Leaders consider ethics of payday loans

Saturday, February 16, 2008

With payday loans before the General Assembly, the ethics of high interest rates are on Virginians' minds. But according to local spiritual leaders, the issues of price gouging goes back to Biblical times, and religious texts have plenty to say on the subject.

"Basically, the idea of lending with interest is prohibited in the Bible," said the Rev. Tom Collins from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. "It's exploiting the poor."

According to the Rev. David Washburn from First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Exodus 22:25 allows for lending money but warns lenders against charging interest, especially to impoverished people.

That's not to say that all interest is problematic. Collins said the Bible makes clear the difference between charging reasonable, manageable interest, such as with a home mortgage or student loan, and charging high interest to gouge a borrower.
Rabbi Joe Blair from Temple House of Israel pointed to the Torah, especially the book of Leviticus.

"We find that there is no prohibition on charging interest in the Torah," he said via e-mail. "The only prohibitions are on excessive interest and unfair or unethical business practices."

As for the payday loans, many spiritual leaders agree that the high interest rates — some reaching 900 percent for a one-week loan — fall beyond the realm of normal business practices.
"These folks have found a niche, and that niche is people are in a bind and we're going to gouge them," Washburn said. "I don't see them as providing a valuable service."

Washburn said that spiritual leaders have a moral and religious obligation to protect the poor. In the spirit of standing up for their disadvantaged fellow man, many churches, synagogues and mosques have formed coalitions, like that of the Virginia Catholic Conference, to oppose payday lending firms.

"To my knowledge, Jewish organizations, congregations, rabbis, communities and individuals throughout the nation, regionally, state-wide and locally, have all been united in abhorring the excesses that have come to characterize too much of the payday loan industry," Blair said.

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