Can Christians close their eyes to the needs of others and still claim to be fully devoted followers of Jesus? Can Christians observe the strong inflicting pain on the weak and not feel the pain themselves? Can they remain only observers? Can Christians watch the rich rob from the poor and not be angry enough to promote justice?
Baptists have taken the Great Commission of Jesus to be marching orders for an evangelistic army — “Go, win, baptize, teach.” But we have largely failed to face with equal sincerity the part about “making disciples.” Let's review relevant scriptures:
Jim White
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:29-20, NIV).
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Luke 4:18-19, NIV).
In point of fact, Jesus told his followers to make disciples. Implicit within that command is evangelism, of course, but it is noteworthy that Jesus never intended the church to be content with merely dunking new converts.
Jesus intended that his coming and our following will make substantive differences in the suffering and salvation of lost human beings.
This brings me back to my original questions above. It is one thing to know that as Christians we should step in to help the hurting. Action based on “ought.” It is something else entirely to have a heart so sensitized by contact with Jesus that it feels the pain of the oppressed.
I'll give you a case in point. I have written on a previous occasion of a practice we are allowing in our beloved Commonwealth. Even the word is noble, don't you think? Common wealth: it means that we work together to promote common enrichment. We share alike in the bounty and blessings.
But in our state we have given legal blessing to a group that seeks to enrich itself by capitalizing on the poverty of others. One group has money to lend. The other group is in need of ready cash. Perhaps you can envision that those who have money would lend to those who do not. That's the way it should be.
But it isn't that simple. All across our state garish store-front establishments offering to provide payday loans or “cash on your car title” have sprung up like toad stools. They will loan money to desperate people, but the interest rates of 400 percent or more push the borrowers into further desperation. No “common” wealth here.
One man told his story to Glenn Oder, a member of First Baptist Church of Newport News and a member of the House of Delegates. The man's wife had cancer and because of money and time demands the man needed cash to pay bills. He turned to a payday lender. When he could not repay the loan, he began to get phone calls demanding repayment. Every 15 minutes around the clock he got a phone call. Sometimes the man would hear only heavy breathing followed by a threatening message, “We're still here waiting.” The man told Delegate Oder that he should have known better than get involved with the payday lenders, but he was desperate.
A student at Virginia Tech had the misfortune of having a phone number similar to that of a payday borrower. She got on their list and she, too, got intimidating phone calls four times an hour every hour around the clock. The girl's mother is demanding that something be done. So should we.
Another payday loan collector threatened a borrower who is not acquainted with the law with having her thrown in jail saying a sheriff's deputy was on his way to arrest her.
But all this simply illustrates what unscrupulous payday lenders have done. Are all payday lenders dirty rotten scoundrels? Perhaps not. But, even the “good” ones are willing to take advantage of someone else's desperation to make a lot of money for themselves — even if it leaves the borrower in even greater desperation.
No doubt, as this season's legislature gets underway the payday lending institution will talk about the service it renders by providing the cash people need. They will not speak of the atrocities inherent in their tactics nor of the suffering they inflict on their victims.
Last year the payday lending industry used incentives such as a raffle drawing to encourage people to write their legislators and ask them to oppose payday lending reform. Those who sent copies of their letters to senators and delegates encouraging payday lending were entered in a drawing for cash!
This year Delegate Oder has introduced House Bill 12 (HB12) which limits the interest payday lenders may charge to the same amount other lenders can charge — 36 percent. Senator Roscoe Reynolds has introduced an identical bill as SB24. Other bills have also been introduced. In the mysterious ways of the legislature, committees sometimes combine bills that deal with like issues. Last year that happened and the sponsor of the bill into which all the others had been combined then pulled his bill killing the whole process.
As a follower of Christ, I ask you to feel the desperation of those who are oppressed. Please contact your delegate and senator and urge him or her to support capping payday lending at 36 percent in support of HB12 and SB24. A list of delegates with phone numbers and addresses can be found on the Religious Herald web site: www.religiousherald.org or by calling our office (800) 711-7795. To read all the bills and track them through the legislature, go to www.richmondsunlight.com.
To be sure, passage of this bill will not eliminate the suffering of the poor. But, it will end one way the oppressed are being further impoverished.
