In response to the article “Payday, someday?,” which appeared in the Oct. 4 issue, let me first of all applaud the efforts by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy to combat the practices of payday lenders in our commonwealth. However, I don't think their efforts go far enough.
A pledge card enclosed within the Herald encouraged readers to “Stop Usury in Virginia” and gives a definition of “the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates.”
Well, that begs the question—what is an exorbitant rate? This is an important question because for most of the history of civilization usury has been defined as the charging of any interest. It is only slowly, over the last 500 years that the current definition has developed as the church turned a blind eye toward this immoral practice. For example, after Henry VIII allowed the legal charging of interest in the 16th century, the English Parliament in 1660 enact its first piece of legislation to attempt to regulate the practice. The act was called, “An Act for restraining the taking of Excessive Usury.” Note that the idea of “excessive” is already creeping in but “usury” is still used for “interest.” The act reduced the interest rate from 8 percent down to 6 percent. Now if 8 percent is “excessive”, why are we talking of a cap of 36 percent? The problem is that the moral grounds for opposing usury are the same whether the interest rate is 300 percent or 3 percent. We should be opposed to lending at interest because it is commanded by God, because it creates economic bondage for all and is especially hard on the poor.
The Scriptures oppose the charging of interest (Exodus 22:25, Psalm 15:5, Ezekiel 22:12), and while the practice was common in the ancient world, it was opposed by many religious and philosophical leaders even in Greece or Rome. In the 4th century B.C. the Greek philosopher Aristotle said in his Politics, Book I, Part X: “The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest.”
So, while I support the effort of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy to cap payday lending to 36 percent, I think this only a first step to a necessary paradigm in our larger economic policies. Proverbs 22:7 tells us that “… the borrower is the slave of the lender” (ESV). Isn't it about time the people of God stood up and opposed economic slavery? Don't stop at 36 percent; let's take it all the way to 0 percent.
Vance Shearin, Mechanicsville