Faith Communities Are Paying Down Individuals’s Payday Lending Debt

Faith Communities Are Paying Down Individuals’s Payday Lending Debt

Texas leads the country in payday car and lending title loan companies with over 3,000 storefronts throughout the state. Payday loan providers are both a blessing and a curse: on one side, they meet a necessity; on the other side, they are doing therefore through sky-high rates of interest.

This is exactly why communities of faith are becoming mixed up in work to higher regulate them. But should faith leaders get involved with cash matters?

John Hill has been the United Methodist Church. He states faith leaders are commanded to get justice that is financial.

“there is actually no wiggle space on this,” Hill says. “There are explicit mandates against charging usury as interest – that’s clear when you look at the Old Testament. When you look at the brand brand New Testament, I think, most Christians are aware of among the unusual flashes of anger that Jesus revealed when he expelled the funds changers through the Temple.”

The movie “The Gospel of John” portrays that scene: Jesus is upset because of the merchants outside of the temple for jacking up the cost of mandatory offerings. Those in Biblical times had few options like most people today who resort to payday lenders. In a real means, these were forced to purchase their offerings at excessive costs. Continue reading “Faith Communities Are Paying Down Individuals’s Payday Lending Debt”