Predatory lending may be legal, but it’s not right

Over the last few years I’ve been part of several conversations related to predatory payday lending reform in Missouri, and as these reforms continue to move forward at a rapid pace — even in the face of big money interests that don’t have the well-being of everyday people in mind — it’s fairly common to wonder why reforming the predatory payday lending industry is viewed as such an urgent task by so many.

It would be easy to assume that reforming predatory lending practices is a new movement within various faith traditions; however, people of faith have viewed predatory lending practices as problematic for centuries, and in some cases millennia. It’s one thing to lend money with interest; it’s another thing entirely to charge exorbitant interest rates (well over 400 percent!).

Just because such predatory lending practices are currently legal in the state of Missouri doesn’t make them right. And even though it would be nice for the market to provide alternatives to the big-money predatory payday lending industry, the market isn’t always benevolent, especially when it comes to the poor and vulnerable members of society. And even though borrowers should think twice before signing their name on the dotted line, taking advantage of those who are vulnerable is not — and never has been — a morally justifiable practice.

Scriptures from numerous faith traditions condemn lending money with interest to those who are vulnerable, including texts from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And influential faith leaders down through the ages have echoed these concerns.

Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic philosopher, wrote that “Making a charge for lending money is unjust in itself, for one part sells the other something non-existent, and this obviously sets up an inequality which is contrary to justice... It follows that it is in principle wrong to make a charge for money lent.”

Likewise, the Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, condemned predatory lending practices as nothing less than “the work of the devil.”

As a member of Faith Voices of Southwest Missouri, I am in favor of fair and just lending practices, precisely because of my faith. And as a member of the Center for Diversity and Reconciliation, I’m reminded that one of the things that divides us the most in society has to do with class and wealth. Diversity and reconciliation includes working toward economic dignity for all people.

We would be wise to remember that when Martin Luther King Jr. was visiting Memphis on what would turn out to be the last days of his life, he was there because he was standing up for the economic dignity of the city’s sanitation workers. He knew that all of us — regardless of our income or social status — should be treated with dignity and equality. In his words, we are caught up in “an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

As people of faith, we are called to follow the Golden Rule — to treat others as we wish to be treated — which is an ethical norm rooted in (but not confined to) the enduring religious traditions of the world. It’s as simple — and complicated — as that.

Phil Snider is pastor of Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield and a member of the Center for Diversity and Reconciliation