“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” Deuteronomy 23.19, 20

When the goal of economic activity is justice – the practice of love for God and neighbor – rather than material prosperity, everything about that economy is going to look different, including the use of credit and debt. These would not be forbidden, but the terms on which they are engaged and the reasons for which they are employed would, it seems to me, be dramatically different than the easy credit/burdensome debt practices so common in our society today.

Public policies that support the latter can be calamitous in the extreme, as we learn the hard way during times of recession. Moreover, they create a mindset which can be difficult to overcome – as, again, we are seeing in our society. When people are taught that material prosperity is the way to happiness, and easy credit is extended on every hand to make that prosperity a reality, covetousness and lust will rule instead of sound reason and neighbor love, and the blessings of God will elude us, though we possess the wealth of all the nations of the world.

T. M. Moore

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