Zacchaeus responds to Travis Berg’s Gottesdienst article, The Good in Usury.
“Follow God’s law? In this economy?”
I feel compelled to weigh in. There are 4 different concepts at issue here.
- Coin clipping (devaluing currency)
- Charging interest / profiting from the time value of money
- Owning a stake in some sort of productive activity
- Limitation of liability
Coin clipping is immoral, and no Christian should assume coin clipping as a matter of course while spilling ink to equivocate and make what sounds like a case for bending the law over here to offset coin clipping over there. “We have to commit usury to defeat the coin clippers” is at best unbelievably absurd framing.
The difference between “loans” encompassing concepts 2, 3, and 4 are those for consumption and those for production.
Profiting from the time value of money off of consumptive loans to your kinsman is immoral and will destroy your civilization. Rightly ordered loves and a sense of proportion is all we need to recognize this. Do you keep a spreadsheet tracking the value of the beer you bought for your friend last Friday, so you can be sure you get it back in full when he buys this Friday?
If you see your kinsman in need and you have the means, loan him the money without expecting repayment. Consumptive loans are charity but if he recovers and becomes able to repay you, so much the better. If he does repay you, even better.
Consumptive loans for the purpose of experiencing a standard of living that saving and producing would take time to create will also destroy your civilization. Proper consumptive loans would be based on need, not competing with the Joneses.
Profiting from the time value of money off of productive loans is only possible because of our desire for the fourth concept: I want to profit from productive activity, but not be liable for damages caused by that activity. Well then, I’ll grant someone a business loan, and be first in line to be paid back if something goes wrong, but if nothing goes wrong I still get to profit. I want to keep upside potential while having limits on the downside. There are various vehicles to do this in our deranged financialized society—Preferred Stock is another shade on the spectrum.
The limitation of liability is unbiblical and immoral. If I have to explain that…
What this all amounts to, for one who desires to be moral and Biblical, is very simple.
- Don’t debase your currency.
- Lend to your kinsmen who have legitimate need, without charging interest or expecting repayment.
- Be a full participant in any productive activity you want to profit from. That means accepting the risk of lost seed money and liability. Don’t try to get a leg up on your nephew who wants to start a business where, regardless of what happens to him, at least you still get yours.
Or, even more simply:
Don’t. Be. A. Jew.