The Usury Dilemma Revisited (III)

Should I dispense with bank accounts? I wouldn't mind doing so but it's increasingly becoming impossible. I tried at one point years ago - operating on a cash basis, paying all my bills with money orders and the like. It's very difficult and frankly pretty miserable. It's not really possible anymore in a lot of urban locations. I live in the boondocks, where there are miles of endless forest, no traffic lights, and more deer than cars.

The Usury Dilemma Revisited (II)

To me the issue is not about specifically paying usury or even enabling those who sin by taking it from me. I don't expect otherwise from the world - though I do admit I struggle with loving these people who right and left beat me down and steal the money right out of my pocket - money I literally earned by my own sweat. And unlike them I labour assiduously to be honest and fair in my dealings - to my own hurt if need be. I would rather have a clear conscience then shrug my shoulders and be like them.

My real issue is with those Christians who have jumped the fence and stand on the Babylonian side - exploiting not just society at large but fellow Christians. I expect the lost to engage in dog-eat-dog ethics - Darwin's survival of the fittest. This is as old as Cain and Lamech. But I do have a problem with the Christians who have entrenched themselves in the system and are right at home in these various industries and sectors of society - making money hand over fist on the basis of what is essentially legal extortion and Babylonian alchemy. I have a problem with Christians who have baptised this law of the jungle, this atheistic ethic that is completely opposed to New Testament religion.

The Usury Dilemma Revisited (I)

...Usura rusteth the chisel

It rusteth the craft and the craftsman

It gnaweth the thread in the loom

None learneth to weave gold in her pattern;

Azure hath a canker by usura; cramoisi is unbroidered

Emerald findeth no Memling

Usura slayeth the child in the womb

It stayeth the young man’s courting

It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth

between the young bride and her bridegroom

CONTRA NATURAM

They have brought whores for Eleusis

Corpses are set to banquet

at behest of usura.

From Ezra Pound's Canto XLV (1937)

Wrestling with the matter of usury and in light of recent discussions, I have been forced to address the question differently and through the lens of different contexts. This is not a question of situation ethics but rather applying wisdom and some Biblically-driven discernment to a question that is both simple and straightforward but also inescapably complex - and perhaps without solution.

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (II)

All things considered, I don't disagree with Wyman's general narrative regarding the rise of the modern West and how it surpassed previous super-power states and cultures like that of the Ottoman Empire.

But rather than celebrate Capitalism and the way it has reshaped the world, I would offer some different narratives to consider.

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (I)

Patrick Wyman's The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (published in 2021 by Twelve) focuses primarily on the years1490-1530. He argues this period was critical for understanding the modern world as the West moved through these four decades of transition.

In the process of surveying some of the main historical events of this period, he teases out key cultural markers that (he argues) set the stage for the coming period and the world we know today.

Inbox: Usury and Related Questions (II)

As far as charging interest to the unbeliever and that sort of thing – for me it's out of the question. I don't believe I can view the unbeliever as an enemy (which would be in keeping with the Old Testament scenario) and while I may agree (in the broad strokes) with Aristotle on this point, the real issue is (I believe) that so-called risk is invalid in terms of making a legitimate profit.

Inbox: Usury and Related Questions (I)

https://www.holytrinity-lansing.org/articles-from-father-mark-1/2020/1/20/the-sin-we-stopped-feeling-sorry-for

This article was sent to me accompanied by some follow-up questions. It's actually by an Eastern Orthodox cleric and I must say I was pleased to read it.

For the most part I agree with was said – with a few qualifications.

Barna on Marxism (Part 2)

If the younger generation has soured on capitalism it's because they've come of age at a time when the entry level situation is fairly dire and in some cases hopeless. You can skip college and remain on the lower end of the working class – an exception being those who find a skill in demand and escape neo-vassalage by means of becoming self-employed.

Or, you can take on massive debt which more or less enslaves you to a job (an employer) as you are compelled to keep making your payments. And by the time you're done you've undoubtedly taken on many more. It's a trap and some young people have realised it. For many of that generation, adult life properly speaking, an age of autonomy and social establishment is nigh on impossible before one is in their thirties. The system is immoral and exploitative and those who are living in the bottom tiers realise it and thus they're willing to entertain other options, all the more when they begin to understand the American system and its priorities, as opposed to the model of the social democracies in Europe – which have elements that many Right-wing Americans erroneously associate with Marxism.

Barna and Marxism (Part 1)

https://familyliferadio.blubrry.net/2021/10/21/faith-under-fire-ep-74-marxism-in-america-part-1/

George Barna is best known for his fusion of ecclesiology with market analysis. He and those associated with him have pursued models of church growth rooted in surveying and in shaping practice on the basis of the results. His name is usually associated with the Seeker Sensitive Movement because its leaders (men like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren) have integrated the market strategy popularised by figures like Barna into their models for Church growth.

Revelation 18: The Merchant Princes of Babylon, Their Sorceries, Mammon and Medicine

Revelation 18.23 refers to the sorceries of fallen Babylon. It could be a reference to Babylon in general or more specifically to the merchants of Babylon. Ultimately it doesn't matter as the mercantile-mammon driven activity of its 'great men' are part and parcel representative of the Babylonian system as a whole along with its larger list of deceptions and evil.

The System and Racism

Recently I was talking with my son and he told me about some experiences he had on a Christian chat forum that he visits from time to time. He's had several interesting interactions on the site but recently things took a somewhat bad turn as a person appeared who argued (in a rather aggressive manner) that Christians were under obligation to combat systemic racism. A hot button issue to be sure, the tensions and conflicts that emerged from this confrontation led to several departures and in his estimation has almost ruined the overall experience.

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 2)

In some post-war Mennonite circles apolitical nonresistance was transformed into tacit uncritical endorsement of the world system. The war was a crisis for these movements which fragmented them and sent the various factions in different directions and yet both liberal and conservative groups (perhaps for different reasons) embraced secular education.

Libertarianism and The Oligarchic Progression

Some forms of libertarianism posit a near anarchic view of society in which government is minimal and many of the functions and services commonly associated with the state are privatised or in some cases eliminated.

This thinking fails to take into account the vacuums that are created in society by a lack of explicit authority. As many have repeatedly pointed out, corporations actually want laws to provide a framework for contracts and some libertarians will allow for this to some degree. But they fail to take into account that as companies turn into monopolies, an economic oligarchy begins to develop – the corporations turn into a corporatocracy.

Investment and Insulated Exploitation

Few Christians I know would shake down or extort their fellow believers. They wouldn't threaten to cut their utilities or drive them from their homes if they didn't fork over money to them. Would they?

The Godly Usurers

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/mortgage-company-loving-neighbors/

Is inflated quick selling or so-called 'flipping' real estate an application of Philippians 2.3-4? Is this loving your neighbour? The folks associated with Movement Mortgage certainly seem to think so. While their model is perhaps a little more principled than the get rich quick schemes of real estate hustlers, the philosophy which undergirds their finance model is rooted in the same system and built on the same worldly foundations.

Clark and Mefferd on Socialism: A Dog and Pony Show

https://heidelblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/7-25-18-Janet-Mefferd-Today.mp3

I rolled my eyes, but like the impulse to turn one's head to look at a car wreck, I had to listen. What are they going to say? Janet Mefferd and Scott Clark are going to break down Socialism for us. It ought to be a hoot.

And I wasn't disappointed, that is if I was looking for a fiasco. If someone is looking for good information, acumen and Scriptural wisdom on Socialism and how a Christian should think about it... they'll need to look somewhere else, because as expected, these two are a case of blind leading the blind.