The surprising correlation between payday lenders and conservative Christians.
Comment: In Los Angeles there are thousands of churches, and high rates of crime. In Nome Alaska, there are only a few hundred churches, and a low crime rate. Therefore we must assume that Churches cause crime. That is if you follow the logic of this story.
Comment: Are we really surprised? Most evanelical conservatives are about removing big government from people's personal live - except of course, for a women's uterus, and an umarried couple's bedroom. Conservatives claim they want smaller government, less oversight, more freedom for business.
But what that translates into every time is more greed, and more ways for the rich to get richer and the middle class to become poorer.
Deregulate the bankers and you get a Savings and Loan crisis. Deregulate the mortgage industry, and you get predatory loans. Cut welfare and you get more children living in poverty. "Less government" is just a euphemism to rob and extort.
I'm am totally unsurprised that predatory lending is most common in states with a conservative evangelical majority in the legislatures. They are also the states that spend the least on education, health care for the poor, and the most on prisons and "law and order."
Jesus would be appalled.
Comment: If we're talking about Jesus being apalled, then we probably shouldn't mention that hooker you bludgeoned to death with a paper weight last Tuesday...
I'm just sayin'...the Almighty tends to frown upon such things.
Comment: Of course there's a corrolation, but its not because conservative or evangelical Christians or Mormons approve of, or frequent this kind of business. Its because these groups also tend to be opposed to government intrusion, oversight or limitations on what they view as "free market' and/or private property matters. That would include any government limits on payday lenders. And there are many places around the nation where these groups over decades have succeeded in rolling back various government oversights. That they have been used as pawns by corporate America to strip power from government and put it squarely in the hands of big business and their money lenders is another matter altogether.
Comment: j
Comment: i've been screwed over in business by too many christians. when i'm doing a deal with someone and they start blithering on about jebus i run a mile in the other direction. i'm afrais for me reborn = lobotomised by christ.
Comment: These professors need to find real jobs, ones that don???t steal from US taxpayers and university supporters. Their superior leftist bias is clearly showing, and Newsweek shamelessly advertises this non-story as a ???surprising correlation.??? They try to wash their hands of leading foggy-headed Christian-bashers to the conclusion that those Christians are thieves, but their ???research??? is only a string of holes, lacking any evidence of trends at all. Look at their map, critically, and notice how many states do NOT exhibit this purported correlation at all: NV, OK, AR, TX, VA; plus GA, WV and NC, where even tho there are lots of conservative folks, payday lending is illegal. IF this map actually did show any correlation, I would suggest that highly Christian states are more likely to value personal rights over government intrusion, so those states have fewer regulations of all kinds. Possibly an actual correlation might be found between these states and any form of restrictive regulation. That does not make those people stupid or thieves, by the way, just patriots who value freedom.
Comment: This is the most pathetic story I have read in a long time. Do the conservative Christians give these pirates their business licenses? Do the conservative Christians have so much power over state legislatures to open such businesses? Of course not! This is just another attempt to bash people for their beliefs.
Coming soon to another Newsweek issue ... The Correlation Between Native American Casino's and Conservative Christians.
Comment: Comment: Well here's another possible corrolation: Fundamentalists don't teach their followers to think for themselves. . . . . so among other areas they don't investigate. . maybe planning ones budget is one.
Also. . I always understood that Jesus wanted us to be rich in spirit, but live simply. .
Comment: Well here's another possible corrolation: Fundamentalists don't teach their followers to think for themselves. . . . . so among other areas they don't investigate. . maybe planning ones buget one.
Also. . I always understood that Jesus wanted us to be rich in spirit, but live simply. .
Comment: Are you kidding me? The guys who did this study are professors?What a sad commentary on the state of our society. There is NO honor any more.The fact alone that these people in their rush to discredit religious conservatives(or conservatives in general) have to stoop so low intellectually.Geez, of course the only real correlation with predatory lenders is POVERTY. Its obvious.. all southern states. The people writing this article should be ashamed.. but of course they're not.Pathetic.Period.
Comment: I moved away from conservatives years ago when I realized that the "One True God" of the conservatives is Almighty Dollar!
gyi151
Comment: This is news? "Christian" has been another name for "crook" for many, many years.
Comment: Just as "donco6" has been mentioned in the same breath as "donkey-raping-baby-cannibal."
Comment: I raised the issue of the pay day loan/cash advance industry which charges up to 500% interest (according to figures I was quoted) with our state's governor, a Democrat a year ago and to the best of my knowledge, nothing has happened.
Beware of false statistics, and false statistical implications. In a famous survey taken years ago, it was demonstrated that in a growing community, both alcohol consumption and the number of Baptist pastors increased in a similar percentage. The cause of both: a booming economy.
Comment: I really don't thing money has to do with God. Many of us in America are stuck with high credit card payments and a high mortgage payment. I went to the folks at MoneyStuck.com and they were able to help us out of a jam.
Comment: dose food king cry stands r jest w8 in four mow waze 2rob da poe
Comment: I find this correlation interesting because the Bible warns against borrowing...something about the lender owns the borrower.
Comment: I think this finding is interesting because the Bible warns against going into debt. What does that say about the correlation?
Comment: It seems obvious to me. Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and Mormons oft times refer to their parishioners as their flock, and where their are more sheep, more sheep are slaughtered. Perhaps less time studying the Bible, and more time studying math might move these enclaves forward in time?
When a culture is rooted in financial exploitation by charlatan preachers for generations, is it any wonder these fools can be manipulated by charlatan bankers?
Comment: This article seems to be reaching.
Why not poll to discover how many pet owners are in the states with the most preditory lenders? Maybe there is a correlation.
Why not poll to discover how many people are alergic to dairy products in the states with the most preditory lenders? Maybe there is a correlation.
Ridiculous.
I suppose it's nice that someone is getting paid to research and come up with this dribble.
Comment: He doesn't say that the Christian Right were "probably" aligning themselves with Wall Street. That was stated as (and is in reality) a simple fact. The Conservative coalition for the past 30 years has remained steady: social conservatives, economic conservatives (including Wall Street) and national security conservatives. The speculative part would be correlating causally pay day loans and conservative religion which he does not do.
Comment: I did not appreciate the way that the author started saying that this was not causal but correlative, and then went on to say that the Christian Right in power were probably aligning themselves with Wall Street, thus clouding their focus of the issue. It seems like the author is still making assumptions based on data that could not possibly support the claim.
Comment: The Christian faith, as it is practiced today in the U.S., is as harmful to the common man as the pagan societies it saved him from 2000 years ago. The Christian right has aligned itself with the most extreme and harshest of libertarian republicans, and then breaks with them on the issues of drugs and doctor assisted suicide, which one can't be blamed for choosing after a lifetime of being exploited and strangled by big business, only to be faced with staggering healthcare costs in the end. I understand this may not be real Christianity, but it rules the day in this country, and encourages those of us who should fight the plutocrat menace to wait and hope for them take their foot off our cllective necks instead.
Comment: This data is surely no surprise to anyone who has been a social activist anywhere in the U.S. interior. Beyond all the equivocation and mincing of words, three points are especially relevant:
(1)-The data provides yet another demonstration of the very real extent to which -- apart from a few relatively civilized regions in the Northeast -- the United States is a genuine Christian theocracy: the states where legalized usury is most commonplace are also either states in which fundamentalist Christians openly (and often forcefully) control the political and socioeconomic systems (e.g., Tennessee and Utah), or states in which the fundamentalists achieve much the same sort of theocratic despotism by hiding behind dogmas of ???political correctness??? that suppress effective criticism of religious tyranny (e.g., Washington and Ohio).
(2)-The data provides yet another demonstration of the core values of fundamentalist Christianity -- specifically the extent to which it has rejected the gentle principles of the Sermon on the Mount (???Blessed are the poor??????). In place of the Beatitudes, fundamentalists have adopted with vengeful relish the incipiently fascist savagery of Genesis (???Be masters over all???); its accompanying encouragement of wife-beating and misogynism in general (???Your husband???will lord it over you???); the oft-repeated, seldom-contradicted biblical prejudice that wealth is proof of divine reward and poverty is evidence of god???s wrath -- all this capped by the genocidal mandates of Revelation (all nonbelievers to be ???thrown into the burning lake of fire???). Not coincidentally, these dogmas are also the dogmas of capitalism: the boss as autocrat -- with severe punishment for disobedient workers and death by torture for capitalism???s enemies.
(3)-Lastly, the data proves beyond equivocation -- as nothing else I have ever seen -- the Christian fundamentalist tolerance and even encouragement of the most viciously tyrannosauric, brazenly Enronesque forms of capitalism. In which context we should never forget how in the Bible-belt South, the Ku Klux Klan -- that most characteristically American death squad so often employed against labor organizers and Civil Rights activists -- was colloquially known as ???the Saturday Night Men???s Bible Study Class.???
Comment: This is to vehemently protest -- by the only way available -- Newsweek's rejection of Microsoft Word -- a software squabble that (by converting correct punctuation into idiotically incorrect sequences of question marks) reduced an articulate, thoughtful post into moronic babble. Please therefore someone tell me how I might avoid this problem in the future.
Comment: You have made my day! I was begining to think I lived in a vacuum. I am quite pleased to see that some have been spared infection in the pandemic!
Comment: If you have Outlook, paste it in and spell check before posting. Will clean most of the junk away.
Comment: This data is surely no surprise to anyone who has been a social activist anywhere in the U.S. interior. Beyond the minced words and equivocation, three points emerge as especially relevant:
(1)-The data provides yet another demonstration of the very real extent to which -- apart from a few relatively civilized regions in the Northeast -- the United States is a genuine Christian theocracy: the states where legalized usury is most commonplace are also either states in which fundamentalist Christians openly (and often forcefully) control the political and socioeconomic systems (e.g., Tennessee and Utah), or states in which the fundamentalists achieve much the same sort of theocratic despotism by hiding behind dogmas of ???political correctness??? that suppress effective criticism of religious tyranny (e.g., Washington and Ohio).
(2)-The data provides yet another demonstration of the core values of fundamentalist Christianity -- specifically the extent to which it has rejected the gentle principles of the Sermon on the Mount (???Blessed are the poor??????). In place of the Beatitudes, fundamentalists have adopted with vengeful relish the incipiently fascist savagery of Genesis (???Be masters over all???); its accompanying encouragement of wife-beating and misogynism in general (???Your husband???will lord it over you???); the oft-repeated, seldom-contradicted biblical prejudice that wealth is proof of divine reward and poverty is evidence of god???s wrath -- all this capped by the genocidal mandates of Revelation (all nonbelievers to be ???thrown into the burning lake of fire???). Not coincidentally, these dogmas are also the dogmas of capitalism: the boss as autocrat -- with severe punishment for disobedient workers and death by torture for capitalism???s enemies.
(3)-Lastly, the data proves beyond equivocation -- as nothing else I have ever seen -- the Christian fundamentalist tolerance and even encouragement of the most viciously tyrannosauric, brazenly Enronesque forms of capitalism. In which context we should never forget how in the Bible-belt South, the Ku Klux Klan -- that most characteristically American death squad so often employed against labor organizers and Civil Rights activists -- was colloquially known as ???the Saturday Night Men???s Bible Study Class.???
Comment: Wow, if your half as cute as you are smart, I have GOT to get to know you!
Comment: And who knows, these institutions may actually like to work with honest people that intend to pay them back.
Comment: So do heroin dealers.
Comment: Heroin dealers? Herion dealers? Huh?...oh...hey...I just thought I heard someone mention...um...nevermind...
Comment: It does seem to be a strange conclusion to the study. Of all the things that could be a link for the high volume of these types of lenders, how can you really quantify that it has anything to do with religion? Has the correlation of colleges in the communities, or average income levels, or the number of young struggling families versus areas with more of a singles or aged population, etc, been looked into?
Comment: Well, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), I can tell you that the leadership of the church has counseled its members for years to avoid debt and this type of lending has been mentioned by name as an unwise practise. It's a shame that people don't always listen to wise counsel.
Comment: pay day loan could be good for a short term ,but bad for other reason, borow $500.00 and you're paying back $650. so i'd stay aay from that crappy loan........!
Comment: Rather than using this article to debate whether or not there is any connection between conservative Christians and Payday lenders, the question that this article engenders should be:
Why does self-proclaimed Christian leadership of these areas allow hese businesses to operate under such poor conditions.
It was the exploitation of such workers in such ways which led to the development of communist theory and its adoption in many countries in the 20th century. That is very unlikely to happen again. Regardless, nobody will dispute the superiority of the capitalist system, but neither should anybody argue that unfettered capitalism is beneficial to workers. If government does not provide a minimum of regulation to protect its people, then they will often be effectively duped into surrendering their freedom through economic means.
If America is the greatest country in the world, why does it allow its citizens to be abused in such ways? How different is this from those effectively relegated to modern-day feudalism by their debts?
Comment: Maybe someone could organize a covert op to put signs that said Family Planning Center on all these payday locations and they would have them closed down in a matter of hours.
Comment: Isn't that the truth, if it's not about abortion or same sex marriage, the church has no interest in it whatsoever.
Comment: The bible belt population needs those payday lenders to make their contributions to their churches so that the pastors can fly in their jets and drive their fancy cars to their multimillion dollar mansions. (Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, etc. etc.)
Comment: you forgot to mention that Benny Himms is one of the phoney pastor that i don't like much about him....he drives a mercedes around with everyone's money
Comment: I think that Christian conservatives represent a large and crappy part of the population. I hope they all go broke at payday loan stores.
Comment: And I hope your mom dies of cancer of the eyes. How do you like them apples?
Comment: Thank you for the comment on cause & effect. Almost nobody bothers paying attention in HS when you learn logic (remember ~a -> b = false). Therefore, they are easy prey to well-educated people writing articles with mathematical terms, fancy charts, etc. This article shows how much is wrong with Newsweek, and much of the media - they publish what they want to be true rather than discuss facts.
Comment: I don't think it really has to do with religion, politics, or race. Most of the conservatives I know do not come from families that are well off or communities with lots of high paying jobs, so that's where the money is for payday lenders. Often, conservative communities are homogeneous, so large numbers of people with the same attributes are being observed, making it seem they are targeted due to religion or some other characteristic. So it appears to be a white, conservative, evangelical, semirural problem when in fact people with these attributes have clumped together in needy communities that represent a profitable market for payday lenders. When payday lenders can make money in locations where people with different attributes clump together, usury will have a different face.
Comment: from Wikipedia:
"Correlation between two variables does not imply there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
Here's a great example:
The more firemen fighting a fire, the more damage there is going to be:
Therefore firemen cause damage:
The above example is simple and easy to understand. Just because of the strong correlation between the amount of firemen at a scene and the damage that is caused does not imply that the firemen cause the damage. Firemen are sent according to the severity of the fire and if there is a large fire, more firemen are sent. Large fires cause more damage."
The point of the article should be to open a dialog and ask ourselves why is there a stronger correlation between payday lenders and Christians -- more than income or race -- not to claim that one causes the other (why hasn't anyone suggested payday lenders create Christians?)
The authors who discovered this correlation suggested that it MAY have to do with the fact that Christians tend to favor less government control (it's a belief -- neither good or bad). And maybe, ???less government??? has some unintended consequences.
Or maybe not ??? unfortunately, too many people here have already decided this is ???left-media??? attack on conservative Christians ??? which doesn???t really lend itself well to ???dialog??? or rational discussion.
Personally, I found this article intriguing ??? the juxtaposition of opposites. I continued, reading the comments, hoping others would contribute to the discussion of our modern society. With my apologies to those individuals who were the exception and did make well-thought and meaningful contributions??? the comments proved to be a sad commentary and unfortunately more enlightening than the original article.
Comment: What a shotty piece of fiction this article is.It is full of speculation to smear the conservative right as uncaring,money hungry,sociopath preying on the less fortune. If your reason is to believed that more lax lending practices are allowed in conservative state,it would seem that personal responsibility are the reason they exist and yes maybe because people of faith hope that wolves will not move in and take advantage of the less fortune.
As for the reference to usurp in the Old Testament,that was an instruction to the Jews to deal with other Jews,not the population as a whole for they could lend to non Jews with interest.As for the New Testament in Luke 19 Jesus told the story of a unprofitable steward who returned no interest on the money given him.I only insert this to show a possible lack of Bible knowledge of the writer and not that Jesus wants us to take advantage of people.
Comment: Let me preface this by saying that I am a Christian, and a pastor. Now, two comments: 1/ just because a person is Christian doesn't mean that they are a hard-right Republican. Lots of good and faithful Christians aren't Republican. This has been a label that has been hijacked by one strain of Christianity (conservative evangelical) over the past 20 years. 2/ So what if someone is critical of Christians? The church is never perfect and is always subject to correction. Real Christians can take it, and God uses all sorts of means to keep the church faithful. This is not a "gross waste" but something conservative evangelicals should wrestle with.
Comment: If you had some substatial commentary about Christan Leadership and Stewadship this would have been of interrest to read but your substance is vague and lacking meaniful form and seems to be a limp efflort to deride Christianity and its leadership. There are plenty of real issue with meaty substance if you want to do that but this article is lame and a gross waste of everyones time including yours.
Comment: Being politically conservative (as Christians lean) usually equates to supporting less government control. Less control equals more freedom BUT opens the door to bad actors including more predatory lenders.
What is hard about this logic?
Having said that, what was the author's motivation for writing the article?
Comment: If you had some substatial commentary about Christan Leadership and Stewadship this would have been of interrest to read but your substance is vague and lacking meaniful form and seems to be a limp efflort to deride Christianity and its leadership. There are plenty of real issue with meaty substance if you want to do that but this article is lame and a gross waste of everyones time including yours.
Comment: With data like this, one could just as easily assume that predatory lenders prey on conservative Christians, but the article does not address that possibility at all. Instead, it hints at conservative Christians *being* predatory lenders.
Comment: Payday lending in any form needs to be regulated as does the interest that credit card companies are allowed to charge their customers. The main regulation should be that they can charge no more than 5% above what banks pay on their customers' savings accounts.
When I was growing up in the '60s, passbook savings accounts were almost universally paying 5.25%. Mortgage rates were in the 6%-7% range. I had a credit union savings account that actually paid 7%. It stayed this way until the late '70s/early '80s when mortgage rates started spiralling up seemingly out of control. Still passbook savings accounts paid 5.25%. Then, in the mid-'80s, the banking industry was "de-regulated" and it has been all downhill ever since. For the benefit of the wealthiest few, the American people that can least afford it have been sold into slavery to the current environment of predatory lending practices.
My understanding is that this sort of environment that preys on the weakest members of our society should be anathema to any organized religion. Why then, in a nation that professes to so strongly uphold "Christian" values, should this morally reprehensible environment be allowed to persist?
Comment: Making this correlation is like saying, "Tuna fish are responsible for dolphin casualties, because they get caught in the same net." This diatribe against Christians is frightening: Nazis made almost the same accusations against Jews in Europe last century.
But I am flabbergasted that Newsweek would have the audacity to make such an outrageous correlation without checking their facts. Why do you assume the areas you peg as heavily Christian mean that conservative Christians = predatory lender, and not its customer base? Where are your facts? Or is the truth not as important as your need to slander?
Comment: Making this correlation is like saying, "Tuna fish are responsible for dolphin casualties, because they get caught in the same net." This diatribe against Christians is frightening: Nazis made almost the same accusations against Jews in Europe last century.
But I am flabbergasted that Newsweek would have the audacity to make such an outrageous correlation without checking their facts. Why do you assume the areas you peg as heavily Christian mean that conservative Christians = predatory lender, and not its customer base? Where are your facts? Or is the truth not as important as your need to slander?
Comment: I can not believe the vile, unfounded comments about Christians. It is absurd to suggest that payday lenders are directly related to conservative Christians!!!! Have you considered that this lenders prey where there are low income / socioeconomics---and that it has NOTHING to do with conservative Christians or their organizations. I find it incredulous that there are Americans spouting such hatred (or at best predjudice) to fellow Americans. NO, I am not in a high income group. Surely you know most Christian organizations depend on donations and are not wealthy. Politicians are responsible for these type parasitic organizations being allowed. It really bothers me as a Christian that you have a distrust and dislike for those of us who honestly try to follow our leader, Jesus Christ. I am a member of a Southern Baptist church. Our members sacrifice to help our community, have gone to New Orleans and worked and will be going on a mission trip in 1 week to work. I ask you to stop listening and reading the bad press; go to some church websites and find out what they do with their time and money.
Comment: I suppose it is politically incorrect to correlate either phenomenon with IQ or SAT scores.
What I see is yet another example that defines the Conservative movement: an unholy alliance between those who would bring back sweatshops, and those who are destined to work in them.
Comment: Seems to me there is an obvious correlation - intelligence. Failing to intelligently apply reason leads to both poor financial thinking and faith in the big invisible man in the sky.
Comment: I can't identify the state, or the religion that this article has addressed to me personally, for obvious reasons. On my recent Holiday visit home to family, the most recent investment recommendation to me came up. A pay-day, and or income tax return loan company. Coming from "very devout faith-based relatives" I questioned the whole concent anyway. The response was, "since most of their customers where also on some form of welfare, it was a fair way to get some of THEIR TAXES back. I had previously removed my association with my born into religion, and this was just another reminder, that the God that I do believe in, wouldn't have anything to do with this.
Comment: Amen.
An interesting take on this is God's Poltics by Jim Wallis
Comment: Continued: Not a wealth in terms of material objects or money. There is a big problem with Conservatives who want wealth in terms of money while trying to claim Biblical authority. Big business and Christianity or Capitalist Christianity are oxymoronic or a ideological paradox. Please for the love of God stop the insanity. A God would not like Greed for that which is Material, that which is not of spirit, that which is so called "evil".
Comment: Most Conservative Religious Christians are out of touch with Jesus's directives for who can be a follower of Christ. Have they not read "To be a follower you must give up all your earthly possesions," -(paraphrase) or "giving to the poor"? There is this new idea of striving for wealth by some Church leaders. I do believe that when the Bible mentions wealth, the idea is originating in a wealth of spirit or wealth in the knowledge of God.
Comment: I don't see any correlation between conservative Christianity and the rise of predatory lenders. The correlation is between financially desperate Americans and predatory lenders. Victims of our economic policies all across the nation have fueled the rise of this practice. Capitalist Christianity (that version of the teachings of Jesus practiced here) is neutral on issues like this. Though Jesus had plenty to say about personal economics, his tenets are of necessity dropped at the church door on the way out. Jesus' teachings translated into our time and place are simply socialism, and we all know how much God hates socialism.
Comment: As an evangelical of sorts (I'm voting Obama and have issues w/ much of evangelicalism over their treatment of women in the pulpit and in marriages), I find this article depressing. I would say it may have as much or more to do with geographical locations as with faith... though I am not trying to dismiss the faith factor altogether. This main issue is this: Have we American Christians done a bad job separating our faith from our cultural assumptions? Nationalism, a health/wealth gospel, and various other viruses have infected the Body the Christ throughout this nation's history. It is up to us as believers in Christ to do a better job filtering out these potentially deadly "memes" (to borrow an atheist writer's concept!) from our previously unexamined assumptions.
Jon Trott / Chicago
Comment: Right wing churches and payday lenders are about the same--they both take advantage of ignorant people.
Comment: Ignorant people like Ed Mulligan here. You a commie, Ed? We don't like commies around these here parts.
Comment: Certain states more pay day lenders; These same states have more evangelicals or Mormons; Conclusion-- there must be relationship between having more pay day lenders and having more evangelicals or Mormons. Sounds logical? Then try this. The moon has no water; the moon has craters Conclusion-- there must be a relationship between having no water and having craters Sounds like an illogical leap to me
Comment: I am a former news journalist in Kansas City, MO. I can tell you right off the bat that A.) We should make no further comment to this story???it will only produce more of them. B.) The media DO have an agenda???to sell magazines and newspapers. They want to give us all something to fight over with no result other than their profit. C.) The illusion of a balanced and LOGICAL article usually typically is powered by an agenda???either from the publication or the author. D.) the comment below from jxntrader says it all as it. E.) Matthew 5:11-12???(Jesus) "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
F.) More money is made from war than from peace. Get a life Mr. Enright. And to the readers: Take it from a former news journalist???even if Christians fought the payday lenders tooth and nail, you would find a similar article blaming the Christians for something else. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMETHING ELSE. Don't buy into the media game.
Comment: Each one of us should do something about this. Fingers shouldn't be pointed at Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, or any particular group. It is a problem, period.
Comment: I am a SC Christian and I feel that these types of lenders are extremely predatory. The problem is that most areas that are Bible Belt are also very rural. Most live paycheck to paycheck. I won't patronize such a business and can't understand what kind of people make a living on the desparation of others. I wish that our Christian lawmakers would look at a bill that outlaws this kind of lending. It really is no different than loansharking.
Comment: And Jesus cast the money lenders from the temple and they all ended up in Alabama, Mississippi, Utah and nevada where they have been screwing people ever since. Thank You Jesus! Can I get a Amen, brother?
Comment: did n't they all go to coney island, NY?
Comment: Loans in Coney Island are handled by the Mother And Fathers Italian Association!
Comment: This article is so stupid it hardly deserves a response. "The political power of conservative Christians" is purely arbitrary. Maybe there the bible belt states have a more entreprenurial spirit than urban states. You could take anything that's different from states "controlled" by conservatives and attribute that difference to the conservatives. Of course, left-leaning, Christian-hating, Moore-loving Newsweek readers will eat this up!
Comment: This article is so stupid it hardly deserves a response. "The political power of conservative Christians" is purely arbitrary. Maybe there the bible belt states have a more entreprenurial spirit than urban states. You could take anything that's different from states "controlled" by conservatives and attribute that difference to the conservatives. Of course, left-leaning, Christian-hating, Moore-loving Newsweek readers will eat this up!
Comment: This article is so stupid it hardly deserves a response. "The political power of conservative Christians" is purely arbitrary. Maybe there the bible belt states have a more entreprenurial spirit than urban states. You could take anything that's different from states "controlled" by conservatives and attribute that difference to the conservatives. Of course, left-leaning, Christian-hating, Moore-loving Newsweek readers will eat this up!
Comment: I wonder if the "religiously conscious" professors would also advocate the stoning of homosexuals, fornicators, and adulterers because they Bible also advocates those actions as well. These religiously non-affiliated professors conveniently use the Bible to point out the problems with the credit market. Usury, according to the Bible, is the charging of ANY interest. We can see how well the lack of credit has helped the average person in the Middle East where the charging of interest is prohibited by religious law.
I think it???s interesting that the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is accusing payday lenders of targeting Christians. It appears that lenders are like any business and are targeting everyone who needs some extra money. CRL's own credit union, Self Help, has recently been found to be giving seven times more sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages to those who can least afford them. Then when the poor people can???t repay the loan the credit union forecloses on the home. That is the definition of "predatory lending." Lending those who cannot afford to repay the loan. CRL is just another wolf in sheep's clothing. CRL hates payday lending because it takes away from credit unions largest source of revenue: bounced check and overdraft protection fees. CRL and other credit unions motives are not entirely pure.
If anyone can offer short-term, high-risk cash loans less than payday lenders then they should jump in the market and offer these loans. Some say credit unions are doing this, but reality shows they can only do this if they hide the true APR (i.e. "participation & origination fees) and they get tax breaks.
Comment: banks and christians working the poor folks from both ends...
poor people don't have a chance, boy!
ha,ha,ha.
Comment: banks and christians in bed together...
ha,ha,ha.
can i get a hallelujah?
Comment: I have used payday lenders and found it very helpful in emergency situations. I experienced situations where my car needed repairs or other emergencies. What I find interesting in those emergency situations, I did not are experience individuals willing to loan me the money to pay for my repairs or other emergencies. I heard stories from other people talking about how payday lending help them in cases of a potential bounced check. They shared that if they had not borrowed the money from the payday lender, the bank would have charged a $25-$30 fee and returned the check unpaid. The payday lender only charged $15 per $100 borrowed. Why are individuals/conservative groups not crying foul when banks charge high bounced check fees. $25-$30 is a high fee on a $10 check.
Comment: The URL for the payday-loan study, referenced below, was truncated. It should be:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/article/researchers-george-mason-university-colby-college-release-new-study-payday_467970_1.html
Comment: Why use payday loans when identity theft is so much easier and not prosecuted. Even used identity theft too rip off pay day loan places. ironic eh? southdakotagov.info
Comment: Wake up America, the point of the article is that conservative Christians have been exploited and cynically used by the corporate globalist neocons who control the Republican Party.
Comment: I'd have to agree; the article isn't an attack on poor rural Christians, it's an attack on the corporate vultures who've taken shameless advantage of the poor rural Christians.
"Vote for me," they said, "and I'll squash gun control laws and make sure that homosexuals don't seduce your children and make them have abortions. Oh, and while we're at it, could you do me a favor and vote for my bill that deregulates the lending industry in your fine, God-fearing state?"
Comment: Wake up America, the point of the article is that conservative Christians have been exploited and cynically used by the corporate globalist neocons who control the Republican Party.
Comment: Great, another article that says that people want to have someone hold their hand. A great idea to knock an industry that fills a need. No one forces you to go in for a payday loan. That is a choice. If someone is not smart enough to look at what they are signing then it is time for them to take responsibility for their actions. Who cares where the trends say the largest concentrations of these people are. If you really want some data wait a year, and watch the economic data out of Georgia. They banned the practice there. Who knows we might just find that these payday loans allow people to get money for a price.
Comment: This is another article that will find its place in the trash can, within couple of hours. We should not probabaly respond to this dirty piece ..
Comment: OK, It is another "rats" type of journalism. I am so disgusted with these liberal attacks on anything that is aginst their agenda. Keep irritating people till they burn your stupid Neesweek. WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE FEEDING US YOUR OPINION ALL THE TIME.? DO YOU THINK WE CANNOT THINK BETTER THAN THESE DIME A DOZEN JOURNALISTS? How about this, could it be because thse "evil Christian" areas may be financially depressed? How could you connect the fact that thse people are having financial problem to the fact that they are "Christians". Let me tell you, may be these low class Christians should mob the media moguls a nd Hollywood rich people. People , keep voting for Obama, the liberal Messiah.... YOu KNOW What , today I have turned into a Republican, Good luck with General election.
Comment: How is this an attack on poor rural Christians? Is it not a comment that the most predatory lending practices exist in these areas in the bible belt, exploiting said poor Christians?
If Christ expelled the money lenders, which led to a thousand years of banning usury by the Christian Church, than why would not a fine Christian leadership work to legislate against the exploitation of the Christian faithful by these practices?
Or is it they that prosper?
Comment: Did the Republicans give you your 30 pieces of silver?
Comment: Yep. And I spent it on hookers and blow...Yessir. Hookers and blow.
Comment: Jon8900, I'd like to know how you can use demoncracy, freedom, American as you describe lending habits in the US when you know about the loan crisis. The housing loan transactions were set on the grounds of the good-ole, God-fearing soils of this country. Consider that when you hear about abandonment or destruction of once-cherished homes and families occur. Recite your finance protocol all you want, but 90 percent of the home loans were made knowing fully well the future home owners would not be able to financially sustain the loan if it were at a fixed rate. Thisis your fine gov't in action and in deed and creed. God bless your America.
Comment: I'm sorry but people have to learn personal responsibility and not blame their mistakes on lenders, saying "the lender tempted me with money I couldn't resist the temptation to borrow even though I should have known I wouldn't be able to pay it back." If the terms of the loan are clearly disclosed and you agree to it, then it's your responsibility if you can't repay.
Comment: Don't blame it on the Christians. Go to moneystuck.com and reconsolidate your debts at a low interest rate so you don't have to get your payday in advance anymore!!!
Comment: I live in the great state of Alabama and it seems we have more than our share of these of establishments, but a little research will tell you why. Our state legislatures in some of the poor areas voted sponsored and indeed voted in a basic hands off policy in regard to these "fine" establishments. Many of our legislators of (which the majority are democrats in fact ) have ownership interest in these payday loan companies.
So it is much more complicated than saying it is the Christian's fault. Kind of makes you wonder what else will be blamed on Christians!!!!
Comment: Blah Blah Blah. These authors are complete idiots. I live in Tennessee and these places prey on the poor, uneducated, and minorities. In Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, that's a lot of people. You also have a well-entrenched political system and leaders who are lobbied hard (and compensated well) by the lobbyists and interest groups that represent these leaches. Most of the Christians that I know have no clue what these businesses are about, nor are they politically active. This is an assumption the authors make - that somehow Christians who are opposed to usury are going to rise up and protest against this. In Tennessee we can't do very much to get our Legislature to restrict the killing of unborn children -- why would anyone think the Christians are going to be able to put pressure on their Legislatures to change predatory lending ??
Comment: Here in Texas, payday lending rates are outrageous, second only to the rates charged by pawn shops. I have contacted my senators and congresspeople about this, because my brother keeps getting in trouble with these entities. I don't see why they're not regulated more carefully...they definitely prey on people who can't afford them...the rest of us can go get a loan, but this is the only option available to lower-income folks.
Comment: take a look at CreditLoanApproved.com They are non-denominational, if you are needing a loan but not sure who is behind it.
Comment: The article concludes: "But my sense is that a lot of the state legislatures are starting to wise up, and it's likely that there may be a trend to start reversing some of the gains that the payday lending industry has made." Can we expect in a few years to see an article attributing such a reversal to the greater proportion of evangelicals living in these states? Don't hold your breath.
Comment: The article is saying that in bible belt areas the expectation is that one will rather easily locate a paylending institution. And that seems not the norm considering the bibles principles about money lending. The surprise is that bible believing Christians are submitting to wordly resources to borrow monies at escalated interest rates Which sould concern finance people at church. The church member certainly isnt paying a tithe or giving consistent offering due to having to pay mr. payday lender. Also the finance ministry ought to be concerned about the lack of stewardship concerning these homo-phobic, everthing is a sin bewitched church members. Its interesting they will seek mr. payday lender by night (so to speak) and NOT trust God for their finances which is a gross sin. The sin of unbelief stinks in the nostrils of God.7400 con
Comment: Usury laws are un-American. America is based on the principle of freedom, and that means a free market where prices are controlled by supply and demand, and merchants and service providers have a right to set their own prices as long as they haven't received any special assistance from the government. If we let the government limit how much a lender can charge, then what's to stop it from telling everyone how much they can charge for anything? If the free market should work anywhere, it's in the field of small loans as so many people can enter the business with so little expertise or equipment. Consumer protection should be about curbing deceptive advertising, not telling merchants and service providers how much they can charge. A 36% interest-rate cap makes it illegal for any person to say to another, "I will lend you $100 today if you will pay me back $100.10 tomorrow." That isn't consumer protection; that's authoritarianism.
Usury is a religious concept which originally meant the sin of charging of any interest whatsoever on a loan, as any money earned without physical labor was considered sinful. Today, not wanting to give up their bank interest and capital gains, moralists define it as charging "excessive" interest and feel they are the ones who are qualified to judge what is excessive and what isn't. And translating payday loan fees into an annual percentage rate is an unscientific way of viewing the matter. The APR of a loan tells you NOTHING about how profitable the loan is for the lender - because it ignores the lender's cost of making the loan - and it tells you NOTHING about how wise the transaction is for the consumer - because it ignores what other alternatives are available to him in his particular situation.
A short-term loan is not like a home loan where the lender is going to make a six-figure profit on the loan and the cost of processing the loan application is insignificant. The cost of making a payday loan has been calculated at over $30 per loan so a 36% rate cap where the lender can only charge $1.38 on a $100 loan puts the lender out of business and makes the loans unavailable to people who can't borrow from any other source and need the money for an emergency situation or just to save money from bounced check charges, credit card late charges, utility reconnection fees, etc.
But the critics never talk about that. They're trying to make a name for themselves as defenders of the poor and only talk about the people who over-borrow and get themselves into trouble with payday loans, as if every good thing in the world isn't misused by some people. And many studies have shown that payday loans are a valuable financial option, the latest finding that "access to payday loans in their environment, all else fixed, increases a borrower's probability of financial survival by 31%." See http://www.foxbusiness.com/article/researchers-george-mason-university-colby-college-release-new-study-payday_467970_1.
Comment: Usury laws exist in many states, including mine, Arkansas. They are also enforced. Whenever I hear smeone whipping out Un-American I smell another Joe McCarthy/Dick Nixon type.
Comment: What America do you live in? Are you saying all controls on lending should go away? All regulation of anything. Democracy has never been about absolute freedom.
Comment: I didn't say all controls on lending should go away. Go after deceptive advertising, burying important details in the small print, go after bait-and-switch tactics, go after violations of the Fair Debt Collection Act. But let lenders charge whatever the market will bear, the same as in any other industry. If you want to help people who over-borrow and get themselves into trouble, then lobby the government to provide no-profit emergency loans, don't trample on the right of merchants and service providers (who haven't received special government assistance) to set their own prices because soon politicians - mostly influenced by bribes - will be telling everyone how much they can charge for everything.
Comment: The article didn't say Christians are involved in these businesses. It said their alliance with business interests may be at its root. Christians get repressive laws about birth control, morning after pills, etc., and business interests get laws get them corporate welfare & make more money from the working poor. Aretthey are looking the other way on some sins in order to punish others they care more about?
Comment: okay, call them preditory whatever, people have a choice- barrow the money, ....dont barrow the money, now when it comes to paying taxes, whats the choice there? we have a government that not only takes money that you have earned for your 40 hour week, they also take even more money (tax at a higher rate) for overtime, how about bonuses? you know the government comes in and rapes you anytime they want, for as much as they want and everyone is so used to it that it has just become exceptable- maybe people wouldnt have to turn to these places if the government would drop some of those stupid programs and stop dipping into our paychecks- and while im on it, it would be really nice if we could stop shopping from other countries and start stocking our shelves with things made in america by americans!!!!!!!!
Comment: The correlation is loose at best. About the same in accuracy as saying that the states with the most republicans have the most payday loan companies.
You can only have an article like this about christians. You couldn't publish one that said "Thou Shalt Not Steal?
The surprising correlation between payday lenders and the Jewish." (or insert any other religious group)
They wouldn't publish it. Christians are one of the few groups people still feel they can pick out and make broad generalizations on.
Comment: also, look at georgia and nc. 0 density?! I see dozens of these businesses in Charlotte, where i travel frequently on business. makes me wonder what the ttrue density is there. and in all other 0.0 states. I have seen many of these businesses in NYC when traveling there as well.
Incomplete stats. distorted graphic representation (the map colors, the circle sizes). this whole thing is a house of cards. I question the writer's motive and journailstic integrity.
Comment: correlation is not causation. simple as that. the real issue to investigate is state laws. where these business are under less scrutiny, they flourish.
look at Nevada vs. Utah. There are obiously other factors that are far more causal.
Comment: It's interesting how many people feel attacked by this article....kinda funny actually. It's not that complex of a correlation to notice. Before I even read the article, I looked at the graphic. It's a pretty easy concept to digest. Weird, look at how the credit issuers are concentrated in the states that have the highest concetration of people who believe Jesus was noble for freaking out at the money-changers on the temple steps. Just kind of ironic and UNEXPECTED. If it were expected it would have been an article that appeared next to the article explaining that the sun rose in the east today.....just like yesterday!
Comment: Absolutely irresponsible, an unveiled attack against Christianity. Summary of the article: "we just dug up this statistical oddity and have no idea about what it may mean, but it kind of looks like an opportunity to throw mud and Christians, so here goes&
