NO INTEREST?
    
    by Doris E. Howie
    
    Interest "makes the world go 'round" in our money-conscious society.  
    It may only be one-quarter of one percent paid daily on a small savings 
    account, but we seek it anxiously and chart its rise and fall in newspapers 
    devoted to financial affairs.  Bank accounts and investments are shifted 
    from one institution to another in search of the highest rate of return.  
    Our global economy hinges on world-wide rates of return.  Depression, 
    recession, boom or bust depend on corporate profitability -  the bottom line 
    is the only line that counts.  
    
    As Christians we decry usury, yet the accumulation of money is the driving 
    force behind our whole economy. Indeed, the motto of many  successful 
    businessmen might be summed up in one terse sentence:  "Give us this day 
    our daily interest!"   
    
    The problem arises from our definition of usury, which we conveniently term 
    "excessive interest".  Yet what is excessive interest?  Surely not the 
    pittance paid on the small sum I have saved?  Never that!  Why, I'm no 
    Shylock out for a pound of flesh like the villain in Shakespeare's Merchant 
    of Venice; I'm just looking after my financial security . . .  After all, 
    I've got my old age to consider . . .
    
    But check out Nehemiah 5:
     "Ye exact usury, every one of his brother . . ." (verse 7).  
     "It is not good that ye do:  ought ye not to walk in the fear of 
     our God . . ." (v. 9)  
     ". . . I pray you, let us leave off this usury."  (v. 10)    
     "Restore, I pray you, . . . the hundredth part of the money . . . that 
     ye exact of them." (v. 11)
    
    There is usury, Biblically defined:  ONE percent interest!   By that measure, 
    no interest is good interest!!
    
    How many of today's ills have arisen because we have strayed from that 
    Biblical injunction against charging interest?  How many lives have been 
    broken through trying to keep up exhorbitant interest payments?  How many 
    souls have succumbed to the sin of greed, lured by the thought of escalating
    interest rates?  How many rich men (and women) are in danger of losing their 
    immortal souls because they value their wealth - gained through, and augmented 
    by , interest earnings - above all else?
    
    If  our savings earned no interest, would we not be more inclined to lend 
    our money to help others?  If our loans and bills were not inflated by high 
    interest charges, would we not be able to repay them more quickly?  For that 
    matter, if interest were neither charged nor paid, perhaps more of us could 
    live within our income!  There would be no need of the elaborate welfare
    system  that has evolved to support the victims of high interest rates.  
    Gambling would not be the enticement it is to many who now seek a way out of 
    the debt/interest/more-debt spiral.  Even drugs and alcohol might lose some 
    of their "escape" value, if escape ceased to appear so necessary to depressed 
    minds!
    
    How our whole economy would collapse if there were no interest paid or payable!  
    And maybe it should:
    
    "For what profiteth it a man if he gain the whole world, and
    loseth his soul?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1994, 1996 by Doris E. Howie, Fullmeasure Farm, R. R. 1, Gorrie, Ontario N0G 1X0
E-mail dhowie@wcl.on.ca
URL: http://www.wcl.on.ca/~dhowie
First publication rights only