Inequality Contrary to Justice
March 5th, 2009 by Sonja

I get a daily e-mail for Jim Wallis’ Sojourners group called “Verse and Voice.”  It’s a daily scripture reading and short meditation.  A lot of the time I don’t understand what the two have to do with one another, but I always get something out of both of them, and it’s a short pause in my day to focus on something bigger than myself.  Today’s meditation has been percolating with me all afternoon:

To take usury for money lent is unjust in itself,
because this is to sell what does not exist,
and this evidently leads to inequality,
which is contrary to justice.

– Thomas Aquinas,
Dominican friar and theologian (1225-1274).

It seems that even in the 1200s people knew that making money off  of lending money is a terrible idea.

Perhaps basing much of our economy on it is an even worse idea.


5 Responses  
  • Lyn writes:
    March 5th, 20095:34 pmat

    I didn’t realize Sojo did a daily email. I usually get their updates which are weekly to bi-weekly (I think!). I’ll have to look it up. Thanks!

           
  • Sonja writes:
    March 5th, 20095:40 pmat

    Yeah, Lyn, it’s called “Verse and Voice” … I really look forward to it each day.

           
  • Patrick Oden writes:
    March 5th, 20098:47 pmat

    Well, not bad for everyone. Only Christians. Thomas was so influential that it meant that Christians couldn’t lend money.

    Others not only could, they were encouraged to do so.

    Others who weren’t allowed to do a lot of things.

    And so the Jews found their place in developing European society. Everyone was dependent, hypocritical about it all, and resentful–with occasional purges to show who had the real power.

    They didn’t really care about justice, just legal avoidance of personal wrong.

           
  • Sonja writes:
    March 5th, 20099:14 pmat

    Dang … I hate it when someone lets the air out of my balloon like that 😉

    Well … see my idea is that we’ll take it seriously and no one will lend money, Christian or Jewish. Because I do know a little about what you’ve mentioned here and I get it. But the bigger idea is worth considering. What would it look like if we took this idea seriously on a community level?

    One does wonder …

           
  • Patrick Oden writes:
    March 6th, 200910:56 amat

    I didn’t even let your balloon fly for a whole day. Sorry. :-)

    If this idea is taken seriously it’s astounding. I’ve had people loan me money without interest and it has been immensely helpful, not only for my bank account but for my momentum and hope.

    And I’ve learned to do the same (though it’s quite rare I have money to loan).

    The trick, I think, is to also not care if the money gets paid back–letting the money go into the hands of God. To me, this is more the original idea of tithing than what churches have made it out to be with salaries, property, and extras.

           


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