By Jim on
Society & Culture
Student Loans

Convent Tells Woman She Can’t Become Nun Until Student Loans Are Paid Off

Discussion

Thu, 07/14/16

This isn’t unreasonable for someone who would be required to take an oath of poverty.

Isn’t it likewise common for fundamental and evangelical missions agencies to require approved missionaries to have either zero or minimal debt?

I ran across this organization with a Google search:

https://thegofund.com/

Thu, 07/14/16

I thought this was a Babylon Bee story for a moment or two!

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Thu, 07/14/16

http://www.centralseminary.edu/resources/nick-of-time/a-plea-for-a-thre…

As registrar, I have met potential students wanting to pursue the M.Div. with staggering undergraduate debt, as high as $60,000. Add the price of a seminary education to this and you could be talking about a liability in excess of $80,000. Such a burden would prohibit most men from pursuing vocational ministry, since church salaries seldom cover that kind of indebtedness.

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Jim's Doctrinal Statement

Thu, 07/14/16

…the young lady is 28 with that much student loan debt, and reports having a number of changed desires over the years. So might be a smart move on the convent’s part for more reasons than we’d suspect. And I’d also guess that she might be able to save a fair amount of that money off her day job if she…decided to live like a nun. Might stick out a bit in Gotham, but hey, if you’re devoted.

And hey—pray that she gets enough Bible in there (and preparing for there) so that she might actually come to know Him. Worked for Luther, no?

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Fri, 07/15/16

Historically, incoming nuns were expected not just to enter free of debt, but their family typically paid the equivalent of their dowry to the convent on their entry. In the reformation in Germany, as nuns left convents, many asked for a return of some of their dowry (which didn’t happen). These ex-nuns were often in very difficult situations, because their families had already paid the church fairly large sums towards their well-being. The family often didn’t want to welcome the woman back as she used family resources and often had no means of earning a living.