Where is the mercy from Christian leaders for people who end up in debt through no malfeasance of their own?

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For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. -- 1Timothy 6: 10 (ESV)

https://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-warfare/35753-it-s-time-to-blow-the-lid-off-this-spiritual-warfare-myth

Perhaps there are not many things more disheartening than watching Christians, perhaps well intended, shaming other Christians because of the way the world operates. The above link is to a recent article entitled "Blowing the Lid Off This Spiritual Warfare Myth." I remember clicking with excitement wondering if we were going to get into the false teachings of prophetic prayer, or touch not my anointed. Disappointingly, it was about many Christian leaders' favorite topic -- money. It is why I chose the key verse today. We live in a country of excess and pastors want in on the benefits. The problem is simple. The majority of churchgoers today are unsaved, unrepentant goats who have been falsely converted through the Purpose Driven and Seeker Friendly church growth schemes of the past 30 years. They are in fact the very people who will say Lord Lord in Matthew 7. As such, the things of God remain foolishness to them, including giving to the work of the kingdom. They are however transactional as the world is accustomed to be. They hear good music and an uplifting message and they are more than happy to throw a couple dollars in the bucket when it passes. The problem is that is not enough to fund the purpose driven dreams of the leadership. Invariably, many leaders will fall back to unbiblical practices like a forced tithing program but still only about 10 percent will comply with that. Some will get downright vile like Robert Morris of Gateway Church who teaches that God curses all of your money if you do not tithe the first ten percent to him! Forget paying that medical bill or delinquent electric bill! Pay me first! While these are subjects that can fill a book, and I have, the above link deals with a different financial topic, debt. Let us reason together through this short article and see what God really has to say:

"In the ministry over the years I have heard people say things pertaining to their lack of giving to church like, "I am experiencing severe spiritual warfare over my finances ... I can't give to the ministry because the devil is attacking my money..." And I remember someone telling me that their credit card debt was a spiritual attack! Most debt is not spiritual warfare. Unless your money was stolen or unlawfully seized or there was a personal emergency, debt is being unwise with the resources God provided. Debt is the result of bad spending habits. Debt would not be incurred if we budgeted, using self-discipline and delayed gratification." -- Jared Laskey

Gee, I wonder where they could get the idea that everything is related to some super spiritual realm? People do not wake up one day and start blaming the devil -- they are taught this by Christian leadership. To make matters worse, many in leadership pick and choose what to over spiritualize and what not to based on carnal needs. I remember once at my old church the new senior pastor refused to admit the slightest spiritual involvement in the recent suicide of a church employee when asked by a congregant and friend. Yet the following week he led the congregation in prayer because the devil was causing his friend to be unable to sell his house, which would free him up to move and work on his staff. So the devil is in real estate apparently but not involved at all with what the world refers to as mental illness. Right.

Now, while I agree with Laskey that the over-spiritualization of debt is probably a poor excuse but it reveals the heart of Laskey. This is what he leads with. Why can't you give to my church/ministry? He also seems to gloss over the "personal emergency" aspect of debt. A recent study concluded that 75% of people with debt indicated medical expenses as being a part of their problem. A different study revealed that 62% of all bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. The rest of this paragraph is just filled with poor and downright mean assumptions:

Debt is being unwise with the resources God has provided

Debt is the result of bad spending habits

Debt would not occur if we budgeted, using self-discipline and delayed gratification

How arrogantly cruel to make such assumptions about people. Are all of these potentially true about an individual? Absolutely but to smear everyone in debt with the same brush of self-loathing is despicable. People run into life every single moment of every single day. Sometimes you do budget well, have self-discipline, and do not spend frivolously yet still the diagnosis means those plans are now moot. In the mind of Jared Laskey however everyone is just charging trips to Disneyland because they cannot delay their gratification.

"I want to be clear that credit card debt is not spiritual warfare. Credit card debt is overusing unsecured consumer debt by using the card. It is financial mismanagement and overspending which is not wise." -- Jared Laskey

Well, let me be clear then. This is a broad general assumption that does not take individual life circumstances into account. If someone chooses to charge a new car when they do not need one and cannot afford it, I agree but the inference here is not that at all. It also infers motive where one cannot know. It seeks to shame based on the existence of debt, not the reason why. In every case debt is related to financial mismanagement and overspending? Nonsense! Most cases are simply a matter of having little choice and while most enter into debt with the intent to pay back, life often has more to say than we bargained for. When God set up the civil system for Israel He realized these truths when He allowed every seven years for the forgiveness of all debts in Deuteronomy 15. Why do Christian leaders have less compassion?

"The Lord's will for believers is that they are the lender and not the borrower (Prov. 22:7). Some Bible translations say the borrower is slave to the lender, so the lender is free. If we are burdened with debt, we carry around a dark cloud of uncertainty, shame, guilt and fear among other emotions. Our thoughts are not at peace. Debt is not God's desire for us." -- Jared Laskey

Proverbs 22:7 says absolutely nothing about God's will. Of course it is true that the borrower is in servitude to the lender but the shame, guilt and fear come from people like Laskey who refuse to see why someone ends up in such situations. His conclusion that it is not God's desire for us to be in debt is his personal view, not one taken from Scripture. His solution is to simply never charge anything, which is equally unsupported. Is it most desirous to never have any debt? Sure but life sometimes happens beloved.

"God's desire is His will. And His will is written in the Scripture showing us how to properly manage and steward finances. If we are faithful in the small things, God will give us more responsibility and our resources will multiply while we are promoted due to our faithfulness (Luke 16:10)." -- Jared Laskey

The Luke verse is taken from the Parable of the Dishonest Manager and Laskey ignores the punch line which is we cannot serve both God and money. The story was not about avoiding debt. It was about how a carnally minded manager decided to shorten the bills of debtors to his boss. The carnally minded manager praised him for shrewdness but we have the mind of Christ. The flaw in his thinking again is that any incurred debt is somehow being unfaithful and that is not necessarily the case. It is once again money centric instead of examining each case on the merits. According to this theology, someone who was a believer, church attender and even a giver but hit a wall due an unexpected illness of their child that forced bankruptcy is somehow unfaithful, will not be given more, and unwise. The man who worked 30 years only to be forced out by his company and spent years finding a new job because of age discrimination that resulted in his bankruptcy was just financially mismanaging God's resources. It is devoid of humility. It is devoid of mercy. In short, this approach is devoid of Christ.

"If we find ourselves in debt, the New Testament is clear in showing we are to pay what we owe. Romans 13:7-8 says, "Render to all what is due them: taxes to whom taxes are due, respect to whom respect is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due. Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." Christians are to be people of integrity which includes our financial dealings. When we have entered into a contract, we are obligated to fulfill the conditions, sealed by our signature. If we have contracts or agreements with a credit card company, then we are to be honest, paying the company back. Declaring bankruptcy due to credit card debt but still having some of the items we purchased is a form of theft, not only ruining our credit rating, but damaging our Christian witness." -- Jared Laskey

Owe no one anything. I agree and the type of witness damaging debt accrual spoke of here I would also warn against. If you willingly run up debt for things that are not necessary then you run the risk of damaging your Christian witness. The problem is that Laskey leaves no room for mercy. Even the world recognized that sometimes people run into untenable situations and have provided a means of mercy through bankruptcy. This person may lose all of their possessions, home, car and whatever else there may be and have their financial record tarnished for ten years. So they pay a price for the world's mercy. The mercy from the church should at least be better than that of the world. The notion that if I had charged something two years ago and then got blindsided by an expense I could not manage that led to bankruptcy that still owning what was charged is theft is absolutely absurd. It is just more of the shaming that Laskey has engaged in here and let us not forget that he gave us his motivation for this -- you are not giving to his church.

'I would like to recommend that if your spending is out of control or if you are facing credit card debt, then enroll in a Christian based financial course such as Crown Financial. With Christ, you can climb out of debt, and live the abundant life. John 10:10 says, "The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."' -- Jared Laskey

If Crown Financial's opening position is as merciless as yours, no thanks. Beloved let me be very clear. Using credit unwisely is not a good thing regardless of being a believer or not. God is right; you become a slave to the lender. The problem here is that a Christian leader paints all debtors with a broad brush of condemnation that leaves no room for mercy. Most of the bible verses involving debt have to do with personal debt. So please do not hand me this nonsense about contracts with credit card companies when they charge exorbitant interest, which is also condemned by Scripture. We can discern how out of Scripture this teaching has been in the complete misuse of John 10:10, which is often mishandled in this manner. It is not the will of God for everyone to live an abundant life as the world measures abundance. Here is the entire context:

So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. -- John 10: 7-15 (ESV)

What is Jesus talking about here? The thief spoken about is not the devil but rather those who would teach falsely. The hireling who cares more about contractual obligations to non-human entities than to the sheep themselves and the situations they must face. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly does not speak of worldly riches but of eternal treasures. Jesus is speaking about the Gospel. If you listen to someone who is teaching outside the Gospel then you are being robbed. The eternal life is one of abundance in Christ, not in bank accounts.

I do not know Mr. Laskey so perhaps he writes from a place of genuine concern but you can be sincere and sincerely wrong. This world and the devil that runs it love to heap misery, condemnation, guilt, and shame upon all who walk in it. I refuse to heap more upon the shoulders of those who I call my brothers and sisters in Christ. We should always try to live within our means but should life happen, do not allow people in Christian leadership to shame you beloved. Repent if your heart was truly being deceitful in how you amassed your debt but do not be further enslaved by those who have been granted so much mercy regarding their own sin yet cannot extend any to anyone else when it comes to money. Remember the key verses which apply to those in debt, out of debt and who shame debt -- the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. Do not wander from the faith over it.

Reverend Anthony Wade - February 20, 2018

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.