Hello all:
I recently wrote a post on the Immorality of Church Finance.
A piece of information I left out in that post was about how the church I am a member of got into the precarious financial situation we are in. In my church finance post, I mention a member that was a large contributor financially, who moved away. That same member bailed the church out of a scheme, in the form on a loan. He is still earning interest each month on his loan to us.
The scheme that he bailed the congregation out of was that of bonds. The church sold bonds to various members of the congregation to raise money. Those members were making significant interest on their investment…in other words, they were making money off of the church… a lot of money.
When the congregation couldn’t afford to repay the interest, or the bonds, a wealthy member stepped forward and purchased all of the bonds. Those members who bought bonds got their money back, with interest, and the church started paying off its debt to this member. All of this occurred several years before we joined the congregation.
I believe this to be immoral. Loaning money on interest to Christians is not a biblical concept.
Unfortunately, I see that we are not the only group that has subscribed to this method of church finance. When I opened up my weekly email from the Christian Standard, I found the following ad (Click to make it full size):
Maybe someday we will learn not to do things like this.
I’m sending an email to Christian Standard about this blog post. I challenge them to drop ads from CDF.
-Clarke
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May 24th, 2007 at 4:00
I think this is a gray area.
There is plenty in the scriptures about how we treat the poor, including that we not lend them money at interest.
ex 22:25
lev 25:35
prov 28:8
There are other passages that do not specifically mention the poor, but in the context of the law which does mention the poor, it seems to be assumed.
Note Deut 23:19 prohibits charging interest to a fellow Israelite but not to a foreigner. That context is addressing loans to individuals. It may also be assuming that loans are only made to the needy, not to the well-to-do.
The application of that principle to loans to institutions (businesses, churches, governments) is less clear. If you take the stark position that charging interest is sin in all contexts, then you cannot take out a mortgage to buy a house, or finance a car, or to pay for college, etc. Doing so enables the other party commit a sin (if charging interest is a sin in that context). And you cannot buy bonds, neither corporate nor government. And you cannot earn interest on a savings account or checking account. I don’t think that is what the scriptures are saying, however. Note Matt 25:27 says the man should have deposited the money to earn interest. So interest is not inherently wrong in every context.
OTOH there does seem to be an ethical conflict when a Christian earns substantial interest from a church that is in financial trouble.
Just something to ponder.
May 24th, 2007 at 23:28
I don’t think “grey area” is specific enough to address the whole issue. Clearly the highest principles in Christianity to aspire to is sacrifice and lowest applications are humanity. The better question is does interest cause you to think spiritually or physically? Same could be said of are choices in lifestyle and what risk do we take in evoking Gods judgment or lavishing us with compassionate grace.
It might be possible to be a bartender and be a Christian. Same as it might be possible to be a mortgage broker who would overcharges members of the church who have poor credit. But I believe there becomes in all church members a clarity of discernment that lets the light of the spirit shine and reveals the truth and motives of people.
For the most part we are seeing a dismantling of the modernist view that could departmentalize human choice from Godly intentions. In the near future our behavior on and off the court will be scrutinized. Christianity is complex enough, to add a host of edgy worldliness to it, either makes one blinded by passion or sinister by nature.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:23
Clarke, I have been saying for years ” what is wrong with the church, is it has become a business” . You haven’t said anything here to convince me I’m wrong.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:33
Clarke; Question If God considered a church to be compiled of his people doing his work, do you think he would allow it to go bankrupt, or broke. Do you think God commanded us to do his work but withholds suffecient funds to do so. What about the flowers and birds, did he not say we are more important then they.? just a thought.
June 9th, 2007 at 9:00
“Do you think God commanded us to do his work but withholds suffecient funds to do so. What about the flowers and birds, did he not say we are more important then they.?”
But the newfanglers have to have a fancier building than the pope’s palace to meet in each Sunday. And let’s not forget the gym–they wouldn’t want to bore the kiddies by making them think about Jesus too long.
June 14th, 2007 at 18:23
Clark,
I tried to respond to one of your earlier posts but the spam filter weeded me out. I am in a similar church situation as you and we are making progress and I wanted to share some things with you. You can read my blog, muddypuddles.blog.com and get a lot of info but the main thing is that I’m so excited about the future of our congregation and I want you to be excited about yours as well. Sincerely, Dennis
June 16th, 2007 at 22:29
Clarke, you have to blog more often. Its been almost a month!