"If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury". Exodus 22:25
Ezekiel 18: 4-8 "Behold all souls are mine:...the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. But if a man be just, and do that which is
lawful and right...He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither
hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity,
hath executed true judgment between man and man."
Ezekiel 22:12-20 says "In thee have they taken gifts to shed
blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy
neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God
Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy
dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it. And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee. Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the
furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
Usury is making money by charging interest on loans.
Reviewing the huge number of complaints on the Internet against MBNA/Bank of America credit cards, Bank of America credit cards and those issued by Citibank shows these banks to be financial predators who engage in unethical business practices, deceive their consumers, run rip off scams on cardholders to cheat them out of money, make promises they don't fulfill, and they are rude to their customers. These practices in early 2005 caused the MBNA credit card bank to lose so many cardholders that its stock dropped by a huge 94%, down to $31.7 million from their initial projection of $519 million. See: http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bofa_mbna2.html
Yet MBNA, now owned by Bank of America, and Bank of America still engage in these rip off scams, deceptions and unethical businesses practices - probably because if they lose some customers there are more people waiting to sign up for their credit cards.
John Calvin's liberalizing of the moral law on usury may have
resulted in a more rapid growth of capitalist enterprise in
Protestant countries because removing the Catholic discipline
forbidding usury allowed bankers to loan more money into existence.
But the Calvinist tolerance of usury may also have contributed to the
rise of the Money Power in Germany, Holland, England and the U.S., as
well as in Canada and Australia, and perhaps South Africa..
Max Weber in his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
proposed that the predominantly Protestant nations showed more
economic growth than the Catholic countries. Weber also argued that
when organized Christian religion became a creature of the state it
tended to repress the people rather than free them. The process of
American organized Protestant Christianity becoming a creature of the
federal government through the 501C(3) corporate status has been
gradual over the last 50 years. But in part Weber may be right.
There are certainly signs that organized Protestant Christianity,
almost entirely under the 501C(3) corporate status and under the
Internal Revenue Service, has become more supportive of and obedient
I agree that interest rates on credit cards can get outrageously high. Our government has not only allowed it but has made it possible. Unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about these credit rates and they are by no means trickery. The ones who think they are fooled are the ones who have failed to read their credit card agreement in the first place and they pay little attention to the letters the credit card companies/banks send to them regarding changes in the rates or in fees. In fact as of February 2010 banks are no longer allowed to charge over the limit fees on credit cards.
It is also true that those upon whom the fees and higher rates are inflicted are those who fall behind in their payments. It would seem that penalty interest and fines would be usury and it is sad to see good people who fall on bad times suffer because of something they have no control over. However, these same people who gripe about the interests and fees often hang up on the collectors who call them about the past due accounts which, in spite of whatever His Eminence, Dave Ramsey, says is a very stupid thing to do. The banks offer ways of helping people repair their credit by offering payment programs and settlements. If people would not hang up on the collectors and listen to what they have to say they might be able to resolve the problem, lower their interest rates or even get out from under the debt altogether.
Others run to debt management and debt settlement companies which do very little to actually repair anyone's credit. In fact it takes them so long to make an arrangement with a bank to resolve an account the account ends up with a third party agency, lowering the credit score even more and setting the debtor up for judgments, wage garnishments and liens against their property or bank accounts.
Finally, I believe you get what you ask for. Get a credit card, sign on the dotted line and as the Scripture says, " The borrower becomes the slave of the lender." If you don't like the banks and the credit card companies then stop getting and using credit cards. Pay them off, settle the accounts, resolve the problem with the bank and walk away. You might be limping for a while but hopefully you will escape in one piece.
I have been a debt collector for ten years and I have collected all kinds of debt and past due bills. I know that some people can't pay their debts and many times the cause of their inability to pay is not of their own doing. The current state of our economy is causing people to lose everything. Even those who had everything don't have a home or any money anymore. Our society is being reduced to a third world type of country in a hurry. I am not sure we will ever recover completely from this disaster. Our current administration is only throwing good money after bad and rather than cutting spending in unnecessary departments of government they are cutting disability benefit payments and forcing the poor to pay even more for their medicare and medications. They take their money and then raise the prices they have to pay. It's sad too because people like me are calling them to ask them to pay a debt they should be able to pay but the government is robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Get out of debt, especially credit card debt, and learn to live within your means and make do with what you have instead of what you think you deserve to have.
About what you said concerning churches.It is not a certain mans fault that things are the way they are now.It is not the protestants fault.To try and bash a man of God who died several hundred years ago is playing the blame game.
Whose fault is it really? The person who gets themselves into it, us!!!!!! you and me.
When we do not buy American and buy some other countries products we keep ourselves out of work.It is not Obama's fault.Did he make you get into fiancial trouble?
Did he make you buy that car made overseas?
It is your choice.You want a job then buy American.
To blame a certain kind of church like wesley is what Hitler did to the jews.Hitler blamed them and then got rid of them.
Take personal responsiblity!!!!!
when my wife leftme after I lost my job it hurt me fiancially. I had to work out my payments and pay things off.
I know have 1 credit card, it is what I can afford.Dennis
