“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.
Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.
Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.
“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.
In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.
Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.
You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
This one gives mixed signals:
You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
When the Evangelicals started calling the teachings of Christ “too weak” I really hoped there’d be some people doing double takes. Just like the GOP, they stand for nothing.
Unfortunately most of these are easy to argue against if you’re a morally bankrupt right wing Christian.
“It says when you lend money to the poor, but the kids going to college aren’t poor. Just look at the kids these days, they always have money for iPhones and marijuanas.”
“Well it’s the government lending money, that Bible verse is just meant for individual people, from brother to brother” (this is the response from my dad when I asked why he wasn’t Communist when the Bible teaches sharing money and not being greedy)
“These kids have to learn how the real world works, I mean how else will these companies survive if they can’t charge interest?”
“I believe that but, as much as I want to, we can’t change the law just for my religion!” (Proceeds to ignore this before and after because they truly have no shame and aren’t affected or concerned by hypocrisy)
“If you’re a Christian, surely you know the verse 'Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s… ’ so these kids should be rendering all that interest to the people it belongs to”
Probably some other batshit crazy arguments. Our government sucks
The language for the last one is interesting, but I can see some merit to it. If I’m loaning to someone across the border, the distance for travel is really what the interest is charging on. It’s a way to support global work while promoting local collaboration first.
Then it gets all manifest destiny and I get kind of at a loss.
The Bible isn’t vague on this one https://www.openbible.info/topics/usury
Very clear:
This one gives mixed signals:
“Oh but most of those were from Old Testament, and those are more rough guidelines. Christ brought new commandments.”
I believe Christ would still be flipping tables in the square.
When the Evangelicals started calling the teachings of Christ “too weak” I really hoped there’d be some people doing double takes. Just like the GOP, they stand for nothing.
Unfortunately most of these are easy to argue against if you’re a morally bankrupt right wing Christian.
“It says when you lend money to the poor, but the kids going to college aren’t poor. Just look at the kids these days, they always have money for iPhones and marijuanas.”
“Well it’s the government lending money, that Bible verse is just meant for individual people, from brother to brother” (this is the response from my dad when I asked why he wasn’t Communist when the Bible teaches sharing money and not being greedy)
“These kids have to learn how the real world works, I mean how else will these companies survive if they can’t charge interest?”
“I believe that but, as much as I want to, we can’t change the law just for my religion!” (Proceeds to ignore this before and after because they truly have no shame and aren’t affected or concerned by hypocrisy)
“If you’re a Christian, surely you know the verse 'Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s… ’ so these kids should be rendering all that interest to the people it belongs to”
Probably some other batshit crazy arguments. Our government sucks
The last part is pretty clear if you assume brother isn’t blood, but your group of people.
Don’t shit where you eat, but if you don’t eat there, shit away.
From the viewpoint of a banker or politician, students are not “their group” of people, but foreigners…
I guess now we know why people from and in the Middle East insist on offering you food when you visit…
The language for the last one is interesting, but I can see some merit to it. If I’m loaning to someone across the border, the distance for travel is really what the interest is charging on. It’s a way to support global work while promoting local collaboration first.
Then it gets all manifest destiny and I get kind of at a loss.
Sounds like those rules are just between Jews. Kinda like how there are different slavery rules depending on if the slave is Jewish or not.