In many historical societies including ancient Christian, Jewish, and Islamic societies, usury meant the charging of interest of any kind, and was considered wrong, or was made illegal.[3]
BTW chrishitery should be the next capitalist McCarthyism. Muhh! red hats!
- Deuteronomy 23:19-20 – “19 You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. 20 You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.”
- Exodus 22:25 – “25 If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.”
- Deuteronomy 15:1-3 – “1 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. 2 And this is the regulation for the release of debts: every creditor is to forgive what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not require it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. 3 From a foreigner you may require it, but your hand shall forgive whatever of yours is with your brother.”
This sounds good in theory, but is relatively bad in practice. Without interest, no one will loan the government money. Municipalities would need to rely on huge tax increases to fund large projects, instead of bonds funded by small tax increases over time.
No one will loan money to businesses either, and you are not getting any money to buy a house. It would favor those who already own established businesses, as they can just use profits from one to invest in another one.
I don’t think anyone is saying this is sound economic theory, just that Christianity has a lot of kooky shit that modern Christians are ignorant of and are contradictory to the theocracy they envision.
It should be given freely, not because you were forced to. It doesnt mean anything if you were forced.
It’s still meaningful because it is helping people, but it’s probably not going to count in your favor spiritually. Unless you’re supporting getting the system set up or keeping it in place I guess.
Exactly! Paying taxes doesnt make you a good christian, helping people voluntarily does.
Is the point of charity to feed the hungry or to let rich people feel good about themselves?
It doesn’t matter to the hungry person if the food they eat was paid for by taxes or voluntary charity. Food is food.
Ultimately to help people, but if you’re forced to, that doesnt mean anything. It just means you figured paying taxes was easier than going to jail
