Family Research Council Urges Death to Corrupt Bankers

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has been raining fire and brimstone on sinners everywhere.  Apparently he takes this stuff pretty seriously.  He’s asking ministers across the country to sign a letter that states, in part:  “…We believe that ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom. 6:23)…”

The linked article doesn’t specifically mention usury, but that’s presumably what Tony Perkins is referring to.  After all, usury — the charging of excessive interest rates — is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible.  And not in a good way.

The Bible has passage after passage after passage about  usury.  Here are just a few examples:

“ If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.”

“ If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.  Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.  You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.”

“If he has exacted usury Or taken increase — Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.”

Boy, is He strict!

Now of course the Bible also has the odd passage here and there that warns against eating shellfish, coveting your neighbor’s wife, being homosexual, working on the Sabbath, yada yada…

But with page after page of warnings not to practice usury, that has to be what Tony Perkins is talking about.  Well Tony, the banking industry is full of sinners.  Go get ‘em!

If The Pope Really Took The Bible Seriously…

Pope Benedict has lashed out in fury at leaders of the banking industry, and the skanky politicians who keep bending over for them. He made it crystal clear that any politician who is Catholic cannot — absolutely NOT — support those sleazy moneychangers.

“Jesus drove them from the temple, and you sluts keep going down on them!” His Holiness thundered.

The Pope backed up his blistering speech by reciting just one of the many Biblical passages that condemn usury:

“If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.”

Pope Benedict finished his withering criticism by asking: “Are there too many big words in those passages? Or do you think God just wanted to hear the sound of His own voice???”

cross-posted at Bring It On!

And Jesus Said: “Gouge Thy Neighbor”

It might seem to you that Evangelicals — the same people who go apeshit over abortion and the “Homosexual Agenda” — have been strangely silent about the cheating and gouging done by corporations. And you would be right.

This article, along with the accompanying map, shows a strong correlation (by state) between payday lenders — and other legalized loansharks — and the percentage of Evangelicals and Mormons who live in that state. Basically, the more lily-white and Jesus-spouting the population is, the more tolerant they are of those money-changers that their idol drove from the temple.

This map also gives new meaning to the term Red State. The deeper the shade of red, the more payday lenders the state has per 10,000 residents. Utah and a whole slew of southern Bible Belt states are the reddest in terms of payday lenders and Biblehumpers.

The one exception to this trend is Nevada. They have a lot of payday lenders, but at least for them it’s consistent with their freewheeling anything-goes attitudes. And Nevada still has a lower ratio of payday lenders than those Family Values states in the south.

Now, the same Holy Book that (supposedly) screams about homosexuals, abortion and premarital sex also has a few things to say about usury:

“If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.”

“If he has exacted usury Or taken increase — Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.”

Check out the link; there's a whole screenload of passages about usury (hint: none of them are in favor of it).

Funny how the Holier-Than-Thou brigade has “forgotten” about these Biblical passages. But hey, at least they have Values.

cross-posted at Bring It On!