The Really Big Sin the Church Forgot



Growing up in a tiny rural community we all knew the serious sins. The Sin Leader Board, as I remember, was beer, doing work in farm fields on Sunday, dancing and playing cards with clubs and spades. Probably it was not a place good for mental health. There was right there in the Bible a sin no one mentioned. 

A recent article in Christianity Today reminds us the Bible's Sin Leader Board has near the top the sin of "usury." I don't have a subscription so a pay wall keeps me from reading the entire article. I think I know what it says, however.

The conventional wisdom within the faith today is that "usury" refers to charging unfair or extraordinary interest. It is to take advantage of the borrower. "Reasonable interest" is OK. That is not how the Bible passages were interpreted during much of the time since its existence. Interest was bring in money for no labor. Nothing was produced, why should anyone be paid? There have been times and places in history where it was used, other times and places where it was prohibited. 

Islam today prohibits the charging of interest. Business deals are done by work arounds. The borrower allows some ownership of the business to taken on by the party loaning the money. The party loaning money gets some of the profit. End result is the same.

If Christians take their faith from the Bible, they should prohibit the charging of interest.

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