sake of present circumstances ("the current economic system”), allowing, in your view, for what you call non-predatory loans that allegedly help the poor.
But if you are going to revise divine law in this matter of loans, what keeps you or any other Christian from declaring other revisions based on the ethics of the moment? For example, it can be said that in the modern world where community and friendship have atrophied and individuals are more isolated than ever, that the evangelical virtue of poverty is no longer recommended since people need to be affluent in order to supply basic needs formerly supplied by the community and a network of friends. Home insurance must be afforded and purchased, often at high rates, to compensate for the fact that if your house burns, no neighbors or community will come to rebuild it themselves.
By this reasoning all sorts of loopholes can be created in what God intended as the eternal law. Where does it end? It can only end at the point where we rescind the very first loophole we ever created in any dogma, and all subsequent escape clauses.
Once temporal chauvinism comes into play, and the zeitgeist becomes any kind of factor in determining our allegiance to, or rejection of, God’s truth, every other divine command and dogma is up for grabs, from birth control to the laws against homosexual eros and “matrimony.”
Please read my book, “Usury in Christendom."
The idea of "the poor" has changed dramatically since WW2.People who collect welfare receive free medical care,free food,free housing,free schooling, FREE BIRTH CONTROL, AFDC paychecks for doing absolutely nothing other than having illegitimate children outside of marriage,etc..My family on the other hand work 50-60 hours per week,and live on a shoe string budget week to week due to inflation, taxes,and bills.Welfare abuse is rampant and people living in government housing are not neglected.They all live around family, friends, and it's free.Believe me they have it much easier than working families who are self reliant.So who are the poor in this country? Very good question and your answer will depend upon who you ask.
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