"You shall not lend upon interest to your brother..."

A Paduan

You shall not lend upon interest to your brother, interest on money, interest on victuals, interest on anything that is lent for interest. To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest; that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.

does not oppress any one, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any increase, withholds his hand from iniquity

lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes increase; shall he then live? He shall not live.

In you men take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and increase and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

I said to them, "You are exacting interest, each from his brother." And I held a great assembly against them,

Let us leave off this interest..........If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him.

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Do you think that they missed this one while they were looking in the bible for, well, what they were looking for ?

You'll find more on it if you have look.

How was it that those halls are financed ?

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avidbiblereader

2 "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach

abr

A Paduan

Did no one realise this ? Is it a denial thing, or is it symbolic for "doesn't matter" ?

juni

That fact always bothered me APaduan.

Juni

JK666

Something stinketh in Brooklyn! JK

JWdaughter

If asked at headquarters, I am sure they would say something to the effect that we are not bound by the law of the OT. NOT to mention that most JWs are considered 'foreigners', so hell, why not charge them interest?

Flash

It an example of JW's selective application of the Mosaic Law.

Narkissos

I remember that my JW father (who had worked in finance) had built his own personal theory about that -- probably because he was often asked for loans by other JWs, who definitely had those texts in mind, in the high inflation-rate (and consequently high interest-rate) context of the 70's / 80's. He said that "loan without interest" was to be understood in an inflation-free context. One pet illustration of his was, you lend a sheep or the value of a sheep, you are supposed to recover a sheep or the value of a sheep. If you lend a sum of money and recover the same nominal sum x years later, it's like lending a sheep and being reimbursed a dozen of ribs.

Apparently he was in line with the WT, cf. the Kingdom Ministry of April 1985:

These loans are repaid to the Society Kingdom Hall Fund with interest at the rate of 6 percent. Why charge interest? Basically, the small amount of interest that is being charged serves to protect the contributions from inflation. Each year inflation erodes the purchasing power of every dollar, and the cost of building Kingdom Halls rises. The interest paid thus allows the Society Kingdom Hall Fund to maintain its potential for assisting congregations now and in the future.

Euphemism

Interesting, Narkissos!

Throughout the 1980's, the prime rate in the US never went below 7.5%, and was usually much higher. So 6% was a pretty good deal. OTOH, it was still more than inflation (at least from 1983 onwards).

Anyone know what the current rate is?

A Paduan

Basically, the small amount of interest that is being charged serves to protect the contributions from inflation. Each year inflation erodes the purchasing power of every dollar, and the cost of building Kingdom Halls rises.

Maintaining something old at new value requires the use of interest. Inflation is a gain that the world is exacting from one another and they need to pass it on to "interested ones".

"You shall not lend upon interest to your brother..."

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