Usury

[bronnyelsp]

There's an interesting inter-faith action going on in London and the US. Representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are marching on bankers and presenting them with copies of the Torah, Christian Bible and Qur'an, as a demonstration against usurious interest rates (a cap of 8% is being advocated).

Jonathan Freedland explains.The comments

Comments

[eyelid]

eh. I am uncomfortable with usury laws because they mean that when interest rates are high, no one can get a loan, because why would you lend anyone money at 8% when the interest rate is otherwise 12%?

Which was the case when my parents bought their second house (80s). The interest rate was like 18% due to inflation. The only way they got a mortgage was via a family friend who had the money to loan.

[bronnyelsp]

I think they want it pegged above, and to move with, the interest rate.

[felis_ultharus]

Funny -- I usually use the total apathy of Christianity toward usury to show how selective evangelical, right-wing Christians are in interpreting the Bible (Jesus mentions banking a lot but never homosexuality, yet there are no banker-bashings in the streets).

This is the first time I've heard of any organized Christian criticism of the banking sector.

[bronnyelsp]

You won't generally find it in right-wing Christianity (the "prosperity gospel" is, to my horror, much more common.) However, individuals and groups from mainstream denominations and the Christian left have been behind movements such as the Jubilee Debt Campaign in the past.

You're right about the cherry-picking, of course. It's a blinkered view that refuses to accept the Bible as the mishmash of mythology, etiology, literature (eg poetry), etc, that it is, all written by people with an ancient worldview that didn't involve equating scientific fact with spiritual truth. But try to explain that either to an evangelical Christian fundie or an evangelical atheist fundie and all you get is a lot of grief...