Dearest Rachel –
Last night, after our typical Thursday night dinner at Meema’s (she claimed to not have a lot of time to throw anything much together, so she made taco bake, a favorite of Daniel’s going back I think far enough that even you might remember it), we headed out in plenty of time to make our various classes at church. Rather than drive home in a separate car – which might actually be more pleasant in his own rather than yours, but whatever – Daniel has taken to attending a class on biblical counseling, which I won’t go on about, since I’m not attending it. It’s his story, and I’m in no position to tell you about it.
However, the reason he’s attending it I’ve touched on in previous letters; I’m enrolled in a class that’s geared toward those who need and want to get out of debt. At some point, it’s supposed to move on to growing one’s wealth – both in order to live well, but also to give well, since ‘treasure in heaven’ is more important that ‘treasure on earth’ (as you would no doubt tell me if you could) – but it’s debt that has been the focus for the past four weeks, since so many people are out there that need to escape its clutches.
Or perhaps not. For whatever reason, only three other people showed up to last night’s class, including the instructor. To be sure, the woman who normally presides over the sessions was going to be out visiting friends in the Smoky Mountains this particular week, but that seems an inappropriate reason for the other students to just skip out. They paid for the materials to attend these sessions; if they’re truly serious about attaining what the host of the video series calls “financial peace,” you’d think they’d show up for all of it, if only to get their money’s worth on the course materials.
And at least up until now, I’m feeling decidedly out of place in this room. There’s really very little that the presenter has said that I haven’t already known for years, so I don’t feel as if I’ve really learned all that much from it thus far. Then again, my profession (and my educational track leading up to it) was in the accounting field, so I was quite literally brought up with most of the common-sense aphorisms this guy (and his team) proclaims. I had enrolled not so much for myself but for the possibility that I might learn something that I would be able to pass on to the kids in Honduras who we’re training to succeed, and would hopefully be able to learn how to use the money they can expect to earn in the future that much more wisely.
But the more I listen to one or another of these lessons, the more I’m ambivalent about them. I actually wish I could talk to this guy personally, rather than just watching these lectures on video, because he and I appear to disagree with a number of (admittedly minor) issues. At the same time, I don’t know if he’d engage me in a discussion, as he could easily identify me as the outlier I am in his class; worse yet, he might just consider me a financial heretic.
It actually bothers me when someone takes a dogmatic approach to almost anything – doctrine aside, and even then, you’d better come at me with holy writ itself to back your position up. If God, or those He inspired to write on His behalf, didn’t say it, I’m going to take it with more than a grain of salt. And his insistence that all manner of credit is bad just rubs me the wrong way. To be sure, he actually does invoke scripture to back his position up:
The rich rule over the poor,
Proverbs 22:7, Expanded Bible
and borrowers are ·servants [slaves] to lenders.
Now, it’s possible that part of my fiscal heresy comes from being more in a position to rule and obtain servants of my own; what is ‘savings,’ in fact, but money you effectively lend to a financial institution, in order to make that money grow? Abolish credit and lending, and you also effectively abolish any benefit to savings, as the only way banks can function as a for-profit entity, able to pay interest on savings, is because they charge other people interest on borrowings. The economic engine runs, and expands, on credit.
That being said, I agree that building up personal debt, especially beyond one’s ability to pay, is a Very Bad Thing, and the verse he quotes requires no additional context for me to agree with it. But when he talks about credit ratings as something not to aspire to, he’s lost me. Perhaps I am the devil who can quote scripture for my own ends, but I don’t think so.
Whoever ·can be trusted [is faithful] with a little ·can also be trusted [is also faithful] with a lot, and whoever is ·dishonest [unjust] with a little is ·dishonest [unjust] with a lot.
Luke 16:10, Expanded Bible
Again, this has to do with the experience of myself and those around me; you and I laughed at the store that wanted to give a gift to your folks if they enrolled in their credit card program, only to reject them for having no credit history, despite being worth as much as they were. Likewise, Daniel’s situation made it tricky to even buy his car – although they did what they could to accommodate him – leading us to decide to use the purchase to remedy that situation, and planning to pay off the loan at the earliest possibility to get whatever additional writedowns we could. But I prefer to think of credit purchases as a means to prove to the world at large you can handle debt, and can be trusted with larger acquisitions when the time comes.
Of course, this means paying everything off regularly; I’ve never let a credit card bill go by without being paid off in full (well, apart from once or twice when a bill was lost in the mail, but now that it’s all online, that’s a non-issue). Which makes me a person that doesn’t need these lessons – at least, not yet. I’m hoping the wealth-building section is more, ah, profitable for some future lesson plan. But for the moment, it rankles me that credit is considered to be some sort of Supreme Evil™; it’s a tool, just like anything else, and one that’s been used to build up the overall economy. The trick is to make it work for one rather than against one.
Ironically, it mirrors a misapprehension that a lot of Christians have had that money itself is the root of all evil; but that’s not how the verse goes:
[L For] The love of money ·causes [L is the root of] all kinds of evil. Some people have ·left [strayed/wandered from] the faith, because they wanted ·to get more money [L it], ·but they have caused themselves much sorrow [L and have pierced themselves with many pains].
1 Timothy 6:10, Expanded Bible (emphasis added)
It’s one thing to have it, or use it – we all have to, in going about our daily lives – and something entirely different to be consumed by it. The same thing applies to credit. Used properly, sparingly, it can allow one to accomplish things that might not necessarily doable when an opportunity presents itself; used unwisely, it can ruin a person, a relationship, a company or even entire countries. And to his point, there are plenty of unwise people out there who need this message (and even some otherwise very smart people who have fallen victim to a moment of folly). Indeed, he makes a point that credit made too easy entices one to spend more than one otherwise would (like that extra dessert at a restaurant), thereby starting one on that foolish road to ruin. So he’s by no means entirely wrong; I’m just chafing at what appears to be his absolutism.
But that may just be that I – I wish I could still say “we,” since so much of it comes from your side – am the exception that tests his rules. That I do, and find them wanting for my own circumstances, doesn’t negate their veracity in the majority of situations. But I had to tell you about this, because I don’t know who else to. Thanks so much for listening, honey.
