The Evils of Interest

Unfortunately many Americans still put faith and their money into financial institutions and investment vehicles controlled by others who are driven by greed and apparently account to nobody. Individuals, grass roots organizations, political leaders who truly have the best for their families and America at heart will stay far away from 'interest' based finance and the various ‘get out of debt’ financial schemes of the dream weavers. Have you not learned ‘enuf’ from or seen ‘enuf’ of the destruction caused by interest based finance and mortgages. The banking industry’s greed for more interest based income has led to the current ‘subprime loan’ disaster and ensuing foreclosure and collapse of the real estate market and - well we will see what else!

Those high risk adjustable rate mortgage ‘subprime loans’ were not created or issued for the love of people, they were made for the love of money! Wall Street and major news networks are doing their best to keep the lid on the seriousness of the situation, however honest talking heads are saying this is the worst the housing market and the stock market has been in since the ‘great depression’.

Now the Federal Reserve is printing baskets of money to bail out corporations and the ‘banks’:

I releate a *paraphrase* of Thomas Jefferson's summary of the consequences of a central banking system to Alexander Hamilton thus: "If the American people *ever* allow the banks to issue their currency, by inflation and deflation [which are simultaneous in any such system because we must borrow back (re-inflate) what we pay against interest and principal obligations (deflation)], the banks and [generally or eventually bank owned] corporations which will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake up *homeless* on the continent their fathers conquered." [May the Native Americans forgive the conquerors]

Today people of faith and all men and women of goodwill must consider and understand the evils of ‘interest’ and the manipulation of the wealth of the people and the nation.

Interest Charges: Charging interest goes against God’s teachings. For those who do not believe in God, charging interest goes against sound honest business principles.

Market: There is a huge movement in America led by Christian groups educating the public about the evils and dangers of interest and interest based mortgages. Families are now losing their homes because they can not pay the interest based mortgages.

Practicing Christians who are knowledgeable and fear God know and believe that the Old and New Testament forbid interest. (see the evidence from the Old and New Testament provided below). We should not charge interest or pay interest.

Click and visit the following web site : http://www.perfecteconomy.com Browse this site and you will see how well organized the American Christian led movement against charging interest really is. The consumer is now well aware that conventional interest based financing adds approximately 7 or more years of additional payments to the purchase price of a home.

The above website is evidence that the market opportunity to sell real estate on an interest free basis now extends to all individuals, who want to avoid the trap and evil of traditional interest based mortgages and loans. I urge you to visit this web site www.perfecteconomy.com Rent/Lease purchase with option to buy provides sellers and purchasers a positive alternative. Unfortunately many sellers are stuck with interest based mortgages on their homes and their only way out is the hope some other poor soul will fall into the interest based mortgage trap and take the weight off of them!

There are at least five reasons why loaning money on interest is undesirable and people who are good Christians must understand that they should not lead their people into this sinful trap of borrowing money on interest or taint their life with this evil:

1) Transactions based on interest violate the equity of a business. In business the outcome of any enterprise is always uncertain. This risk and uncertainty must be shared by the lender and the borrower. Yet the borrower is obliged to pay the agreed rate of interest, even if he makes a loss on his enterprise. If a tornado blows away the farmers field or a draught wipes him out, he is still liable for the bank loan and interest charges. Even if he makes a profit, the interest he has to pay may amount to more than the profit and this clearly militates against the norm of Christian justice. [Remember the great Dust Bowl and Stienbeck’s book the Grapes of Wrath?]

2) The inflexibility of an interest-based system leads to a huge numbers of bankruptcies and these bankruptcies result in loss of productive potential for the whole society as well as unemployment for many people when businesses have to close. (factor in ENRON type white collar thievery; subprime loan thievery; payday loan schemes and you have major economic dislocation)

3) A bank's ‘perceived’ commitment to keeping its depositors' money safe as well as their agreement to pay depositors a small fixed amount of interest from the larger interest they earn loaning out the depositors money, makes banks anxious to recover their principal as well as the interest. Thus more loans are provided for those who are already successful, while potential entrepreneurs and all those classified/redlined as high risk or non-bankable are denied loans or prevented from starting up or provided various types of ‘tricky Dick’ ‘creative loans’ that still saddle them with interest payments at even higher rates! Ergo, the 'subprime feast'!

4) The interest-based system discourages innovation by small businesses. Big businesses can risk trying out new techniques and products because they have reserves of funds to fall back on if the new idea does not succeed. Small businesses cannot try new things because they would need to borrow money on interest from banks to do so and if their ideas failed, they would have no way of paying back the loan or the interest and would be bankrupt.

5) With the interest system, banks have no interest in a venture except in so far as there are possibilities of recovering their capital and earning interest. Today we even find banks will extend repayment of loans that are in default with ‘tricky Dick’ debt set aside programs. As long as they can continue to suck the interest payment from the debtor they will keep you in the trap. Check this point out and you will find the bank has already recouped the capital – the ‘trick’ is that your payments mostly go to paying the interest not reducing the loan. Any business plan put to them is judged only on this criterion.

With regard to loans for consumption purposes, in times of need, ethical considerations demand that people should help each other without charging interest, because to charge interest amounts to taking advantage of a person's weaker economic position, which is against the Christian and Muslim spirit of justice and equity. Today, credit is mostly given for production purposes rather than consumption. However, we find a lot of families with ‘bad credit’ or ‘no credit’ are extended credit to lease big screen televisions, stereos and all sorts of items and are provided ‘tricky Dick’ finance schemes to enable them to buy cars and other big ticket items.

Check the internet visit the various websites and see all of the new Black, White and Hispanic financial wizards offering all sorts of new ways to pay your way out of debt or use equity in your home to reduce your interest payments! Avoid them like the plague!

A few verses from Old Testament and The New Testament that show charging interest goes against God’s teachings.

Exodus 22:25
[God says] "If you lend money to any of my people with you who are poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down; for that is his only covering, it is his mantle for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate."

Leviticus 25:35-37
[God said] “And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or increase, 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 am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.” [Christians should understand that Orthodox Jews do not loan money on interest to other Jews and interpret this verse to mean it is legal to loan money on interest to non-Jews; The Quran forbid Muslims to charge or receive interest from anyone]

Deuteronomy 23:19-20
You shall not lend upon interest to your brother, interest on money, interest on victuals, interest on anything that is lent for interest. To a foreigner [non-Jew] you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest; that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession it.

Nehemiah 5: 1-13
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the kin’s tax upon our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children are as their children; yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved; but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 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, and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brethren who have been sold to the nations; but you even sell your brethren that they may be sold to us!” They were silent, and could not find a word to say. So I said, “The thing that you are dong is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? Moreover I and my brethren and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us leave off this interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the hundredth of money, grain, wind, and gold which you have been exacting of them.” Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests, and took an oath of them to do as they had promises. I also shook out my lap and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not perform this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

Psalm 15
O Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent?
Who shall dwell on thy holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly, and does what is right,
And speaks truth from his heart;
Who does not slander with his tongue,
And does no evil to his friend,
Nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
In who eyes a reprobate is despised,
But who honors those who fear the Lord;
Who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
Who does not put out his money at interest,
And does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.


Ezekiel 18:5-18
[God says] "If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right -- if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not oppress any one, but restores to the debtor is pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any increase, withholds his hand from iniquity, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and is careful to observe my ordinances -- his is righteous, he shall surely live, says the Lord God."

“If he begets a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, who does none of these duties, but eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes increase; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominable things; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.

“But if this man begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done, and fears, and does not do likewise, who does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, does not wrong any one, exact no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or increase, observes my ordinances, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live. As for is father, because he practiced extortion, robbed is brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.


Habakkuk 2:6-7
“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own – for how long? – and loads himself with pledges (loans?)!”
Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make your tremble? Then you will be booty for them.
Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of men and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell therein.

I am happy to share strategies relating to non-interest based finance. Do not hesitate to get in touch. Peace