Reining in the practice of high-interest payday lending

Why do we as Christians get involved in this? Do we really feel that outlining Biblical guidelines for a secular world is the right approach? To me this continues a misguided approach in which we try to legislate morality into a secular world.

I hope I’m not being too judgmental here, but if I’m driving through a neighborhood and see pawn shops or payday lenders, I lock the doors. Same thing with liquor stores advertising malt liquor; there are simply some behaviors that show such a lack of self-control, you can’t ignore it.

And that leads to the question David’s referring to. Are these super high interest rates evidence that we ought to ban the practice, or are they an opportunity for the church to show people a better, more Biblical way? We can debate whether these places ought to be banned, but what we can agree on is that such lenders are an excellent diagnostic on a community’s moral health.