New Beating Debt Alliance October 5, 2009

Posted by BDO in Alliance Members, Organizational.
Tags: alliance, anticonsumerism, antidebt, beating, christian, Debt, members, prosustainability, revolution
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We are moving the Beating Debt Alliance page to its own server at http://alliance.beatingdebt.org/.

Before the page was primarily used as a link exchange. But we want to go beyond a link exchange and make the Alliance more useful for you. So, we are dedicating its own server to this project to allow all those dedicated to beating debt to help others on the journey.

What is a Beating Debt Alliance?

The Beating Debt Alliance is a group sponsored by BeatingDebt.org that invites bloggers to share their stories as they journey to beat debt and help give personal knowledge and advice to others about how they are beating debt.

Why an Alliance?

Beating debt is very difficult because all for-profit companies are very persuasive in convincing families to part with their money, no matter the cost it incurs to the family. This is a revolution because we are trying to overthrow convincing marketing tactics. We will not be bound to our credit cards and loans. Instead, we choose to live a life free from debt and are working together to succeed.

How can my blog/website join?

There are some rules to the alliance.

The blog must place the following badge somewhere on their website.

The blog post must support a certain set of principles. The system will automatically pull your RSS feeds and put them into draft. A moderator will read each blog to ensure it is anti-consumerism, anti-debt, pro-sustainability, and pro-Christian. If it meets those principles, it will published.

The blog post must not support or oppose any current legislation. Due to our 501(c)3 status, we are not allowed to comment on any current legislation, so we cannot have any partisan posts on any material we support.

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Click here to join the Alliance.

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George MacDonald’s Tale of Treasure September 28, 2009

Posted by BDO in Debt is Slavery.
Tags: beating, christian, Dan, Debt, george, Graves, history, macdonald, wealth, writer
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by Dan Graves george_macdonald

For every person who longs for spiritual riches, there are thousands who covet material wealth.

Not surprisingly, the lust for riches has often found its way into literature. Motifs of inheritance and treasure trove make a frequent appearance in the stories of all nations. Several famous Victorians wrote novels with such themes, not least among them Dickens, Stevenson, and Haggard. The Christian writer George MacDonald also penned such a novel.

MacDonald biographer, Joseph Johnson, says of Castle Warlock, “It is the beautiful story of how loss and poverty can bring heavenly riches and lasting blessing.”

There is a good deal of truth in that characterization. However, early in the novel, clues telegraph the reader that there is a hidden treasure somewhere in the castle. One of the plot lines propelling readers through the book is the expectation that this treasure will be found. To MacDonald’s credit, his Castle Warlock cautions often against the love of riches. Early on he warns that it is not just the rich who make Mammon their god, but also the poor. Later, he has the protagonist declare that there are “heaps of idols” among those who call themselves Christians, and those who gather silver are the worshipers of as ugly a god as the Philistines with their fish-tailed deity. There are other such warnings.

Indeed, MacDonald arranged his plot so that only after Cosmo, the young heir of Glenwarlock, yielded his cherished family castle to the Lord, willing to lose it if such was God’s will—only then did he stumble upon the means to save it.

As beautiful as the story is, with its portrait of the affectionate relationship between Cosmo and his godly father, and Cosmo’s submission to God’s will, I find it at odds with itself. All the while that MacDonald has his readers rooting for Cosmo to uncover the treasure, he is simultaneously cautioning against the desire for wealth with warnings such as this: “I know not how the born-rich, still less those who have given themselves with success to the making of money, can learn that God is the all in all of men, for this world’s needs as well as for the eternal needs.”

The point MacDonald is driving at in Castle Warlock is that God himself is the inheritance we should seek. Even if the novel doesn’t quite work, there are worse lessons we could learn.

Bibliography:

“George MacDonald.” Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Accessed August, 2009.

Johnson, Joseph. George MacDonald; a biographical and critical appreciation. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1906. (Source of the image)

MacDonald, George. Warlock of Glenwarlock (also issued under the title Castle Warlock and modernized as The Laird’s Inheritance.) ca. 1880.

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Easy Payments from a Presbyterian Paragon September 8, 2009

Posted by BDO in Debt is Slavery, Descriptions, Spiritual.
Tags: beating, Casson, Chicago, christian, credit, Cyrus, Dan, Debt, farm, Graves, Herbert, loan, McCormick, reaper, Virginia
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by Dan Graves

It is hard to imagine a sober and active Presbyterian industrialist as a major contributor to today’s credit morass. Yet McCormick was.

When Cyrus McCormick invented the first successful reaper in 1832, inventions were not a path to success. There was no market for his machines. Farmhands opposed it, thinking it would rob them of jobs. America’s farmers were skeptical; after all, most could not even be induced to replace their wooden plows with iron. Rivals, however, saw the reaper’s potential and stole McCormick’s ideas. If he was to profit from his hard work, he had to create a market and outsmart his competitors.

Outsmart them he did. As biographer Herbert Casson remarked, “Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the reaper. He did more—he invented the business of making reapers and selling them to the farmers of America and foreign countries.”

McCormick moved from his native Virginia to a swamp called Chicago, which he saw as a natural distribution point. He developed a factory with assembly lines. He advertised. He created franchises and stocked them with machines ready for farmers to buy. He sold his reapers at published prices with written guarantees. All of these were cutting edge business practices.

And he sold on credit.

McCormick was the first industrialist to do so on a wide scale. If ever payment plans seemed justified, it was in this instance. For most farmers, coming up with the $100 asking price was like finding $25,000-$45,000 in ready cash today—they couldn’t just walk into a local bank and borrow it. Try making that kind of money on the earnings of five acres of wheat mowed by hand—about all that the average farm could harvest during the seven to ten days between wheat ripening and spoiling. With one of Cyrus’ machines, however, a farmer could reap six acres in a day, forty to sixty in a season. With more wheat to sell and less wages to pay, the careful farmer could soon earn enough to pay off his purchase.

Contemporaries were shocked that McCormick would trust strangers to repay him. They predicted financial disaster, but his trust was vindicated; very few farmers defaulted on their payments. McCormick, the farmers, and the nation prospered. The United States became a major exporter of wheat.

Cyrus McCormick, a stout Christian and philanthropist, sponsor of a national religious magazine and founder of a Presbyterian seminary, had no intention of doing harm when he developed and promoted easy payment plans. But they became an alluring quicksand in a nation that, with the rise of prosperity, threw off restraint and used them to finance not just essential equipment, but even pleasure goods.

Sources:

Casson, Herbert Newton. Cyrus Hall McCormick, His Life and Work. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1909.

de Camp, L. Sprague. The Heroic Age of American Invention. New York: Doubleday, 1961.

National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume V. New York: James T. White & Company, 1894.

National Geographic Special Publications Division. Those Innovative Americans. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1971.

“Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present.” http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ (Accessed August 31, 2009.)

Thwaites, Reuben Gold. Cyrus Hall McCormick and the Reaper. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1909.

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Deut 15:1-11 is still meaningful today August 31, 2009

Posted by BDO in Debt is Slavery, Spiritual.
Tags: beating, bible, christian, church, Debt, forgive, generous, God, government, Israel, Jesus, Jewish, old, Testament
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Deuteronomy 15:1 -11 is a hard passage to apply to our lives. Most of the discussion was meant for Israel many years ago. But is there any meaningful application for us today? Well…

¹ At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. ² This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. ³ You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you. — Deut 15:1-3

The first part we see God wanted loans to our fellow brothers to last only 7 years. God allowed His people to loan money to others for as long as it took, but to fellow brothers we were told to eventually forgive the debts of our brothers. However, how many Christians forgive debts to fellow Christians? If Jesus forgave so much, why can’t we forgive the debts from our fellow Christians? Secondly, if a fellow Christian does forgive our debts, how would that action motivate us to treat our fellow brothers/sisters? On the other hand, if a fellow Christian does not forgive our debts, how would that action motivate us to treat our fellow brothers/sisters?

⁶ For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you. – Deut 15:6

God did not intend for His people to be in debt. God understands that debt makes you a slave to someone else besides Him. So, He wanted His people to be a ruler of many nations through economic means, and not a slave. However, how many Christians today are slaves to other people, organizations, or nations and not to God, because of their debt? How can we cleanse ourselves of this debt and live up to God’s intent that would make us economic rulers?

Finally…

⁷ If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. ⁸ Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. ⁹ Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. — Deut 15: 7 – 11

Here is the biggest application we can take away from this passage. God did not intend for us to use our wealth to be greedy and acquire stuff. He intended us to be wealthy, to be rulers of nations, so we can show compassion to the needy around us. God intends to use our wealth to give generously to the poor, sick, and hurting. And God warns us that if we try to not give, because we think “we will be ripped off” that He will find us guilty. This is similar to the idea that we can give generously or pay more taxes, either way God will show His compassion “to the least of these”.

So as we review these principles that the Jewish nation had to uphold, we can apply many of these principles to our own lives and our church. We should forgive our brothers/sisters financial debts. We should stay away from debt for ourselves, but be willing to loan money to non-Christians. We should give generously to the poor, sick, and needy.

Let’s pray for revival within our churches that Christians renew their commitment to getting their finances in proper alignment with God’s intent; that Christians are known for staying away from debt, giving generously, and living humbly.

Tell others to stay away from debt by becoming a

BDO Ambassador.

Photo by: Minke Wagenaar

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Taxes or Charity, your choice August 19, 2009

Posted by BDO in Descriptions, Spiritual.
Tags: blessing, charity, christian, Debt, economy, generous, God, government, tax, taxes
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To understand this blog, we must agree on 4 concepts.

God owns everything.
We are merely managers of His resources.
God desires to aid the hungry, sick, and hurting.
God will always get His mission accomplished.

poor man in guadalajara - Arturo Avila

With these concepts in mind, we must ask ourselves this: What happens when people are stingy with God’s resources?

God grants us resources in abundance, so we may

use what we NEED, and then
use the rest to accomplish His mission, which should include aiding the hungry, sick, and hurting.

Providing aid to the needy usually requires money. When we are confronted by the hungry, sick, and hurting, we have two choices. Either we can give to charity to help in God’s mission, or God can use the government to tax money of our pockets.

Remember, God will accomplish His mission because He owns everything. Even if we are stingy, God has the last say in the matter. If you refuse to give, He can use worldly forces to legally take the money away from you to help others.

The next time you are blessed with resources and have already taken what you need, determine how you want the rest to be distributed. Do you want to give to charities that you know you can trust, or do you want the government to tax it out of you? Either way, what is left is not yours. God has already determined it to be used as a blessing to others.

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How does blessing others bless God?

Have you experienced God using your “extra” resources to bless others?

Which method do you prefer to distribute God’s resource to those in need?

How does personal debt show God our lack of generosity?

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The Christian Paradox May 19, 2009

Posted by BDO in Budgeting Concepts, Descriptions, Money Received, Money Spent, Spiritual.
Tags: beating, christian, consumerism, Debt, economy, Jesus, love, wealth
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By Bill McKibben

That’s what America is: a place saturated in Christian identity.

But is it Christian? This is not a matter of angels dancing on the heads of pins. Christ was pretty specific about what he had in mind for his followers. What if we chose some simple criterion—say, giving aid to the poorest people—as a reasonable proxy for Christian behavior? After all, in the days before his crucifixion, when Jesus summed up his message for his disciples, he said the way you could tell the righteous from the damned was by whether they’d fed the hungry, slaked the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the prisoner. What would we find then?

In 2004, as a share of our economy, we ranked second to last, after Italy, among developed countries in government foreign aid. Per capita we each provide fifteen cents a day in official development assistance to poor countries. And it’s not because we were giving to private charities for relief work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It’s also not because Americans were too busy taking care of their own; nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty (compared with, say, 8 percent in Sweden). In fact, by pretty much any measure of caring for the least among us you want to propose—childhood nutrition, infant mortality, access to preschool—we come in nearly last among the rich nations, and often by a wide margin. The point is not just that (as everyone already knows) the American nation trails badly in all these categories; it’s that the overwhelmingly Christian American nation trails badly in all these categories, categories to which Jesus paid particular attention. And it’s not as if the numbers are getting better: the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last year that the number of households that were “food insecure with hunger” had climbed more than 26 percent between 1999 and 2003.

Christians, this is not our home. No where in the Bible will you find that we are to make this life comfortable. God gives generously as an example of leadership for us to give generously.

When one of the Pharisees asked Jesus what the core of the law was, Jesus replied:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Love your neighbor as yourself: although its rhetorical power has been dimmed by repetition, that is a radical notion, perhaps the most radical notion possible. Especially since Jesus, in all his teachings, made it very clear who the neighbor you were supposed to love was: the poor person, the sick person, the naked person, the hungry person. The last shall be made first; turn the other cheek; a rich person aiming for heaven is like a camel trying to walk through the eye of a needle. On and on and on—a call for nothing less than a radical, voluntary, and effective reordering of power relationships, based on the principle of love.

A rich man came to Jesus one day and asked what he should do to get into heaven. Jesus did not say he should invest, spend, and let the benefits trickle down; he said sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and follow me. Few plainer words have been spoken.

Let us recognize the wealth we have and strive to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. Go to GenerousGiving.org and find a new way to help your neighbor with the asset we have the most; our wealth.

For the full article please go to Harper’s Magazine.

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It is not about charity, it is about justice. May 16, 2009

Posted by BDO in Debt is Slavery, Descriptions, Multimedia.
Tags: beating, charity, christian, consumer, Debt, generosity, God, humble, poor, proverty
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I’ve become a true believer that God speaks to us in the most unlikely places. He speaks to His people in many unlikely things, people, and places such as a burning bush, a previous enemy of God (Saul), and inside the belly of a fish. So, if we are to hear God, let us not assume that it will always come from our spiritual leader. Keep your eyes and ears open to the Lord and seek His Will. When you hear his small, gentle voice follow it like your life depended on it!

In the following video we learn from an unlikely person that some of the problems we find in this world are not a matter of charity, but a matter of justice. Giving to the poor and ensuring some basic needs are not a matter of charity, but of justice. As Christians, we should rally behind Jesus. Jesus is among the poor, the humbled, and the weak. Lift them up as a matter of justice, and you will be exalting Jesus.

As a matter of financial decisions, as Christians we must recognize that our debt takes away our generosity, our charity, our justice that we can deliver to Jesus. By giving up our debt, we will have more disposable income to lift up the poor, the humbled, and the weak as a matter of justice.

Join with us today to beat debt.

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LifeWay Research: Pastors unaware of church member debt January 8, 2009

Posted by BDO in News.
Tags: baptist, beat, beating, christian, church, convention, Debt, education, finance, leadership, lifeway, pastors, southern
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By Mark Kelly

The survey of 3,500 Southern Baptist senior pastors was conducted by LifeWay Research on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention between November 2007 and February 2008. The study revealed that 65 percent of pastors had preached on financial stewardship during the previous year but only 25 percent said their church members have “a significant amount of personal debt.”

However…

“The average American is struggling with oppressive debt; they are spending $1.26 for every dollar earned,” said Bob Rodgers, vice president for Cooperative Program and stewardship with the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Where is the leadership at the local level?

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Wisdom is a shelter November 17, 2008

Posted by BDO in Spiritual.
Tags: beat, beating, bible, christian, Debt, education, finance, money, wisdom
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By guest blogger: kls

Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. — Ecclesiastes 7:12

Ecclesiastes 7:12 tells us wisdom provides protection or a defense, just as money provides protection or a defense. The advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner or gives life to the one that has it.

What a wonderful comparison between wisdom and money in the same passage. Often, it seems like we cannot have one with the other. Here, money and wisdom have advantageous qualities; both serve as a shelter. It’s easy to see how money provides all kinds of shelter: a house, necessities, a savings account, life insurance, or a retirement fund. Money also insulates us from some of life’s uncomfortable moments like a broken down car or faltering air conditioner.

Despite all of money’s provision, we are called to value wisdom above money. Why? Money has its limitations to provide total safety, security and shelter. In contrast, wisdom which comes from knowing God and His principles provides a much safer and more reliable shelter; He is our ultimate source of security. In practical terms, wisdom is the ability to use the best means at the best time to accomplish the best ends. It is an astute outlook, plan or course of action.

We need wisdom when we start making monetary decisions. We need to obtain knowledge about where our money is going and where it needs to go. Then we need to use the best means at the best time to accomplish the best ends (read: the greater good for our financial situation). Whether we are trying to save for a down payment on a home, fund a college education, or get out of debt, a spending plan is necessary. We consider of all our resources and income and then decide when and where our money will be spent or saved to accomplish what needs to be done to get us to the goal we want to achieve. That takes wisdom.

Without wisdom, we make dumb mistakes with our money. We need to shop responsibly, beat debt, and allow wisdom to be our defense and give life to its owner. Wealth is an extension of God’s generous provision. Wisdom comes from Him too.

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Buy Nothing Day – Nov 28th, 2008 November 11, 2008

Posted by BDO in Descriptions, Organizational.
Tags: 28, beat, beating, buy, christian, community, consumerism, day, Debt, national, nothing, november
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Consumerism is the idea that we buy more than our basic needs to bring happiness. Wikipedia explains consumerism as “the equation of personal happiness with the purchase of material possessions”. The true form of consumerism goes against what the Lord desires. Therefore, the anti-consumerism movement is not a fringe movement, but one that should be adopted and led by the Christian community.

God provides us money in order to provide for our needs (Philipians 4:19) and to test our faithfulness to Him and His Word (Matthew 25:21). God gives generously as an example to what we should be doing with our money ( 2 Corinthians 9:8; Luke 12:32-34) As He gives us money, we take what we need, and then pass along to others our excess. This is demonstrated by Ron Hutchcraft’s Thanksgiving dinner illustration. As God passes our “Thanksgiving dinner” around the table, we should understand social norms by taking some and passing the rest for others to enjoy. God has enough “food” for everyone, but if we don’t pass it along, the people down the table will not receive His blessing. Therefore, we will not fulfill His Will for our money and fail our test of faithfulness with our money.

On November 28th, 2008, AdBusters.org is advertising a Buy Nothing Day for North America. This is an important day to make a statement to our government, corporations, churches, and neighbors that we do not want to be apart of the “Consume Everything” cultural. Make this day a day of commitment to God and to live a simple life of giving, generosity, and beating debt. Please put this day on your calendar and decide how you will show your support to turn this cultural of consumerism towards the generous giving that God desires.