A diverse collection of denominational and faith-based organizations are calling on Congress to prohibit usury and end predatory practices of payday lending. While marketed as short-term loans of two to four weeks to get over a financial emergency, the faith…
Advocate links with CBF to combat payday lending
By Aaron Weaver In the Appalachian foothills of southeast Kentucky, Scarlette Jasper, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel, is working to educate others about the debt trap that is predatory lending. Jasper, who was commissioned by CBF in…
CBF, SBC unite against payday loans
By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission joined other faith groups May 14 in announcing a new coalition to combat predatory lending. The new Faith for Just Lending coalition, announced at a press…
Baptists in Kentucky support cap on payday loans
By Bob Allen Members of the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship rallied Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the state capitol in Frankfort, after a Monday afternoon seminar on the “debt trap” created by payday lending. Speakers at a press conference in the capitol…
Payday loans and potato chips
“Payday loans are the Lay’s potato chips of finance; you can’t have just one and they’re terrible for you.” Comedian John Oliver dropped that line during a segment on his new show Last Week Tonight back in August. The HBO…
CBF, Southern Baptists find common ground in Kentucky politics
By Bob Allen The Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, one of 18 state and regional organizations that partner with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated Kentucky Baptist Convention are on the same team in a broad coalition of faith…
The “ruinous consequences” of payday lending
“Very few things harden the heart more than usury in all its forms.” A Baptist pastor in North Carolina wrote those words in the October 31, 1840 edition of the Biblical Recorder. Citing a slew of Bible verses from Exodus…
Texas Baptists back revised lending bill
By Bob Allen The Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission dropped opposition to a payday lending bill in the state Senate after additional consumer safeguards were added during debate April 22. Senators voted 24-6 to approve amended legislation put forward by…