Debt

When they heard (3:8)

Have you heard about debt? Money is created in our society by debt. Every time a bank lends money for a mortgage, that money is created out of nothing. Every time money is leant to a business or an individual, that money is created out of nothing. By such means between 1960 and 2010 total debt has risen in the UK by nearly 24,000%, from £10 million to £2.4 trillion. In the UK people are paying nearly £200 million per day in debt repayment. And that was before the pandemic. It is not only banks that rely on debt to make a profit, but our whole society is founded on debt as a means of creating money. 

Those of us not in debt are in an extremely privileged position. We may feel it is due to our wisdom or care, but it is more likely that it is merely a matter of when we were born. We bought a house that cost twice one normal wage and not six times a good wage. We went to university when we got a grant that covered all our costs, and not when the £9,000 fee was just the start. We got our first job when it covered rent and food, and left money over to go out of an evening and save for the future, not when it barely kept us alive. 

Now we've heard we have to act, but how? The people travelled to Jesus when they heard what he was doing, but what does it mean for us to travel to Jesus today when it comes to household debt? Our first step may be simply to love our neighbours, to make this a year of faithful generosity, where those who still have share with those who have nothing, or worse have less than nothing as they live with unpayable debt.